Symptom: Black and white prints are no longer a deep black but more of a faded grey. The print fades to nothing towards one long side of A4 sheet. This makes items with barcodes unusable.

The Black toner according to the Samsung software has 30%. The printer has only ever had light domestic use. It is absolutely clean inside.

Shaking the toner cartridge makes no difference. If I rotate the gears and hence the roller, I get one (and only one) greatly improved print.

The toner cartridges use a gear driver roller at their inner edge to distribute the toner. The 3 colour toners work well but it is as if the black does not rotate because the toner is wiped off the surface in a narrow line along its length.

⟐ Answered M04 28, 2026 at 10:48 GMT-7