Was my old Laser printer cartridge really empty?

U

[U]ber|Noob

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 4, 2013
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427
Hello,

I have a Samsung ML-1660. I was using a generic cartridge in it and it lasted for quite a long time but finally the printing started to get lighter.

So I bought a new one. But when I took the old one out I dissasambled it just for interest and to get some cogs from it but here's what I found...

A channel that was still about 1/2 to 2/3rds filled with black powder. Is this normal for an empty cartridge (ie. spent laser powder) or was there still 1/2 to 2/3rds of the toner powder left unused?

Is it possible it just needed a shake or tap with a rubber mallet or something like that?
 
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I've gotten about 100 or so more pages from simply shaking printer cartridge. Even worked a 2nd time, but after it went drier than an old ladies vajayjay.
 
The starter cartridge in my Brother laser printer is still going strong even though the software keeps telling me it needs to be replaced. I've shaken the cart a few times, and it hasn't botched any pages yet. Of course the notification is just getting triggered from exceeding the page counter for the cartridge, but until it starts wasting paper I don't see any reason to not get what I can out of it.

I've never ripped one apart, but I can definitely imagine how the powder inside one of those things could settle away from the drum.
 
Is the powder the actual material that is printed on the page, or does it hold a type of ink or other printing material?
 
[U]ber|Noob;1041282721 said:
Is the powder the actual material that is printed on the page, or does it hold a type of ink or other printing material?
Click to expand...

If it's a laser printer than the "black powder" is toner.

BTW: Toner is nasty stuff, very fine particles, you don't want to be messing with it like that without proper protection. (breathing it in is bad, mmkay?)
 
Yes good advice.
When I actually opened it, I expected it to be completely empty of powder.

But by opening one I have learned that infact it was only 1/3 empty.
I threw out that one because I didn't want to mess around with the toner powder etc. like you say.

But next time I will be leaving it closed and shaking it, or lightly hitting it with a rubber mallet now that I know what the situation is likely to be inside without looking (all toner powder clumped at one end).
 
If it was getting light in certain areas of the page, you probably could have shaken it to get a 100 or so more pages out of it. IF it was light all over, it was pretty much all the way empty.

That channel with that was pretty full of powder was the waste toner storage.
 
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