A while ago, my monochrome Samsung Xpress M2825ND laser printer, which has been in use for several years now, stopped printing while the red LED status light kept flashing furiously.
According to the printer manual, this signalled a temporary error condition that should be easy to fix.
However, further testing revealed that when pressing the diagnostic button on the printer, the status and test messages would be printed just fine on paper.
After ruling out every possible cause I could think of, I bit the bullet and ordered a replacement photo conductor unit.
Much to my surprise, this solved the problem of print jobs not being executed.
To me, that does not make sense at all. According to the manual, this printer’s photo conductor unit has a lifetime of about 9000 pages, which I am certain I had not reached yet. And still, even though the issue seemed to be a worn PCU, when in diagnostic mode, it would work just fine.
The key takeaway here is this: the printer seems to be malfunctioning and the single flashing LED only gives so much information. As to why a supposedly failed photoconductor unit would still be able to produce crisp diagnostic printouts is beyond me. A more torough investigation into the printer firmware may be warranted to confirm my suspicions, while in light of the ongoing supply chain issues, trying to keep the device functioning is the preferred way to go, even if I have been wanting to replace the monochrome model with a color multifunction printer from rival company Kyocera that comes with a document scanner to handle all the paper that I am still having to deal with.
Have you experienced similar issues? This starts to look a lot like planned obsolescence to me, which is something I absolutely oppose.