Sad Samsung - The little printer that couldn't

This page is dedicated to owners of the Samsung CLP-510 printer, in the hopes that it will enable them to resolve some serious problems with this device. In my opinion the CLP-510 has a design flaw which Samsung refuses to recognize - moreover, the printer appears to be *DESIGNED* to be more expensive to run than an inkjet (which are generally considered among the most expensive printer types to operate), and my experiences with Samsung support have been among the worst I've encountered **. All of these things are reasons to consider the purchase of a Samsung printer very carefully before you commit.

** For example, you CANNOT reply to an email from Samsung - you have to cut and paste their responses (without this they will not provide further support) which contains massive amounts of HTML which works only with Outlook (Pegasus crashed on their email), and put it into a tiny web form where you are forced to re-enter your complete information every time you respond.

It is important for me to state for the record that the information and opinions expressed on this page are my own - None of this material is approved or endorsed by Samsung. The procedures given have worked well for me, however ANY USE YOU MAKE OF ANY INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE IS ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK - I make no guarantee that the information is accurate or useful. The procedures described might be harmful to you and/or your printer if they are not carried out properly.


UPDATE NOTE: Now that I've had this printer for a couple of years, I have had a change of opinion on it. Once I worked out the faults and workarounds, it has actually been a pretty reliable workhorse. The availability of a service manual helps a lot. I still feel that Samsung could improve it's customer support, but if you are comfortable working with the types of things described on this page, the printer could be a good choice for you. If you are not comfortable "getting dirty" with your equipment, then I continue to recommend that you avoid it.


FINAL UPDATE: Wrong again - After more problems developed we came to the decision to replace the printer. Read the accounts below for details.

AUG 29/08: I can't believe the arrogance of these guys ... they've started sending me SPAM at the email address I used for tech support. Pages and pages of HTML which shows as "garbage" in my mailer (internet guidelines specify email as text - my mailer conforms). Promotional offers, sales literature, lots of reasons why I should "buy now", but no information on how to contact them or stop the spam, other than a huge long link that I cannot cut/paste into my browser. So I manually set up a page with the link text so that I can "click" on it, and guess what - the server doesn't respond. These guys are bad news ... RUN AWAY!

The Problem

Inside the front cover of the Samsung CLP-510 printer is a "Waste Toner Bin" - this bin collects any toner which is not fused to the paper during the printing process. The photo at the left shows the waste toner bin installed in its correct position.

As you print, the waste toner bin "fills up" with wasted toner, and you have to replace it on a regular basis. Other printers send waste toner back to a separate compartment in the toner cartridge, however Samsung prefers to sell you and additional "consumable" - apparently the $130 cost of the toner cartridges (x4 cartridges = $520/refill) just isn't sufficent revenue.

In the photo below, we see the waste toner bin removed from its operating position, and lying down on the printer door - Just tipped down from its normal place.



Note (1) - this is an optical sensor which detects when the waste toner bin is full - A "bump" on the bin (2) fits into the sensor notch when the bin is in position. An optical sensor looks though the "bump" and is supposed to detect when the toner reaches this level.

Note that one of the inlets for waste toner (3) is just above the sensor "bump" (when the bin is in it normal position). You can also see the round feed which goes into this hole, just above the sensor notch (1).

The problem occurs because the waste toner being injected into the bin "runs down the side" through the sensor "bump" - after a little while, this dirties the walls of the "bump", and although this is nowhere near as opaque as the actual toner, the sensor is sensitive enough to decide the bin is full and shuts down printing. In my opinion, this represents two fundamental flaws in the design:

It is interesting to note that Samsung explicitly advises that you not empty and reuse the waste toner bin - The overly sensitive sensor pretty much guarantees that you cannot do this, as it is virtually impossible to empty the bin without getting toner into the sensor bump, after which the printer will refuse to print and direct you to replace the bin.

The Cure

The first time this happened, I noted the dirty sensor notch and cleaned the area - It lasted only for a few pages, at which time I contacted Samsung to report the problem - No matter how I tried to explain the situation to them (over several days of correspondance) the only response I could get from them was "the bin must be full - change it".

The new bin lasted for perhaps 100 pages, at which point the dreaded "replace waste toner bin" message appeared. Samsumg responded that I should clean the external sensor (I had advised them that I had tried cleaning the external sensor in my first contact with them).
TO DATE - SAMSUNG HAS REFUSED TO ACKNOWLEGE THAT THERE IS A PROBLEM IN THE DESIGN OF THE WASTE TONER SYSTEM.

To confirm my theory that toner entering the bin via the inlet was dirtying the sensor area, I added a baffle made from tape as shown on the left - This cured the problem - Note how dirty the tape has become! (It WAS clear tape)... a LOT of toner was passing through this area!

