How to Troubleshoot HP LaserJet 1012 Black Print Smear?

The HP Laserjet 1012 toner smear problem over
printouts is a universal, laser printer user
concern. Many users find it difficult to
troubleshoot this print defect as there are a lot of
components that may have caused the
appearance of HP LaserJet 1012 black print smear
on the printed page. To simplify matters toner
streaks over printouts can be caused by a
defective HP toner cartridge Q2612A; a defective
OPC Drum; a malfunctioning fuser assembly or
dirty rollers that are in need of maintenance.
Featured below are tips on how to identify the
erring laser printer component based on the
subject print defect.
OPC Drum. Toner smears that appear almost
precisely on a particular spot within a page are
mostly associated with a defective OPC Drum.
The user should pull out the OPC Drum, examine
the component closely and look for signs of
damage. Replace the OPC drum if damage is
extensive.
Wiper Blade. In most cases, HP Laserjet 1012
toner black streaks are caused by a wiper blade
that had lost its gripping potential after printing
thousands of pages; as it holds ground in cadence
with the rotating motion of the OPC Drum.
Remember that the wiper blade clears the OPC
drum of residual toner after every print cycle.
Once the component loses its tolerance against
the surface of the OPC drum, it would no longer
be able to sweep toner effectively and cause
backgrounding later on. In case only a portion of
the wiper blade is defective, vertical toner
streaks will manifest over the entire page. In
both instances, the wiper blade must be replaced.
Fuser Assembly. If printed images or text
appears to be half-baked and easily smears when
touched, the fuser assembly is not producing
enough heat to fuse HP Laserjet 1012 toner to
paper. It is likely that something is wrong with
the thermistor. It could be that the thermistor is
coated with baked toner and must be cleaned or
perhaps burnt out and needs replacement.
Toner Cartridge. If the HP 1012 printer is still
under warranty, then a defective toner cartridge
Q2612A is most likely causing the HP LaserJet
1012 black print smear. The print irregularity
usually manifests at the back of the page, which
suggests a leaking cartridge that must be
replaced immediately.
Note that this print defect is restricted to
defective HP Laserjet 1012 toner cartridges - not
empty or low in toner supply; as the replacement
or refill of an empty toner cartridge Q2612A with
refill toner forHP Laserjet 1012 toner cartridges
will resolve the issue.
Print defects are the tell tale signs of a
malfunctioning laser printer component. When
used as a troubleshooting technique, these can
help reduce
Jeric O. Tero supplies web content for Laser Tek
Services, Inc. Looking for the highest quality
printer consumables available at factory direct
prices?

How To Pick A Portable DVD Tablet

Many other new gadgets may have taken over
but DVDs still remain hip. And, when it is a
portable DVD tablet, even more so. There is a
wide variety of these tablets in the market and
the trick is to choose the one best suited for you.
There are certain things you should thus consider
before picking up a portable DVD tablet.
The first thing to be considered it the use of the
DVD player. What do you need it for? Are you
going to use it to carry along or for your car? For
your car, the best would be the laptop style DVD
player which is indeed called the tablet. Coming
to the laptop style DVD tablet, to begin with, just
keep minor things in mind such as, always buy
branded tablets, always find the one that is in
your budget and yet, serves your purpose pretty
well. The last thing to keep in mind is to do some
research. You can find out about a company and
the piece you'd like in a couple of minutes
through an online search. You'll be able to
compare prices and also read honest reviews of
those who bought the same piece as you want
previously. From all this, you will be able to
know if you are going for the right one.
Now, while picking up a portable DVD tablet, you
should go for the one that has a great battery life.
It is portable and you'll be carrying it around.
You can't always be in a place where you can
charge your tablet, right? So the more the battery
life, the better. Next, look for features in it. See
the formats that it supports. There is WMV9,
MPEG-2, MPEG-4 ASP, et cetera. Keep in mind to
take a portable DVD tablet the supports writable
DVDs and CDs too.
One more thing that you must consider is the
screen. You need to have great clarity. Coming to
the sound, since is a portable DVD player, the
sound system has to be great. Check the quality
of the sound system and do some good research
before you buy your portable DVD tablet.
Plugging in headphones is not always a good
idea. The sound should be great even when
played without the headphones. Since it is
portable, it should be light in weight. This is of
course an obvious thing.
There you are! Just small things for you to
consider before you buy a portable DVD player so
that you can choose the best one.

