How to Clean and Troubleshooting HP Color LaserJet Transfer Belts ITB ETB Assemblies

What does a HP transfer belt do?
The transfer belt is a rotating belt which carries the mixture of different colors of toner particles. The transfer belt pass in front of the 4 toner cartridges cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The cartridges apply each toner layer to the belt, which will then apply the combined layers uniformly onto the paper.
Top 5 Transfer Belt Problems
Dings and dents to belt
Toner Reservoir get full and pours back on belts
Worn Belt
Cleaning blade warping
Not Resetting page count
Note: Before attempting any of they these physical solutions, run several full calibrations on the laser printer as they may resolve many image issues.
Transfer Belt Ding Damage Will Cause Repetitive Marks Down Page on HP Color Laser PrintersTransfer Belt Ding Damage Will Cause Repetitive Marks Down Page on HP Color Laser Printers
Transfer Belt Ding Damage Will Cause Repetitive Marks Down Page on HP Color Laser Printers
WARNING SERVICE NOTES
Do not touch transfer belt as oils on fingers can contaminate the black polymer transfer belt
Rotating the black polymer belt in the wrong direct can damage the belt.
Do NOT handle the transfer belt by the black shiny polymer material. Dings and scratches in transfer belt may show up on prints.
Do not expose the belt to light for any length of time as it is light sensitive.
Printer Defects related to bad transfer belt
Registration errors
Blurring print
Spotting
Color fringing
Light or dark streaks on edges
Faded Print
Repeated defects
Long Toner line on black polymer belt may mean the belt or wipe needs replacement.
Rotating Belt In The Working Direction
Position the transfer belt so the The black or blue handles is closest to you. To rotate the belt use the gear or grab the belt from both sides carefully, slowly and evenly pull the black belt toward you.
Position the transfer belt so the the black or blue tabs and pin ball flippers are closest to you. To rotate the belt use the gear or grab the belt from both sides carefully, slowly and evenly pull the black belt toward you.
Position the transfer belt so the the black or blue tabs and pin ball flippers are closest to you. To rotate the belt use the gear or grab the belt from both sides carefully, slowly and evenly pull the black belt toward you
Position the transfer belt so the the black or blue tabs and pin ball flippers are closest to you. To rotate the belt use the gear or grab the belt from both sides carefully, slowly and evenly pull the black belt toward you
Cleaning Belt
As you rotate belt wipe clean sections at a time with lint free cloth with a little alcohol.
While cleaning belt inspect for dings scratches or wrinkles. These cannot be repaired and you must purchase a replacement belt.
Legacy Laser Printer Transfer Belts 4600 46500 5500 5550 etc
Color laser Transfer kit's on older models do not have a waste toner reservoir hopper. The toner cartridge themselves collect the excess toner.
HP transfer belts like the 3525 and newer have their own waste hopper. Locate and open waste toner duct. Dump out excess toner into a garbage can or use a toner vacuum.HP transfer belts like the 3525 and newer have their own waste hopper. Locate and open waste toner duct. Dump out excess toner into a garbage can or use a toner vacuum.
HP transfer belts like the 3525 and newer have their own waste hopper. Locate and open waste toner duct. Dump out excess toner into a garbage can or use a toner vacuum.
If your Transfer belt has a Reservoir
Newer transfer belts 3525 and newer have their own waste hopper. Locate and open waste toner duct. Dump out excess toner into a garbage can or use a toner vacuum.
You can blow out the excess toner located in the transfer belt reservoir hopper. The hopper is a waste bin that collects excess toner from the belt over time. Check the transfer belt for vent holes around reservoir.
Effects of blowing out transfer belts indoors Effects of blowing out transfer belts indoors
If you're using high compressed air from a compressor do not pull the trigger full throttle as it may damage the seals on the transfer belt . Pull compressor air trigger quarter then half way to gently blow.
The HP LaserJet printer transfer belts are programmed to generate an error message reading “REPLACE TRANSFER KIT” when the page count is at or around 120,000 pages. The only way to remove that message and restore the lifecycle, up to now, has been to purchase a costly new transfer kit.
Transfer Kit Reset Device FlashIts
Flash-It™ Restores Life to HP Transfer Kits. The Flash-It Tool will set the transfer kit life to 100% and clear the “REPLACE TRANSFER KIT” message. This will allow the printer to continue to utilize the existing transfer kit far beyond the 120,000 pages. One of the added benefits of the tool,is that you can flash the lifecycle at any point.
4700 Flash-It™
6015 Flash-It™
M880 Color LaserJet Enterprise Flash-It™
Visit us at www.metrofuser.com

