Today I had to print something, it was important and urgent, this of course triggers the hardware gremlins to come out to play and my Samsung C460 all in one laser/fax/scanner/Goblin Teasmaid played the trump card “Replace imaging unit” and sat there stoically flashing a red light until new hardware was available.
Some net searching showed this to be the entire drum which given the age and light duty seemed not entirely necessary.
The price drew out some mid-level expletives too.
I also found an article where the condition could be reset but it involved burning out a resistor.
This intrigued me, I couldnt find any resistors but I found a slightly better way I think.
NOTE: this is only intended to be used if you are at the stage where the next step could be opening the door and launching the entire unit as far as you can into the undergrowth.
Open the printer front and look at the connectors, there are four sets of connectors on the four toner cartridges but there are Five sets of pins
The bottom connector has two pins and in the unit marked CLT-R406 mate with fresh air and nothing else.
In the style of many childrens programs I fashioned a break-out lead to mate with these pins from some cardboard and thin cable
Then I pushed this into the empty bit where it could mate with the pair of pins at the bottom and shut the printer front panel.
When I stuck a volt meter onto the wires and turned the printer on, it showed about 2.7v so I moved on the secret weapon.
This is a 12v 1.5w bulb as used in car dashboards, mine came from a cigarette lighter/power socket I had in the spares box.
On first power up there was the usual power up dialogue then the light flashed three times, however the annoying red light and “replace imaging unit” message were still present.
I think the burnt resistor method used elsewhere works by simulating a fusible link in the new imaging unit.
I power cycled the printer and after two flashes of the bulb I pulled off the wire aaaaaaaaand BINGO! the message cleared, the red light went green and it became a printer again, running through a setup and calibration.
As the printer has only been through five sets of toner cartridges I think its unreasonable to be changing a toner drum at this stage, if the image quality had degraded there would be no argument but it hadn’t changed at all.