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LaserWriter Pro 600 (SOS!!)
- Thread starter MacTCP
- Start date
Patrickool93
Well-known member
Good price with the free shipping. Looks nice.
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The seller stated the printer works; he even made a test page. Upon turning it on, the lights indicate that the toner is installed wrong. So I took it out, and put it back in. Now, the lights indicate that the LaserWriter needs to go in for service. The toner that was pre-installed was for HP. The original Apple toner included in the box, which was twice as big, didn't seem to want to fit. It was for this printer… >__<
Since it doesn't work like it did for the seller, without changing anything, is it D.O.A…?
The seller stated the printer works; he even made a test page. Upon turning it on, the lights indicate that the toner is installed wrong. So I took it out, and put it back in. Now, the lights indicate that the LaserWriter needs to go in for service. The toner that was pre-installed was for HP. The original Apple toner included in the box, which was twice as big, didn't seem to want to fit. It was for this printer… >__<
Since it doesn't work like it did for the seller, without changing anything, is it D.O.A…?
beachycove
Well-known member
1. The Laserwriter Pro 630 is a much better printer than the 600, as it has ethernet. Works with contemporary Apple hardware. Find a logic board and do the swap, and you'll have a decent printer for a long while.
2. These are standard HP4/HP5 cartridges. There is no difference between the Apple-branded cartridges and the others.
3. The toner cartridge take a bit of extra physical persuasion (a good shove) to sit properly in my Laserwriter Pro 630.
4. If your ram has fallen out in transport, you will get error lights. Get the service manual and take it apart. Not a job that is especially easy without the service manual, but not hard with it.
2. These are standard HP4/HP5 cartridges. There is no difference between the Apple-branded cartridges and the others.
3. The toner cartridge take a bit of extra physical persuasion (a good shove) to sit properly in my Laserwriter Pro 630.
4. If your ram has fallen out in transport, you will get error lights. Get the service manual and take it apart. Not a job that is especially easy without the service manual, but not hard with it.
beachycove
Well-known member
Poor print quality can be caused by a number of things, including a bad toner cartridge. If the drum is bad, no quantity of toner will make the thing print properly.
If there is a big physical difference between the two cartridges that came with the machine, there is something wrong. The HP and Apple OEMs are physically identical, and in fact, neither company manufactured the original engine, which was a Canon.
Failure to start up can also be caused by the bad or badly seated toner cartridge.
Given these three facts, maybe the place to begin is with a remanufactured toner cartridge; if it still fails to work when that is installed, sell it on again.
If there is a big physical difference between the two cartridges that came with the machine, there is something wrong. The HP and Apple OEMs are physically identical, and in fact, neither company manufactured the original engine, which was a Canon.
Failure to start up can also be caused by the bad or badly seated toner cartridge.
Given these three facts, maybe the place to begin is with a remanufactured toner cartridge; if it still fails to work when that is installed, sell it on again.
There was actually only one toner. The HP5 thing was something else in the side hatch, which I thought was toner. I found the top hatch where you actually put toner, and put the apple one in. (I never used a laser printer before. 
)
Would bad toner cause the LaserWriter to almost immediately jam? When it jams, the test page is usually starting to poke out of that HP thing inside the side-hatch.
)Would bad toner cause the LaserWriter to almost immediately jam? When it jams, the test page is usually starting to poke out of that HP thing inside the side-hatch.
beachycove
Well-known member
You are going to need to call things by their proper names. And put the toner in the right compartment. Get the service manual!
What you might actually have, reading between the lines, however, is a blockage in the paper feed pathway - and it's very, very hard to get this out if it is deep in the bowels of the machine without disassembly. Honestly. It happened to me only a month or so ago, and it took me a good couple of hours to diagnose and to fix. It's also not the first time it has happened, as the old machines are prone to paper feed errors now that their paper rollers are old and withered. You end up yanking the misfed paper out and tearing it, leaving blockages in the machine.