[@tokazama]

THANK YOU! We have had a local - VERY reputable - printer company come out to our office three times to fix the black streaks that print on our HP LaserJet M553. First time they just kind of cleaned the machine.. Second time they told us that the problem was non-HP toner, so we replaced all toner. Third time they told us that it was due to the paper being too thick, but nothing else was wrong. Today I was up against a deadline and needed clean prints. I found this video. I pulled out the Transfer Belt and emptied the hopper, then cleaned as directed. Now the prints are as good as when the printer was new.

[@rasso6137]

Thank you for your valuable tips. I followed the procedure described here. After that, the print quality was even worse, lots of longitudinal stripes and shadows. So I opened the part in the back that contains a toner wiper lid. One screw on each side has to be put out for that. Be careful when opening and remember the locations of the small white wheels inside, some of them may fall out. My suspicion was confirmed: The foam on the wiper blade was old and dry. I completely removed the old foam and attached a stripe of "Tesa-Moll" (sticky foam, 3,5 mm thick, 2 mm would be even better) instead. Having assembled all parts the printer works perfect, no quality defects to be seen at all. --- Another hint: When you clean the transfer belt as described in the video please take care that the alcohol is completely dried before you move to the next section. Otherwise, you might derstroy the foam oin the toner lid again. Hope that helps.

[@andrewkleinwaks6379]

Thanks for the tip. Emptying the hopper made a HUGE difference, but I wish you had included that process in the video.

[@molliemossman513]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKDalWd9jLOqZsk shows how to open the toner wastereservoir ("hopper")

[@VanTekConsulting]

Thank you. My M479 would do a frequent cleaning cycle after every few pages, I ran through your process (found a lot of toner on the brush at the end of the belt), cleaned all of that, and now is printing great again. I appreciate the time you took to do the video.

[@TrishMeyer99]

Thanks, that's really useful. I really would love a video on cleaning out the toner reservoir at the back of the transfer belt. I managed to open it up and it was full. I vacuumed it out and cleaned it and just that alone removed the dark stripe I was getting on the top of pages when the printer was sitting for a while. Unfortunately, putting the top back on went awry and the metal coil bunched up and scratched the transfer belt. I didn't see this until I took it back out to give it another wipe down. So now I need a new belt!

[@kkosmoski]

Thank you. Very helpful esp. if I can clean the belt and save $100 replacing it. I appreciate the video.

[@micahb2627]

Thanks for this video. It helped solve an office's long-time problem.

[@aaronlenz5128]

Hugely helpful and direct. Thank you! You saved an HP laserjet printer's life today!

[@user-zi8st7pl9y]

Excuse me, please, could you write, what kind of wipe can be used with "light alcohol" to clean the ITB? Can't hear clearly at 3:36...

[@metrofuser]

lint free wipes and isopropyl alcohol

[@kyeremehrichard9321]

thank you, please my question is that my color HP Laserjet M553 thus not recently print well, the colors of the design or image thus not print as it is and sometimes it print with lines but printing black and white thus not have lines in it. Please how can I solve my problem

[@abomahdi123]

I have a hp m283 printer today I cleaned it and installed new original ink but the colors are faded what is the problem??

