This article describes how to get your Samsung printer working again without shelling out a fortune for a new Imaging unit. If you just want to know how to do do it, skip to the next step, the rest of this step is just an explanation of how I figured this out! Note that this worked for my CLP-365w printer but it may work for other similar Samsung models too. It will certainly work for any printer that uses the CLT-R406 imaging unit but I suspect they all use a similar technique to reset the page count. The story: Samsung produce a very nice range of domestic laser printers for the home, they're quite cheap too.
Jul 19, 2010 - Samsung's CLP-315 (and CLP-310) are the smallest and cheapest. I had my CLP-315W firmware upgraded last year to allow me to refill. It may reset the wireless MAC address but that comes right back after a reboot.
However, they have engineered in some cunning ways to make money. All of the consumables for these printers (toners and the image drum) need to be replaced when the unit tells you, otherwise the printer will not print. So even if you manually fill up the toner cartridge, the printer still 'thinks' it is empty and will refuse to print.
I am not going to cover manual toner refilling here but there are plenty of guides around. The other 'consumable' on these printers is the so called 'Imaging unit'. It's a drum which is an essential component in any laser printer and it is used to transfer ink to the page in the printing process. To be fair, this component is a consumable, it will wear out eventually causing blurry or streaky pages etc. These Samsung printers have a kind of printing 'odometer' that records how many pages have been printed using the current imaging unit.
They also have a built in hard coded lifespan of about 5000 pages (i think.). So once we hit this page count, the red light of death illuminates on your printer and we get a lovely message saying 'Warning, prepare new imaging unit'. At first I thought, 'ahhh its ok, it's just a warning, I'll carry on printing until it really needs replacing' - wrong.
The printer literally won't print anything until you replace the imaging unit. So, I look online - wow £75! What a rip off! The ink cartridges for these things cost a bomb (so far I have just paid up but I will probably start refilling soon) but this is beginning to take the p.ss I thought! I decided to take the Imaging unit out and examine it - surprise surprise, it looked perfect, not a single blemish or mark, hardly any dirt (not sure what a knackered one looks like to be fair, but this looked brand new to me). Also, the pages printed prior to this were perfect as well, there as never any sign of degradation.
A quick google search reveals many places offering to sell you a 'reset chip' for around £15 with instructions, it's like magic, you just unfold it, plug it onto the imaging unit, close the lid and taadaa! The printer 'thinks' you've bought a shiney new imaging unit an happily prints away. I was about to punch in my card number and be done with it but then I watched the instruction video and took a closer look, I could see that this 'reset chip' was really just a 30p resistor stuck to a piece of plastic. Cunningly, all of the photo's and videos of these chips seem to show it covered in a black lacquer so you can't see the coloured ribbons on them. Of course they've covered this up, they wouldn't want their little secret getting out! Well sorry guys, I know your game!
These people are almost as bad as Samsung, packaging a 30p resistor up and selling it for £15! After a bit of research, I discover how these things work. The imaging unit has a small removable plastic housing with 2 resistors in, one 200k ohm, and one much weaker 56ohm fusible type resister, in parallel. When it first powers up, the printer detects a low resistance. The printer passes a current though the drum unit and the small 'fuse' resistor blows. From now on, when the printer powers on, it only detects the 200k resister so it knows this is not a new drum so the printer counts all the printed pages from now on.
2 years down the line, we hit the magic number and the printer stops working because it 'thinks' the drum is now useless. So you go out and buy a new drum, it has the same 2 resistors inside, only the smaller one is not blown. You plug it in, the printer sees a low resistance again, it knows there is a new drum, so it resets the page count and then blows the new fuse and the cycle repeats.
Now, if instead of buying a new drum unit we just replace the fuse, we can 'trick' the printer into thinking we have a new drum unit. This is exactly what the £15 kits are doing, they are simply a new 56ohm fused resistor which you stick across the terminals. Take a look inside the fuse housing. It will either have one or two resistor components. Older articles and guides show it having two, but mine only had one. I guess it doesn't need a fuse when it is first manufactured because the page count is already 0. At some point Samsung stopped factory fitting the second resistor.
Either way, it will definitely have a 200k Ohm resistor and optionally a blown fusible 56 ohm resistor. If you wish, you can remove the blown fuse resistor (if you can identify it). It doesn't matter if you leave it in place though. Source a replacement 56 ohm resistor. I sourced a standard resistor rather than a fusible type. (This way I can reuse it many times to reset the page count.) You should be able to get the resistor from an RS or Maplin (Radio Shack in the US maybe?) for about 30 pence or you could order one online. Heck you could probably salvage one from a broken electrical device - in fact some have reported this DIY fix working with 47ohm resistors - so if you do try to salvage one, it might just be that you need a very weak resistor, not specifically a 56 ohm.
We need to get that new resistor in there with the 200k ohm briefly and power the printer on. I suppose you could solder it in permanently, this will basically reset the page count every time the printer turns on. But this is designed to be a fusible resistor that blows, so I don't know if there is any concerns about this component overheating if you do that. In my case, I just rammed it in the housing roughly and twisted the component legs around the existing one to form a connection. In the picture, the blue resistor is the 56 ohm one. Now plug the fuse housing back in and power on the printer.
It takes a while but it will reset and the red light will go out. Congratulations, you just bought new Imaging unit for 30 pence.
If this didn't work for you then try the following: - Double check that your new resistor is making proper contact with the existing one - Make sure the component legs aren't doubling back and making a short circuit. Make sure the resistor is the correct value. If you have a different model Samsung printer you could try different resistors. I don't think you can do much damage here, you're simply adding small amounts of extra resistance. I then powered the printer off and removed my 56 ohm resister just in case there are any issues with leaving it in.
