Samsung CLP-300 Streaks and Faint Text

I just wanted to breifly share how to repair streaks, faint text, etc on your Samsung CLP-300 printer. After about 2000 prints on my printer I began to see faded text on the left-hand side of all my prints. I noticed, however, that pictures printed normally, but text documents printed poorly.

My first notion was that I had low black toner. We replaced the toner, and same results.

My next thought was maybe my print drum was bad. The print drums come with the imaging units, and they run $120+ from Samsung. This was a poor option for me due to the fact that I got my printer on a Black-Friday special for $100.

I called Samsung and was on the phone with a rep within 3 minutes. He had me run a page of XXXXXXXXX's test, and as the paper sucked into the printer I was told to open the imaging unit door. This stopped the printer, and revealed light XXXX's on the left-hand side of my drum. He said it was probably a bad imaging unit, and he directed me to update my firmware (didn't work). Unfortunately the printer was out of warranty, even though I only used appx 3000 of my printers expected 20,000 available pages! And it STILL didn't make sense that Black was the only color that was effected!

So doing a little research on Google, I found the solution and it was a cleaning problem, and it was fairly easy to repair.

note: preform this procedure AT YOUR OWN RISK.

1) Do a test print to determine which colors are streaking. My black was the only color that had
a problem so I only had to clean my Black.

Create a document that has 4 rows of 72 point BOLD X's.
Change the font color of each row to Black, Magenta, Cyan, Yellow
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx

2) Lay out a couple sheets of newspaper on your floor or desk (or endure the wrath of your spouse when she catches you with toner all over the place).

3) Pull out your imaging unit and set it on the floor.

4) Remove the waste tray and set it somewhere out of the way.

5) Flip the unit so that the toner cartridges are face down on the floor with the green drum facing you.

note: avoid touching the green drum! and definately don't nick it with your screwdriver.

6) Remove 2 silver screws. One is on the right, pointing toward the ground. The other is on the waste chute on the left hand sight of the unit pointing toward the right.

note: at this stage when I pulled out the drum, a spring appeared from the area of the silver screw that you remove from the right. Pay careful attention to where this goes, because mine was a leftover part. : And please post me a comment and let me know where it should go! :)

7) Pry the chute to the left so that it's free from the nub where you removed the screw. Also, pry the arm where the other screw was attached so that it pops upward. note: on these two brackets I had to bend and flex the plastic. It didn't appear to be able to nicely slide right out of place. So give it a little force to get it loose.

8) Slide the drum assembly to the left & right while gently pulling toward yourself so that it unlatches from the toner assembly. When it's free twist it and set it out of your way with the wires still attached.

9) Pull out all the toner banks starting with the yellow.

10) Set the toner banks that you wish to clean facing you with the silver side up.

for your info: Turn the roller by hand and you should be able to see the uneven streaks that are collected on the roller. This is what's causing your poor print issues.

11) There are 5 screws that hold down the silver plate on the toner tray. Set the toner tray assembly so that the three bottom screws are nearest to you. Remove the 5 screws that hold the silver plate down.

note: the roller side of the plate is extremely sharp. Be careful. I drew blood when running my finger along mine. from this point on I will indicate interior (the toner side of the plate) and exterior (the side of the plate that faces you when the plate is screwed down.

note: do not nick, bend, curve, etc. the roller edge of this plate! It's pretty sturdy, so don't be alarmed -- but I'm just saying, if you bend it... this whole part will be irreparable.

12) With a damp cloth wipe the toner off of the interior edge of plate. Don't soak the toner or this may give you more problems in the future.

13) Run your finger along the interior edge (the bottom of the plate where the edge makes contact with the roller) to make sure that it's as smooth as butter all the way along the edge.

note: REMEMBER the exterior of this edge is very sharp. Don't run your finger along the exterior edge.

note: on mine, the edge looked absolutely clean, but when I ran my finger along it it felt rough on the left-most 4 inches of the edge. I took my finger nail and lightly scraped off what appeared to be fine plastic or white buildup of some type and re-ran my finger along this edge. Smooth all the way down.

14) Put the plate back on the the toner tray. Lightly screw in the bottom three screws.

15) Important: Hold down the plate with your fingers and take a knife and carefuly pull back the rectangle foam edge scrubber so that it is not caught under the blade. When you have the foam squeeges fully surfaced, install your top 2 screws (and Z plates if applicable) and tighten all your screws.

for your info: I neglected to do this at first, and when I did my first test print there were black smudges on the margins of each print because toner escaped out both sides of the toner tray assembly.

note: do not overtighten your screws or you will strip the threads.

16) Turn the roller so it rolls away from yourself. Notice any streaks? If you do you missed some gunk on the inside (most likely) or you nicked/damaged the edge of the silver plate.

17) Reinstall the toner banks.

18) Carefully remount the drum with the silver screws. Begin with the plastic hooks on the drum assembly that attach to the toner assembly. Then with a little force get the screw holes on your toner waste chute (left) and the righthand bracket aligned with the holes on the toner assembly. Reinstall your two screws.

19) Reinstall your waste tray. And put the imaging unit back into your printer.

20) Run a couple more of your pages of XXXXX's and see how they turn out.