[@aabsc]

I'm curious, the way you say is the correct way to turn it is the opposite way that the printer makes it turn, why?

[@rule14all]

The crucial step of how to empty and then clean the toner build up it is not demonstrated.

[@samungabo6896]

Dear friends in this M553 machine 508A Cyan is not printing even removed seal cartridge, so how to solve it???

[@autumnjeserich2689]

My CLJ 5550 has misaligned colors that no amount of calibration has fixed, although it seems its just the black cartridge thats misaligned. I've tried all the resets, it gives midtone errors and the cpr sensor out of range error on the event log. I cleaned the ITB and the CPR sensor and no change, would you try a new belt or new CPR sensor first?

[@mortellishuddleston4490]

HP m551 color is faded will replacing or cleaning fix this

[@BinhNguyen-pf3kw]

System Admin at its finest

[@robertmaxwellwilliams5795]

my hp m880 transfer blet bin leakage how do I fix it

[@OriginalMergatroid]

I have been looking at videos and webpages for an hour. All of them say to open the waste toner hopper cover and remove the toner, but not a single one shows you how to open it.

[@thewaddy]

I have a 2605. Is it ok to clean transfer belt with IPA ? What cloth do I use, can I use a microfiber cloth ? How do I empty the toner dump ?

[@SeerSeekingTruth]

I am still having trouble after troubleshooting everything under the sun and hoped you could give advice before I have to drag this to a repair shop or throw it in the trash which I really don’t want to do. PROBLEM: Large thick rectangle blocks of cyan, magenta and yellow toner keep appearing on the transfer belt. TROUBLESHOOTING: - Firmware is up to date - Already printed like 20 cleaning pages and ran all reports - Replaced transfer belt - Cleaned transfer belt assembly roller very well. - Brand new genuine HP ink cartridges The toner tray does seem to go into the printer funny where it is slightly lopsided in the left hand side but when I close the door it seems to lower and settle evenly on both sides. The toner tray is about the only thing O can think of at this point unless the laser itself is bad or a fuse of some sort. It looks like something is telling the printer to print giant blocks of color but it’s not transferring to the paper at all it is staying stuck to the transfer belt. I am wondering should I do a factory reset to erase any and all previous data causing it to lay all of this toner on the transfer belt. It truly doesn’t seem like a spill because they are perfectly formed rectangles or blocks of toner. I am baffled and I don’t know if taking it to a print shop will be helpful or just cost me money unnecessarily since I have gone through all the typical troubleshooting steps already myself…

[@alysoumahoro]

ou se situe le laser du hp m775 s'il vous plait j'aimerai le nettoyer merci

[@omnielectrical]

Do you have to reset the transfer case on a HP M551dn - it does not appear on the "manage supplies" menu>

[@ahmadfishnish4100]

Why does the color laser printer constantly clean?

[@lauren-taylorjones1516]

How do you get these parts out of the printer? Thank you!

[@georgemoore528]

Hi. My problem is extra toner getting onto the transfer belt. Every other day, I have to take a semi-dry terry cloth to wipe off the belt so there won't be 2 streaks on the back of my printed tasks. What's causing this?

[@W.Dennis]

If the streaks are on the BACK of your printed job, try cleaning the transfer roller. It is a spongy looking roller 8.5“ wide. The paper feeds between this roller and the transfer belt. It creates a negative charge onto the paper while the toner is positively charged which allows the toner to magnetically stick to the paper then the fuser melts the toner onto the paper. You can use a dry cloth to wipe the roller down or remove it and use compressed air to clean it. Remember, it is spongy, so if there is build up on it refrain from using too much pressure while wiping it down or you will basically smudge excess toner into the pores of the spongy roller. I prefer the compressed air cleaning method.