My LW630 Pro is my main home printer and it works wonderfully well, but it has certain quirks. On the basis of my experience: (a) You will find that stripping down, cleaning, and ensuring that there are no small bits of paper torn off and blocking the paper feed can work wonders. ( B) I would say that a printer from 1993 now needs a good seeing to in this respect, complete with lubrication of moving parts, attention to the drive belt, a vacuuming out, and so on. © There is absolutely no substitute for a working toner cartridge. (d) The LW Pro also typically needs attention paid to its rubber rollers, both in the top of the unit, in the middle, and below just above the paper tray (where there is a sort of arm that picks up the individual sheets of paper) before it will work well after all these years. I would get and apply some rubber renue to the rollers while I had it apart.
Note that, once it's working (hopefully!), there is also an Apple Laserwriter Utility (or is it Printer Utility? - I forget) which you can use to make some software adjustments to the machine. These are much more sophisticated units than a Stylewriter, having, for instance, onboard 68030 and 68882 processors.
What you might actually have, reading between the lines, however, is a blockage in the paper feed pathway - and it's very, very hard to get this out if it is deep in the bowels of the machine without disassembly. Honestly. It happened to me only a month or so ago, and it took me a good couple of hours to diagnose and to fix. It's also not the first time it has happened, as the old machines are prone to paper feed errors now that their paper rollers are old and withered. You end up yanking the misfed paper out and tearing it, leaving blockages in the machine.
My LW630 Pro is my main home printer and it works wonderfully well, but it has certain quirks. On the basis of my experience: (a) You will find that stripping down, cleaning, and ensuring that there are no small bits of paper torn off and blocking the paper feed can work wonders. ( B) I would say that a printer from 1993 now needs a good seeing to in this respect, complete with lubrication of moving parts, attention to the drive belt, a vacuuming out, and so on. © There is absolutely no substitute for a working toner cartridge. (d) The LW Pro also typically needs attention paid to its rubber rollers, both in the top of the unit, in the middle, and below just above the paper tray (where there is a sort of arm that picks up the individual sheets of paper) before it will work well after all these years. I would get and apply some rubber renue to the rollers while I had it apart.
Note that, once it's working (hopefully!), there is also an Apple Laserwriter Utility (or is it Printer Utility? - I forget) which you can use to make some software adjustments to the machine. These are much more sophisticated units than a Stylewriter, having, for instance, onboard 68030 and 68882 processors.
beachycove
Well-known member
You might pay special attention to the paper path as illustrated in the service manual, and try to ensure that there is no debris hindering the path the paper must take at any point, including in the far corners, which is where paper tears are most likely to occur (you grab a piece of jammed paper in the middle, pull on it, and it tears at the edges). I had my LW Pro 630 come to a total standstill a while ago because of a piffling little 1" strip that got torn and stuck at the extreme left (looking from the front) just between the pick up roller in the paper tray and where it first emerges again in the toner compartment - an area almost impossible to see or to get at, full of gears and wheels, but obviously key for functionality. I ended up feeding dental floss through and worked it across so as to remove the offending paper that way. None of the other tools I tried would do the trick, as it was so small and out of the way that nothing I had could reach in. You might try dental floss if all else fails: I hear the Inuit sew their sealskin boots with it, too, so it's versatile stuff.
The strange thing was that I had the same thing happen the very next day at work with another Laserwriter, a 4/600, when trying to print an envelope that got stuck. It is not easy to get these little torn pieces out when they are tucked away in some hidden corner, but they have to be removed: if the paper does not roll through, the while machine stops dead in its tracks.
It might not be a paper jam that is causing your problem, but it is certainly worth a shot.
Best of luck with it. If nothing else, you should learn a bit more about laser printers through your troubles. You'll not soon go back to an inkjet if you can get the LW working properly, that I can promise you.
The strange thing was that I had the same thing happen the very next day at work with another Laserwriter, a 4/600, when trying to print an envelope that got stuck. It is not easy to get these little torn pieces out when they are tucked away in some hidden corner, but they have to be removed: if the paper does not roll through, the while machine stops dead in its tracks.
It might not be a paper jam that is causing your problem, but it is certainly worth a shot.
Best of luck with it. If nothing else, you should learn a bit more about laser printers through your troubles. You'll not soon go back to an inkjet if you can get the LW working properly, that I can promise you.
