Our middle school band has a Canon NP 6221 photocopier in which the service contract has run out. It prints with 3 inch wide black lines across the page from side to side. The copies are legible for documentation purposes only, but not for music. I have tried wiping down the rollers inside but it has not helped. Any suggestions as to what may be the problem and how I can repair it? (It started very unexpectedly.) School budgets being what they are we may not see help in repairs or replacement any time soon.

Mrs. E. Larson, April 2008

I had the same problem at my school. The tech advised to pull out the ink cartridge and store it UPSIDE DOWN for 24 hours. As machines lay dormant after a few weeks, the ink settles. The problem is not the rollers...(we thought it was, too!) Hope this helps.

marty, August 2008

First you need to determine wether it's the drum or the fuser aka heat rollers. The drum is rated for about 50k copies which is likely the cause. Check 2 see the last time the drum was replaced usually the service technician affix a label on the drum with the copy count at the time the drum was replaced.Replacing the drum is easy: Open the front door, disengage the developper (the unit you put toner in), lower the transport bed (green handle used to remove jam) and unscrew the drum unit (gray thumb screw). No tools required for this task. You might want to clean the optical cavities ie mirrors and glass for optimal quality; to do this unplug the copier, remove the copy board glass (2 screws), clean the mirrors (be gentle). FYI behind the lens there are 2 mirrors that u need to clean (4 screws to remove the lens) Good luck!!

Jean, April 2008