I cleaned the laser scanner of a HP LaserJet 4250tn and it was the scariest hour of my week.

At work, one of our HP LaserJet 4250tn printers started to have a print quality problem. The print down the middle would be extremely light compared to the rest of the page.

• I tried using a different toner cartridge.
• I ran a few cleaning pages.
• I interrupted a print job before it hit the fuser to see if that was the problem, but it wasn’t.

Since the warranty ran out from HP, all they would offer is email support. However, after these troubleshooting steps, they ceased their free email tech support.

So, I called The Printer Works for tech support. After explaining what I’ve tried, they suggested I clean the laser scanner and emailed me comprehensive instructions.[1. Why couldn't HP do this?]

I took my time disassembling the printer to reach the laser scanner assembly, gently cleaned it with glass cleaner and cotton swabs, and put everything back together.

Then came the moment of truth.

I plugged it back in, powered it on, ran a test page, and held my breath.

Success!