The printouts from a high-use office laser printer have started to show repetitive marks at regular intervals down the page. The printer has not had any maintenance for over a year. What should the technician consider replacing first to resolve this issue?
Repetitive, evenly spaced defects usually correspond to the circumference of a consumable component inside a laser printer. A worn or damaged photosensitive imaging drum is a common cause, because any scratch or residual charge on the drum repeats once per rotation and transfers that defect to the paper. Replacing only the toner cartridge will not help if the separate drum is at end-of-life, cleaning the fuser typically fixes smudging rather than patterned repeats, and the transfer roller is a less frequent cause of this specific symptom. Therefore, replacing the imaging drum is the most appropriate first step.
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What is an imaging drum and what does it do in a laser printer?
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