Dell 1600n: Toner marks down the center of the page.

First of all dirty rollers are not the cause of your problem as long as the printer is picking up the paper.
Black marks or streaks on a DELL 1700 series printer are usually caused by the drum assembly which, in this model, is separate from the toner cartridge. There is no repair, you need to replace the drum assembly and perform the drum reset procedure. In very rare cases a buildup of residual toner on the fuser can cause marks as well, but I have never seen this on a DELL printer.
To replace the drum:
1. After removing the paper tray, open the front of the printer.
2. Remove the toner cartridge by pushing down on the black release tab and pulling the toner up and out of the printer.
3. Pull the drum assembly straight out of the printer using the blue plastic handle.
4. Carefully unpack the new assembly and install in the printer. Be careful not to touch the photo-sensitive roller underneath.
5. Reinstall the toner cartridge, close the printer and insert the paper tray.
6. Perform the drum reset procedure exactly as follows:

power off and open front door hold down the continue button as you power on printer leaving front door open when error light comes on release continue and close front door. toner low, load paper, ready, and continue will all be lit. press cancel slowly 4 times or until just toner low lights up. each time you press cancel, the light sequence should change when just toner low is lit, press and hold continue button until lights cycle up and down in sequence. release continue.. toner low will be lit again turn printer off, wait 10 secs or so and then back on press continue button to print off settings page and check under cartridge information, photoconductor value is 0K (zero)

Try to print clean page ,
Print a cleaning page During the printing process, paper, toner, and dust particles can accumulate inside the printer and can cause print quality issues such as toner specks or spatter, smears, streaks, lines or repeating marks. Follow these steps to clean the printer's paper path.

1. Load copier-grade paper (not bond, heavy, or rough paper).
2. On the printer's control panel, touch the Menu button.
3. Touch Configure Device .
4. Touch Print Quality .
5. Touch Process Cleaning Page .

A Cleaning message appears on the printer control panel display while the cleaning is taking place. The cleaning process takes a few minutes to complete. Do not turn the printer off until the cleaning process has finished. A page will be printed when the task is complete. Discard the page. You might need to repeat the cleaning process to thoroughly clean the printer. Print a few more pages to see if the problem is resolved.

Hello Nathan:

It sound like you have to replace a Fuser Assembly:

You can buy a replacement at :

http://www.precisionroller.com/fuser-assemblies---units-for-dell-1600n/details_44486.html?src=gbps

Good luck

Sergey

Usually the setting that causes that is when you have the toner save function turned on. It saves toner by making lighter prints.

After you clear out the print que (double click on the printer icon on your desktop), power down the printer, wait 20 seconds and power it back up. The "replace toner" should clear after the sensor detects toner in the hopper AND the new chip in the toner cartridge registers with the "brain" of the printer. Hope that helps!

If the print rubs off the page, this means the toner is not being fused to the page. Fused......this is done by the fuser. This would have nothing to do with light print.

The dell (1600n and 1815n /1815dn) printer drivers has a toner saver mode, which can contribute to light print.

To turn Toner Save Mode off, (Windows XP) perform the following steps:

1. Click the Start button, click Settings, and then click Printer and Faxes.
   The Printers and Faxes window appears.
2. Right-click Dell Laser MFP 1600n, 1815dn, and left-click Printing Preferences.
   The Dell Laser MFP 1600n, 1815dn Printing Preferences window appears.
3. Click the Advanced button.
   The Dell Laser MFP 1600n, 1815dn Advanced Options window appears.
4. Click to highlight Toner Save.
5. Click the drop-down list and change it to Off and click OK.
6. Click OK.

One thing that you mentioned in your post "it takes the printer forever to warm up". The fuser does have to reach operational temperature in order for it to fuse the toner to the page. So it is possible that you are having fuser problems, because of the time it is taking for it to warm up. Another thing that can contribute to the warm up time is not plugging the laser printer directly into a wall outlet. This would be true for any laser printer, not just a Dell laser printer. The low voltage power supply is what works the fuser, along with sensors and other motors in the printer.

Replacing the fuser and or the low voltage power supply in this model of printer is not an easy task. If using a Dell branded toner cartridge and checking the toner saver mode does not fix the issue. Then you would be looking at more expense then the machine would possibly be worth.

This sounds like a corrupt print driver. Try uninstalling and reinstalling the driver.

There is a black, curved-shape piece that hangs down (protrudes) from within the paper bay (visible with cartridge removed) that is spring-loaded. That piece might be jammed or broken.

You have either a piece of dust or a scratch on the scanning glass. This will show up as a line because the paper is pulled across the point.

The 1600n AIO (all-in-one) is a laser printer. Laser printer use a statically charged "drum" to place toner on the paper. Your ghosting problem may be from the drum itself becoming too charged or simply dirty and not the cartridge. Servicing laser printers is tricky business because they use a lot of wattage/voltage to create the static charge and also "bake" the image onto the paper. A very quick fix would be to de-ionize the drum and clean it thoroughly.

First, make sure you have the unit completely unplugged for, at least, ten to fifteen minutes before proceeding to ensure that all static charge has had a chance to dissopate.

Second, remove the toner cartridge and place it on some newspaper or paper towels. Inspect it for any residual toner and/or damage that may be causing the ghosting (look for cracks/grooves/lines in the cartridge that shouldn't be there).

Third, take a used dryer sheet (or one that's had most of the chemical fabric softener rinsed off and then completely dried) and wipe the entire drum to completely remove any static charge. Then, using denatured alcohol and static-free, lint-free wipes clean the entire drum to remove any remaining detritus. Allow to dry thoroughly before proceeding.

Last, wipe the drum down, one final time, with a clean dryer sheet or lint-free cloth. Reassemble the unit and replace the toner cartridge.

Run a few clean sheets (blank prints or copies) to further remove any particles knocked loose and check for any more "ghosting."

Final printing will be necessary to check for inconsistencies or success.