Troubleshooting the Phaser 6500 / WorkCentre 6505 printer
Problem
One of the colors (usually black) is printing very lightly, and replacing the toner cartridge did not fix it.
Solution
The printer has a toner 'reservoir' inside of it for each of the four colors. Sometimes with aftermarket toner cartridges, the cartridge runs out of toner prematurely, and the printer has no way of knowing this. This can allow the reservoir to run dry, resulting in a color printing very lightly. Simply replacing the toner cartridge doesn't fix the problem, as the printer doesn't realize it needs to replenish the reservoir.
The fix the problem, we need to go into the printer's built-in diagnostics system and tell it to run the toner motor for the affected color. This loads toner into the reservoir from the cartridge. To do this:
1. Turn the printer Off.
2. Press and hold the Up and Down arrows simultaneously and turn the printer On.
3. Release the buttons when Service Mode and ESS Diag appear on the display (Phaser 6500) or Service Mode, Printer, and Fax/Scanner appear on the MFP display (WorkCentre 6505).
4. Using the up/down arrows on the printer, scroll until you see "Engine Diag" on the display. Press the OK button.
5. Scroll until you see "Motor Test" on the display. Press the OK button.
6. Scroll until you see the "Toner Motor" test for the affected color:
- C = cyan
- M = magenta
- Y = yellow
- K = black
Press OK when you get to the correct test. You should hear the motor in the printer start running.
7. Run the motor test for 30 seconds, then turn the printer off. Turn the printer on normally, and see if the problem is resolved.
8. If the affected color is still printing lightly, repeat steps 1-7 a second time, but only allow the toner motor test to run for 15 seconds.
9. If the affected color is still printing lightly, repeat steps 1-7 a third and final time, again only allowing the motor test to run for 15 seconds.
10. If the affected color is still printing lightly, call me, as it's not a problem with the reservoir running dry.