Dark background on Dell 1700 printing

Unless your 'new' cartridge has a used chip, it's likely that the pagecount for the Photoconductor/Drum Unit is at the replace stage. The Drum unit has a small waste toner collection container, is this becomes over-full, waste toner 'spews' into the printer with dire effects. This is ONE of the reasons that drum units have a rated pagecount. You can reset the drum counter without actually replacing the drum, but this should be used as a short term measure ONLY, AND AT YOUR OWN RISK. The Photconductor reset procedure is as follows.

Dell 1700
RESETTING DRUM PAGE COUNTER

1) Leave the power on, insert toner cartridge, and leave door open
2) Press the cancel button and hold till the leds flash
3) Release cancel button and close toner cartridge door

toner spill on the paper path. this occurs mainly due to 0verfilled toner cartridges ( refills) use damp cloth or metho damped cloth to clean the rollers in the paper path.


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There is nothing on the photoconductor unit to 'tell' the printer that it is new, you have to do this yourself, by following the photocinductor reset procedure (it's in the manual, or

Dell 1700

RESETTING DRUM PAGE COUNTER

1) Leave the power on, insert toner cartridge, and leave door open
2) Press the cancel button and hold till the leds flash
3) Release cancel button and close toner cartridge door

The printer has no way of knnowing that you have changed the Photoconductor Unit, unless you tell it (as there is not chip on the Photoconductor).

The Photconductor reset procedure is as follows.

Dell 1700
RESETTING DRUM PAGE COUNTER

1) Leave the power on, insert toner cartridge, and leave door open
2) Press the cancel button and hold till the leds flash
3) Release cancel button and close toner cartridge door

Open rear cover and check gray plastic film not torn or broken. If film broken printer requires the fuser replaced. This is not a user replaceable item as its quite a tear down to reach the fuser.

Image defects may also be caused by toner cartridge. Check toner cartridge for background issues. To do this print the printer's demo page and open door when paper is half in the printer. Remove the paper jam and check unfused image for defects. If defects occurs then replace toner.

Have you checked the fuser?

A laser printer fuser assembly is the heating roller unit that melts and fuses the toner onto the paper. The fuser assembly is made up of a heating roller and a pressure roller.

The heating roller applies the heat to the toner on the printed page and the pressure roller presses and fuses the toner into the printed page. If it's bad and not heating properly, the print will be faint, which is what you describe. You may be able to remove and clean the fuser, but if the printer gets lots of use, it may just be worn out.

See this link for an idea of what it looks like and a price.

http://www.fastprinters.com/ProductDetails.asp?product_id=DELL-H4919

I do not work or represent this company, so shop around.

It sounds like you have leaky toner or the imaging drum needs to be replaced.

The Dell 1700 cartridge can leak from a failed mylar blade that sits against the Developer Roller.

The plastic locking ring on the and of the Developer roller spindle (of the toner cartridge) can come loose, or break (over time).

The drum unit has a relatively low capacity to hold waste toner, and all toner is not the same (waste toner shouldn't be re-used - it will just fill up the waste section of the drum even faster). Some toners are more efficient than others.

If you reset the 'replace drum' indication, without actually replacing it (or at least emptying it) you will soon have the drum over-full of waste toner, and the only other place it can go then, is inside the printer, and onto the paper.

The drum collects used toner for apprx. 30,000 pages. After that, the printer recommends that it be changed to prevent used toner from spilling internally into the printer's mechanisms. The whole photoconducter/drum can be replaced. The new part from Dell is apprx. $50.00 US. 
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Printer_Accessories/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=310-8710#Overview

You might have reset the "counter" for the photoconducter. Ever  have a water  fillter with an electronic timer? You replace the filter, then you reset the timer? Perhaps you reset the timer without actually replacing the filter. So to speak. :)
The question you should ask yourself is: would I like to spend $30 - $60 [it's cheaper for refurbished parts- Google it] replacing the drum head on a 7 year old printer, or would I rather invest that in a new printer?

Check toner darkness settings using the setup utility.