I'll keep that bad boy, i'll probably need it again in 2 years;) Note that your imaging unit will genuinely need replacing one day (supposedly). But if like me your unit is still functional, then go ahead and apply this little trick.
You can reset all of the counters by using the Tech Menu. The Tech Menu is accessed by two different methods: If your printer has a numeric keyboard, Type Menu # 1 9 3 4 Menu.
Choose Data Setup OK, Clear Counts OK, 1934 OK Scroll to the item you want to reset, and press OK. Now power down the printer, unplug from the wall for 30 seconds, and replug/power. Your error message and warning light should be gone. If your printer does not have a numeric keyboard, you get to the Tech Menu by hitting these keys: Menu Back OK Stop Menu Use to choose Data Setup OK Clear Counts OK.
Use right arrow and UP Down to scroll through the four password spaces and enter the required digits (1934). Scroll to the item to be cleared by using the keys, then OK. Now power down the printer, unplug from the wall for 30 seconds, and replug/power. Your error message and warning light should be gone. There are videos on youtube that show you how this is done. Remember, this does not fix the problem or replace the worn component. It just stops the warnings and re-enables printing until you can make a real fix.
Your printer will wear out and break down if you do not attend to required maintenance. In my opinion, if your printing is coming out looking good, why spend money to fix an un-problem. Start saving money for when the quality of the printing goes down or you get a real 'break' down. The first time this happened to me, I purchase a kit with 2 'reset circutis'.
Each is just a couple of copper pads that you stick over the original copper squares. Between the pads is a resistor, but it is not 56 ohm. The resistor in my kits are (yellow violet black gold gold) 47 ohm. I have now used both kits, and I would like to purchase some fuses to have on hand for the next time. My question is: Do I want 56 ohm or 47 ohm resistors, AND do I want 1/4 watt or 1/2 watt? Also, any ideas how to tell the wattage of the two resistors in the kits that I purchased?
Hey, this helped me to fix my printer. But i just did it even easier: 0.
Turn off printer ant plug out Power cable. I took out the plastic thing that contails the resistors. I call it carrier. Took a new 47 Ohm resistor (just had one.) and wrapped its ends around the pins that normally test the resistors.
Left the Carrier OUT, and closed the printer. Then plugged the Power cord.
After that pushed the 'power button'. It took a while, LEDs of the colors were lighting up and after about lets say 20-30 Seconds. I thought, risky, and plugged off the power cord again.
Opened the printer, smelled a bit burned. (So the new Resistor was burned. Put the carrier back into the image unit. An restarted the Printer. Tadaaa Resettet the Image Belt Unit Counter. BUT still my 'Fuser belt LIfe' and 'transfer Belt Life' Are not resettet.
(even after i put in NEW ORIGINAL SAMSUNG replacement parts ). I bought my printer for $4 from a thrift store, missing the paper tray. That cost $80, and I ordered replacement aftermarket auto resetting toner cartridges for it. Loaded it all up, and then got 'prepare new imaging unit'. Thankfully Google found your page immediately. Not having a 56k ohm resistor, I dug through my collection to find a 30 ohm 1/4W and a 22 ohm 1/2W resistor. Soldered them in series for 52 ohms, and installed this in the fuse box, for the printer to tell me '#C3-6520 open/close door'.
Tried this, no change. I pulled the imaging unit out, in case it needed to be removed and reseated. Figured I would give it a quick clean while it was out, as it had some toner dust on it.
I then noticed it seemed to be full of old toner. I popped the circlip off one end, and slid the rod out from the drum, which allowed me to remove the drum carefully, with a soft cloth, so it wouldn't get scratched. The rest of the unit was full of toner dust.
I would advise doing this clean outside. I tipped the toner out, and shook the unit, and it just seemed to keep going forever.
Eventually it stopped coming out mostly, I blew a bit more off it, then wiped it over with the rag, before reinstalling the drum, the rod, and replacing the circlip. I reinstalled it and the toner carts back in the printer, but it was still giving me the C3 error. I popped the fuse box out again, and noticed that the 1/4W resistor was now quite black. I removed it, reinstalled the fuse box, closed the door., and away it went. Printing out the supplies information tells me that I have 100% of imaging unit life remaining and that it has done 1 page, of 16000. I suspect this limit is in place due to the amount of toner that ends up trapped in the imaging unit. Considering they are $160 to replace, I'm very happy for you to have shared this trick with us!
I figured I'd throw my experience into the pit. My Samsung CPL-325W also stopped working for no apparent reason.
Thought it needed toner and bought a Yellow and a Blue. Sill nothing then research taught me about Imaging Drums and the time set issue. Watched a video prior to finding this site advising to take out the top one of the two resistors situated on the left side of the bottom tray, then as recommended soldering a simple coper wire bridge in its place. Idea being: To reset the timer. Seemed simple enough.
Switching the machine on, it to shut down immediately as if tripping a cut out switch. No change to the indicator function lights. Went back in the unit, cut the bridge wire. Still didn’t work.
Then came across your idea laid here. Bought a package of 25-50 ohm resistors, $3.00 (Same as in the picture posted above) Soldered that in as per instructions.
So now after I fire it up and lights sequencing ends I have a green light. That’s better but still not working. So the questions are.
What do I do now?. Do I buy new imaging drum. Is it possible that some circuitry has been damaged causing it to still not work even with a now drum?. Maybe I should reinstall the old resistor back in the unit and try that. If I buy a new printer is there a Samsung model out there where I can use these new toner cartridges I have. Any ideas out there would be most welcome.