Worried that the hot toner might melt/burn the tape baffle, I have since replaced it with one made from aluminum foil - Using only a single layer, with a fairly thin part that passes through the hole and is taped in place on the outside. It is important to get the part passing through the hole to be as flat against the side as possible, as it has to fit in beside the inlet from the printer - too much thickness or wrinkles here could cause a messey leak. It is also important that the baffle NOT be so long that it would prevent the sensor notch from filling from the bottom - this could cause the printer to overflow the bin - which would not be good... I recommend that you check the waste toner bin every time you change a toner cartridge.

Here is a photo of the tinfoil baffle - since installing this (and cleaning the sensor notch one last time), I have not had any further waste toner error messages.




The Saga Continues

May 2006: After running fine for several weeks, my printer is again showing "replace waste toner bin" - The bin is nowhere near full, and thanks to my baffle, the sensor window is pretty much clear. Here is a photo exactly as it came out of the printer. It appears that the sensor is not only defective, but getting worse.

I am contacting Samsung today to report this development, and will post the results here.

Since posting this page, I've had contact with *MANY* people who have this problem - it is very well known. I've also found information on bypassing the sensor entirely, which may be my next step (that or cutting the window off the tank completely) - stay tuned.

June 2006: A repairman came and replaced the sensor - although Samsung steadfastly told me there were no issues with the sensor, the repair guy told me that he has replaced "dozens" of them, and the sensors installed at the factory are defective! - A month later the printer has still not exhibited the "waste bin full" symptom again, so hopefully it's really fixed this time (although I am still using the baffle).

Nov 2007: Seems the replacement sensor doesn't actually work. Got busy, failed to keep an eye on the waste toner bin, and it overflowed, spilling toner all over the printer/table, and jamming the waste toner motor. The "Waste Toner Full" error never appeared.

Dec 2007: It's now putting very pronounced black streaks down the side of the page. I've spent several weeks trying to resolve this to no avail.

Jan 2008: Sad Samsung has finally been laid to rest. In his place stands a shiny new HP 2605DN. In his belly is at least $300 worth of toner that will never be used (almost the value of the new printer). But I'm getting over it - I'd forgotten what it is like to click "print" without fearing for unusable output and wasted hours.

According to my records, the CLP-510 printer cost me $440 in Oct 2005, we replaced the black cartridge twice and the colors once (5 cartridges at $130 each). Adding taxes we get a rough cost to operate of about $1250. Before I took it away, I printed a report which showed that it had printed 4218 color and 6547 mono pages during its short life. That works out to about $0.12 cents/page (not counting paper). To put this in perspective - that 400 page document... cost $48 just to put ink to the paper.

Caveat Emptor!!


Waste Motor Error

Nov 2007 - My daughter mentioned the other day that the printer had gotten quite noisy. It was making a "uhraar.. uhraar.. uhraar.." noise after printing each page, which had gotten fairly loud. Two days later, the printer stopped with the message "WASTE MOTOR ERROR".

Removing the waste toner bin, I saw that the bin had filled right to the top (completely filling the sensor "bump") without the new sensor detecting it. Toner was jammed in the outlet, and all over the inside of the printer.

I was able to repair this by removing the cleaning the waste motor assembly and worm pump. This takes a fair bit of disassembly, so DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU CAN DAMAGE YOUR PRINTER (OR YOURSELF) IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. You will spill a *LOT* of waste toner, have a vacume cleaner ready (with fine-pitch filter), and work in an area easily cleaned up. You should also wear a filter mask to avoid breathing toner.

The procedure for removing the waste toner motor is described in the CLP-510 service manual. In brief:

To clean the motor assembly, I vacumed out all visible toner from the assembly, and corresponding areas of the printer. Turn the worm gear on the motor by hand and observe the motion of the worm pump - it should expell waste toner at the top end (away from the motor - if it doesn't work, try turning in the other direction). It would take a LOT of turning to clear out the pump, so once I got the motor moving fairly easily, I used a 12V bench supply to run the motor until all the toner was expelled. I also lightly lubricated the end bearings of the motor shaft while I had it out. A test run with the bench supply showed it to be much quieter and smoother than before.

Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly. Once back together, the printer is working perfectly again, and I am amazed by how quiet it is!

This experience has taught me two things:


Grey streaks

Dec 2007 - So that should have been the end of it right? - Nope, a few weeks after all that, the printer started printing fat wavy grey streaks down the sides of the page. More on the left, but visible on both sides. The first few pages after power-on print OK, but the gray blotches appear and get worse and worse - after 20 or 30 pages they are almost as dark as the print.

I puzzled over this, took the printer apart and cleaned it many times. The optical drum, transfer belts and rollers looked OK, and I could find nothing wrong - I got used to printing only a couple of pages at a time. Finally I had a 400 page document to print, and had to do something. After much inspection I came up with two small clues: 1) Only black appeared on the streaks, and 2) the "silver bar" under the developer roller of the black cartridge had a slight buildup of toner on the ends - in about the same proportions as the streaks (more on the left end).