[@adamreizner9206]

28 years in printer service here. A couple of notes for you; What you mistakenly call a toner hopper is a transfer belt cleaning unit. Inside the unit is a rubber blade that scrapes waste toner from the belt into the unit and it is then augered out to the waste toner box in the front of the printer. The ITB is NOT photosensitive. It is charged and discharged by electric current. You are confusing it with the drums (common term) which are officially known, industry wide, as OPCs or Organic Photo Conductors. You can leave them out in bright light for years and see absolutely zero degradation beyond the day they were first exposed. However, wiping a transfer belt with isopropyl alcohol will degrade its ability to accept a charge. That is demonstrable immediately upon reinstalling it.

[@spodinv]

What can I use to clean the transfer belt?

[@adamreizner9206]

@spodinv dry wipe with a soft, non-abrasive towel. Use alcohol only if there is something adhesive stuck on the belt. In that case use extremely sparingly with as little pressure as is possible. Upon reassembly you will see the alcohol exposed area for about 2,000 impressions.

[@technical19d34]

Great information, thank you.

[@NMA_NoMoreAmmo]

If you have hard to remove HP printer belt like CP1025, you can just open the back of your printer, press the secret button on the top right of the doors opening. Then hold damp (with spirit) microfiber cloth against the spinning belt. It will clean the belt without even opening apart (dissecting) the printer. Easy.

[@hydrokeychain9318]

Another thing these belts do for lack of a better descriptive is "groan" while turning. Was waiting for the 'empty the hopper' part, but it never happened. This MAY be the cause of the 'groan'. (The 'groan' can be quite loud, as the belt pretty much goes the length of the entire machine and the belt vibrates like a big flat guitar string.)

[@niltomega2978]

ALSO this transfer belt scrapes toner off the belt on the large end and collects it till it over flows BACK onto the transfer surface leaving black marks on printed sheets. By hold it over a trash can or outside one can tap some of the powdery toner out and get it to function again.

[@numpsi5630]

interresting and helpful. thanks for this. after cleaning the belt as described my cp5525 would not calibrate itself. I ran the calibration program multiple times but is does not help at all. any hint to resolve this?

[@chrisnewman7281]

I thank you for the video you mentioned about the toner hopper unit. On one of the HP forums they said that my print quality problem may be due to a buildup of toner on the ITB cleaning blade. How do i do that please?

[@Micimose]

You just, for a lack of a better word, yank the back cover that is on the other side of the belt. I had a lot of excess toner so when I got rid of that, cleaned the inside and then the belt itself, the black/coloured lines on the edges were gone. Hope this helps :)

[@lezbriddon]

mine is making an awful groaning sound on every print and 60 seconds or so afterwards, it sounds in pain....

[@farukkhan1641]

If u can post a video how to clean tonner hopper.

[@dmprdctns]

Hello... M750... I did this procedures and now the print is all pink and with bad registration... Any suggestions? Am doing continued calibrations... Thanks...

[@MrRoicinho]

It could be possible thet the transfer belt causes blanc zones on repetitive pages?

[@myworkaccount1904]

If you cleaned it with alcohol, yeah. That and light splotches and color splotches and many other things. Metrofuser either doesn't know what they are doing, or is aiming for you to need a replacement transfer belt (which they sell). It's dangerous advice.

[@thewaddy]

The printer has been standing for 4 years. Will the toner still be ok.

[@MaLilBunny]

@@thewaddy no its gonna explode 😬

[@gerald5274]

This was a good video, however, I wish you would have pointed to the parts of the transfer belt as you were talking about it, for instance, the toner hopper. You did move the camera to the areas that I assumed you were talking about, but pointing would be helpful.

[@81mrodriguez]

Can you clean out the toner hopper? I think I had an overflow on the ink and its printing all over my transfer belt.

[@niltomega2978]

Yes you can. I do it a lot. Its a bit cumbersome but just keep tapping it over a trash can. YOu only need to remove a little because it collects it slow.

[@thatguyfromca]

what causes vertical streaking on HP cp2025dn color laser printer? Does the transfer belt need to be replaced or cleaned?

