(Richard Kovalcik) wrote:
In article ,
Rev. G.G. Willikers wrote:
GMAN wrote:
In article ,
(Richard Kovalcik) wrote:

I have been using my Laserjet 5 since 1997 and have yet needed to change
anything but toner. I guess i have been lucky. But yeah, sounds like rollers
might help, but only if you have been having feed problems.

Using quality paper and keeping the interior mechanisms dust/toner free
goes a long way to extending longevity.
I worked for a major oil companies HQ, and they used nothing but
recycled paper in ALL of the printers and Xerox machines. What a
complete nightmare. The fibers not only jammed the rollers, but got into
every fan vent and heatsink in the place.

Note that the subject of the message included the word "proactively".
(Knock on wood), I'm having no real problems with this HP LaserJet
5000. It's working fine, but I was wondering what I should do. Are
there any horror stories of the fuser self-destructing and damaging
the printer?

No there aren't, I have never seen or heard of that.
Tony

Like, you *DO* replace the timing chain on your car when
it says to, least the timing chain self destruct, the pistons go wild,
smash the valves, and saving $500 on a timing chain has now cost you
over $5k. But it sounds like my gut feel that I didn't need to
replace the fuser at 150k pages was correct.

Unfortunately, the provance of all of my laser printers is ugly. This
HP LaserJet 5000 and my HP Color LaserJet 5M both came from US High
Tech companies who thought it was cheaper to get rid of them. (In
this case, the company bought an Epson (for about $500) rather than do
the $200 service we are talking about here. The Epson has been broken
about 1/2 of the time. And they effectively gave away the HP LJ 5000
with two unopened toners. Their loss is my gain.) My other HP LJ
5000, I picked up for change because it had a failed fuser after less
than 100k copies. (It also had a working duplexer and a JetDirect
card which were worth more than I paid for it.) It was jamming often
and it looked like it had been thru a war. I suspect it came from a
very dirty environment. So, I replaced the rollers when I replaced
the fuser on that one.

So, while I am only using quality paper now, I have no real idea what
sort of paper was used in the past. Given how cheap / stupid the
companies I got these printers from were, I should probably assume
the worst - that they used cheap paper too. I have tried to carefully
clean the inside of the printers, but I don't want to go crazy with a
shop vac.