So I disassembed the toner cartridge and swapped the HV board and the developer roller with the previous empty cartridge - that fixed it - no more black marks... but no more dark print either. Toner was no longer getting distributed evenly on the pages. Swapped the roller back to no avail. Looked like I would need a new cartridge.

I could tell from the weight of the cartridge .vs. the empty one that it still had LOTS of toner in it (almost all). While I was contemplating the worth of throwing out yet another full toner cartridge and replacing it to the tune of $130 (something my mom used to refer to as "throwing good money after bad"), my wife came home and announced: "Staples had the HP color double-sided laser printer on sale at $150 off - so I bought one".



An Inexcusable Business Practice

At the same time that I contacted Samsung about the waste toner bin problem, I also asked why I had gotten only about 2000 pages from the black toner cartridge (Samsung says 3000 for the small one, and 5000 for the large one), and why although I had printed only a few pages in color, all three of the color toner cartridges were reporting that they need to be replaced. - I have not to date received any answer on these questions.

In researching the waste toner bin problem via google searches, I discovered some interesting things ... a LOT of people are upset at this printer, because they too experienced "toner empty" when having printed only a few pages. Several had disassembled the cartridges to find they are often still 1/2 or more full.


It seems Samsung uses a counter in the cartridge (1) to count the number of pages you have printed - Once it reaches a set level, the "replace toner" message appears, and a few pages after that the printer REFUSES to print. (It is reported that even though it says it can't print because it is out of toner, it can still print "perfect" configuration report pages).

From what I can tell, the counter in each cartridge is adjusted for EVERY page you print, even if you don't use any of that color in the page - in my case, I had printed about 2000 pages of black and white text, and now my color cartridges are all "out of toner", even though I can tell by the weight that they contain plenty of toner (Recall that the CLP-510 does NOT return waste toner to the cartridge).

This is GREAT for SAMSUNG, because:

It is NOT SO GREAT for YOU or the ENVIRONMENT because:


Examining the counter board, I noted that it contains a 24C04 EEPROM device - this contains 512 bytes of information that can be read and updated by the printer at any time - Since the toner-out condition moves with the cartridge, clearly Samsung is storing the page count in this device.

NOTE: Since posting this page, I've seen statements such as "Mr Dunfield does not have his facts right", accompanied by a description of starter .vs. full toner cartridges. For the record, my observations and results were obtained with full replacement toner cartridges, NOT the "starter" cartridges which come in the printer. After these cartridges reported empty, I worked out these details and reset them - I printed WELL over a thousand additional pages before any degradation in print quality was observed.

Another Cure

Fortunately, I design microprocessor based equipment, and know how to read and write I2C devices like the 24C04. I have created a little command-line program which allows you to use your computer to Save and Restore the content of the Toner Cartridge EEPROM with a simple three-wire adapter from the PC parallel port. Sorry, but this doesn't work under Windows NT, 2000 or XP - you will need to find a DOS or Win9x box. The program and EEPROM data files are so small you can easily fit them and a copy of DOS on a boot floppy if you have to.

Look for the three-terminal connector on your cartridge. The leftmost connection (when looking straight into the connector as shown) is the 24C04 data line, which must be connected to pin 16 on the LPT port. The rightmost connection is the 24C04 CLOCK line, which must be connected to LPT pin 17, and the middle connection is GROUND which must be connected to pins 20-25. How you make the connection is up to you - but keep in mind that you must NOT damage or alter the connectors because the printer has to be able to connect to them. I found that little "aligator clips" work well for me (As shown in the photo).

Download Sad Samsung - Eeprom Backup/Restore utility (15k SSEBR.ZIP)



Once you have the cartridge connected, simply use the SSEBR command to backup the EEPROM from each of your good toner cartridges to a file. Now you may restore them at any time, or zero the page counts. See readme for more information.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you perform this procedure, your printer will not know how many pages you have actually printed - Although it may seem like it the first time you experience not having to replace your cartridges so frequently, the toner isn't really infinite and will eventually run out in the cartridge. You will have to keep an eye on the output quality and determine with the toner is becoming depleted (it can help to roll the cartridge back and forth a few times to redistribute the toner when it gets low - although this was rarely an issue with the Samsung definition of "low").

SSEBR is also useful if you wish to refill your toner cartridges - Normally you would have to buy a replacement "chip" to reset the page counts, however as long as you have EEPROM images saved with low page counts, you can use SSEBR to reload the EEPROM after refill, resetting the page counts to the saved values.

Here is a document by Chris Howard (330k PDF) describing how to refil CLP-500/550 cartridges, which are nearly identical to those of the CLP-510.

Service Manual

A the correspondance I've received about this page, a kind soul sent me a PDF service manual for the CLP-510 - A tremendously useful resource. According to the title page, it can be obtained at: http://itself.sec.samsung.co.kr. This requires a username etc. however a Xerox version of it is posted at: https://www.office.xerox.com/partners/products/Phaser6100/Phaser6100Series.html which should be useful.

Copyright 2006-2008 Dave Dunfield.