[@niltomega2978]

Toner fills up at the end of the belt. Tap it over a trash can to remove some and it should work again.

[@desu6544]

Thanks very much. That was useful. God bless you.

[@metrofuser]

Glad it was helpful!

[@michaelbrannelly2316]

Are you sure thats the correct way to rotate it? I notice when its installed in my printer with the top off it rolls in the opposite direction

[@JR_RYAN]

Definitely looks the wrong way. The paper would travel upward, so the belt would need to as well.

[@jeffd6540]

Hello, Nice helpful video. After watching this video, I was able to do a really nice cleaning of the machine. Carefully! Vacuumed it out and wiped down all the toner cartridges. Turned back on and did supply status print test. Seems mostly ok, except for some yellow streaking on the Left hand side of page only. It is not a straight line, but more like an inconsistent blurry area (which is yellow). I wiped down the cartridges (by rolling and wiping them off) and I was sure to clean the transfer belt really nicely on the sides. Any idea of what might be causing the yellowing on the Left hand side? I also took apart the area on the transfer belt that looks like it wipes off the toner and cleaned that really well. Any thoughts? I have an HP MFP M476dw color laser printer.

[@Poppageno]

what about the other model? I got a 2605bn from a friend and it leaves color stripes on the ETB and printed media.

[@rohtez]

same here.. :-(

[@bobmccomb7701]

Open what vent to dump toner? I get red speckles on my prints. I am wondering if the hopper is full?

[@sebbe91]

I have had the same problem for a while, with red speckles on my prints

[@cheesehead6710]

These things leave streaks way before 140k. Open what vent to dump toner?

[@metrofuser]

Are you using oem toner?

[@cheesehead6710]

@@metrofuser Thanks for the reply. A 3525 was using generic toner. A 5525 was not. How would toner affect the ITB streaking?

[@cheesehead6710]

@@metrofuser I've taken the hopper cover off emptied the waste and still get streaks on top and bottom.

[@darthjar9117]

cheese head then it’s prolly time to replace the belt

[@bobbybobbo2359]

Do you use 70% alcohol?

[@metrofuser]

Yes

[@tinzchannel2951]

hellooo about the drum

[@shahidnadeem4730]

thankyou please reply me which reagent or liquid you use to clean , waiting for your reply

[@Juleru]

Watch the video.

[@MsLordenatas]

03:36

[@brentb9742]

The pages that I print come out with streaks. I have to clean the transfer belt and transfer roller every time I want to print. They both keep getting excess toner on them. What should I do?

[@andrewkleinwaks6379]

Try emptying the hopper on the belt, then cleaning again. I dumped my hopper and LOT'S of excess toner came out. Cleaned the belt again and it seemed to do the trick. If using the HP belt shown in the video (with the blue 'wings'), there are three small black clips on the opposite end of the belt. I released the clips, and shook the toner out.

[@samuelwest2551]

Hey there, I followed these instructions along with your video on removing the ITB from an HP M477fdw that was having quality problems and after cleaning and reinstalling the print quality is MUCH worse, but only if I am printing something with high toner density. So I can print pages and pages of text flawlessly, but if I try to print a poster or flyer or something it looks horrible like not nearly enough toner is coming out. I performed the "mid-way" test and found that the issue appears to be not enough toner is getting on the belt - but again this isn't an issue for text. Any thoughts on what could have caused this? I know the ITB is very sensitive but I was wearing nitrile gloves, was careful to not touch the belt, and didn't expose to light for any more than 10 minutes or so - just long enough to clean it. Any thoughts on where the problem is? Is it possible the belt is ruined?

[@metrofuser]

The flat-flex cable that goes from the bottom of the formatter to the top of the DC Controller is not making a good connection in the ZIF socket. Put a layer of tape on the back of the FFC to allow the ZIP socket to hold the FFC tightly. www.metrofuser.com

[@samuelwest2551]

@@metrofuser Thanks for the reply, but that doesn't seem to be the issue. I followed your suggestion and the problem is exactly the same unless I am misunderstanding something. You're talking about the flat white flex cable that connects the bottom of the smaller board on the upper left side of the printer with the very top of the large board on the same side, correct? The cable is very short, no more than 2 or 3 inches yeah? If I've got the right one then it appears to be something else. Any ideas?

