Hello All!

Sorry this is long, thrying to be thorough.

Having an odd problem here and I am not sure what to do. I have had a 2150cdn for a couple years and it has been an awesome machine. Until now... 

In the last few weeks it is not fusing the toner correctly. I am having issues with ghosting and toner that is "crispy" and flakes off the page.

It is prevalent on mostly black and green images. If I send text, like a Word doc, or a windows test page, it is fine. It is not until I send complex graphics that it does this.

I am seeing ghost images that mimic the printed image on following pages as they go through the printer. I see assorted toner marks and even "blobs" on the backs of pages as well, even on non-duplexed print jobs. There are also marks, like a smear, as if toner was scraped down a page with a spatula, then fused. They tend to be noticably thick and flake off with your nail or if you bend the page, you can hear the toner "crinkle".

Also have noticed toner that looks like spider silk, really fine strands that occasionally comes out of the printer with a page.

A few times, I have seen toner on the leading edge of a page that looks "bull-dozed", then fused. As if toner built up somewhere in the paper path and was scraped off by the following page, then set in the fuser assembly.

If I turn on the toner-saving option, it is less prevalent, but still happens. Particulary in one doc I need with a large black banner on one side. I did set the fuser to a higher setting, didn't really make a worthwhile difference.

I will be honest, I did have non-Dell toner in it. I recently replaced it with OEM Dell toner ($$$) and sent several (100+ pages) jobs to it to purge the other toner out. No go. I replaced the fuser last night, to no avail.

It is as if it is just dumping on a really thick layer of toner that the heat of the fuser cannot get through to properly fuse. (?)

I am not sure what next to replace. At this point, I am about as well off to toss it and buy something else.

There is a Brother model that actually had marginally better review ratings against the 2150, but I have been a Dell fan for years, this is my 4th Dell Laser Printer. I tried TS, but they refused to talk w/o a credit card as it is obviously out of warranty due to age (2011). I can understand that, but I have certainly handed over a lot of cash to Dell over the years.

I am curious if it needs a print head assembly or belt. Is it possible that the cleaning wire or scraper is not removing excess toner from the transfer belt/roller as it should? Is that in the print head assembly?

I know there is a tray that excess toner gets dumped into when the belt is cleaned that can fill up, its similar to the waste tray on an ink jet, those are known for filling up. I do not think that is it as the ghost images resemble what was just printed. 

If that overflow tray were full, I would think multi-color smudges or smears would be the result were it not able to get the excess toner cleaned up properly. I can recognise what the smears and ghosts are of. 

Looking at the belt when this happened, I see no evidence of residual toner on it. The roller in the fuser is clean as well.

Notes: 

Total page count it 2600 or so.

I have used the non-OEM toner for about a 1000 pages, no issue. Back on Dell toner now, still doing it.

I use Office Depot color laser high brightness paper, several reams, it always works.

Even different brands/types of papers I have tested recently have the same result.   

New toner, new fuser, turned up settings in software and on the control panel.

Anyone have any ideas as to what is up here? I can live with putting some money into it if I will have it for a few more years, even if I could get a new printer with the same money, but I do not want to keep throwing money at it in a vain attempt to fix an unknown issue, just to have it destroying everything I send to it.

Thanks everyone, looking forward to hearing back!

Mark