[@metrofuser]

View this page www.metrofuser.com/post/hp-m452-m377-m477-prints-lightly-after-replacing-transfer-belt-fuser-formatter-or-engine-controller

[@samuelwest2551]

@@metrofuser Unfortunately that is what I did to no effect. If I set the printer to use heavy glossy paper the prints come out better, but still with some issues. There also appears to be a weird crimp in my FFC, do you think I might need to replace it? Again, this issue only happens for high toner density images. If I print pages of text or even pages with small amounts of color they come out just fine. Thanks!

[@metrofuser]

Sounds like your fuser is not getting hot enough to melt/bond the toner on to the page. This is common when printing full page graphics that use a lot of toner. Try another higher heat setting like Cardstock or Rough. Ultimately, it sounds like your fuser is going bad and will need to be replaced.

[@parnordqvist3895]

I get black parts on my copies, especially where it is blue in pictures. It looks like the printer can’t handle colors accurate. I recently bought Laserjet 500 Color M551-dn and I find it rather bad. I bought a used one. My former printer, an HP Laserjet Pro 400 Color M451-dn was much better. I have looked at this but it looked good as far as I could see. This printer is almost 10 years so I made a blunder buying it.

[@metrofuser]

Please send us a few pictures of pages with this print defect. [e-mail] Also, using the control panel, go to Administration - Troubleshooting - Print Quality Pages - Print PQ Troubleshooting Pages and send us pics of these as well.

[@parnordqvist3895]

@@metrofuser Now you have e-mail to read and pictures to analyze. Thanks!

[@parnordqvist3895]

@@metrofuser Hello! Did you get the pictures? I have sent them for almost a week ago. What can be wrong? I have bought a new cyan-cartridge but no improvement.

[@metrofuser]

Using the control panel, navigate to the DEVICE MAINTENANCE menu, then to the CALIBRATE/CLEANING menu. Select RUN CLEANING PAGE. After running the cleaning page, select FULL CALIBRATION. Try printing your images now and see if they look any different/better. If they still look the same, uninstall/remove/delete the device and reinstall it using the PostScript driver found here: tinyurl.com/ycmlmpk6

[@parnordqvist3895]

@@metrofuser Can’t reinstall it because the PostScript driver isn’t Mac-compatible. I use MacOS, not Windows. Or is there a Mac-version? And I have done full calibration several times with very little or no improvement.

[@sandraragazzi3181]

I found this very unhelpfull. There was no demonstration to show how to clean out the build up of toner in the top end of the belt.

[@copiertech101]

You said to make sure not to turn the transfer belt in the wrong direction and then you proceeded to turn it in the wrong direction!!??

[@rechakkamel9995]

Erreur 59'5 Hp 5550 dtn

[@JakubMatena]

Cleaning the transfer belt actually killed my printer. So be aware!

[@Seductus99]

What did you use for cleaning?

[@JakubMatena]

@@Seductus99 I used alcohol. It seems ok now. But the printer was making unhealthy noises while printing first few pages.

[@myworkaccount1904]

Alcohol kills your transfer belt. Now that it happened to me, I looked elsewhere, and this is apparently common knowledge among actual printer experts. Metrofuser is either not qualified to offer this advice, or deliberately aiming for you to need a replacement transfer belt (which they sell).

[@carlhalle8618]

Just save me to buy a new printer.... $$$ I had recently procured all color cartridge at 400$ and was worried that I had to trash the printer....

[@MrArcadianSir]

in reality you cannot fix these, once the foam disintergrates on the mylar its hard to fix unless you have more foam. the thinnerb one are more suseptible of foam disintergration.