Ten Tips for Data Center Site Selection

1. A data center should be situated on stable
geography. Choosing (or building) a data center
situated in a flood plain or on a tectonic fault that
regularly generates earthquakes is not such a
good idea. Much of New Orleans, for example, is
several feet below sea level, as the public
discovered during the Katrina hurricane disaster.
As global warming continues to energize the
world weather "heat engine," tornadoes will
become a greater problem, leading to either the
construction of bunker-like facilities, or else data
centers in such areas will be placed securely
underground.
2. Given today's terrorist threats, plopping down
such a computer facility in the middle of major
cities is not such a good idea either. After an
international telecommunications company
named Interoute Telecom was hit by two
terrorist attacks (the Irish Republican Army blew
up one of their buildings in London's Docklands
area housing a huge Ericsson AXE10 telecom
switch area - which continued to run; and then
the company lost its New York office in the 9/11
disaster) the company's founders, Simon Taylor
and Nick Razey, decided to go into the data
center business. They noticed that many New
York businesses relocated their data centers out
of New York to New Jersey, Connecticut, and
various other relatively distant points. So when
they founded Next Generation Data and built
Europe's largest data center, the 750,000 square
foot NGD Europe (also known as NGD1), they
situated it far from London, in Wales, where
property was inexpensive and electrical power
was in abundance.
3. Make sure you are building a computing nexus
where there are major tax incentives. U.S. state
and local governments offer all sorts of
incentives for data center operations, even
customized incentives programs offering partial
or even a full exemption of sales/use taxes on
equipment, construction materials, and perhaps
even electricity and backup fuel expenses.
4. In a world of skyrocketing user demand, you
want a data center that offers big optical fiber
pipes, simultaneously connected to the building
by several carriers. (A "carrier-neutral"
collocation facility.)
5. You also need your optical pipes to be capable
of supporting redundancy in case of a disaster,
and diverse paths to distribute the data traffic
load.
6. Your building should be near an emerging
population of users: China, Singapore, etc. It's not
absolutely necessary, but it's good to lessen the
number of "hops" to customers and with it, the
possibility of outages or high latency in signaling
back and forth. Silicon Valley encompasses some
of the world's largest technology corporations
(Apple, Cisco, Google, HP, Intel, etc.) as well as
top universities. It's no wonder that data center
construction has boomed in the region, with a
market measuring over 5 million square feet of
facility space as of mid-2011.
7. Don't place or select a center near locations
were other companies manufacture, store or
transport hazardous materials. New Jersey's
"chemical coast" is one such example.
9. Don't pick a data center situated in the flight
path of a major airport. (Once in a blue moon,
they fall down and go boom.)
10. Keep your racks and computers out of the
basement of your building, or anybody else's, for
that matter. Secondary computing and storage
should be safely distant and not below a
population that can cause trouble (set accidental
fires, set off sprinkler systems and flooding, and
so forth).

Hardware - The Concept of Hardware and Electronics

Areas of Work
Hardware refers to computer chips, circuit
boards, computer systems, and related
equipment such as keyed equipment such as
keyboards, modems, and printers. The work of
computer hardware engineers is very similar to
that of electronics engineers, but unlike them,
computer hardware engineers work with
computers and computer-related equipment
exclusively.
Hardware jobs include production and service
engineers, R&D and maintenance engineers. Most
trained engineers are employed by the computer
equipment manufacturers. For this job, a very
specialized training is required and that can only
be acquired in postgraduate course of computer
engineering and technology. A diploma in a
specialized branch of engineering with special
emphasis on training for specific jobs and work
experience may be adequate as qualifications
only for some jobs.
Technology related to computers is changing
very rapidly; hence there are exciting challenges
for the computer professionals in hardware.
They can learn new things, experiment and
evolve new techniques or hardware for solving
information processing problems. Engineers in
R&D or servicing do not have a long hierarchical
ladder to climb as compared to the software
personnel. However, prospects and work remain
challenging even after several years as an
engineer.
Designing computers
The rapid advances in computer technology are
largely a result of the research, development, and
design efforts of computer hardware engineers.
Thus, hardware engineering is all about
designing, developing and implementing
solutions.
Electronic and computer engineers work on
developing new designs and modifying earlier
ones. They need to be aware of the latest trends,
products and developments in electronic
technology both in India and abroad. Their job is
to ensure that their company builds the most
advanced machines at reasonable costs. Work in
hardware can also be in research and
development. They may work on chip, circuit
design, computer architecture or the design of
devices that are not a part of the computer but
work with it, such as a printer. R&D may also be
in peripheral integration, e.g., making a printer
works with the companies computer. Having
developed the product, a fair amount of time is
spent on controlling product quality and
reliability. Engineers who design and develop
computers only work for the big manufacturers.
They are based at the company's head office or its
manufacturing unit.
Chip Design
Chips and processors are now used in almost
everything - from aerospace to computers,
complex electronic gadgets to everyday
appliances, mobile phones, dishwashers and so
on. And it's the Very Large Scale Integration
(VLSI) design engineer's efforts that make these
work. They conceive and design minuscule chips
of silicon wafers and with architecture of these
sends them for manufacturing.
India is emerging as a very large-scale integrated
(VLSI) chip design house. Engineering design
services could be a gold mine of opportunity for
India. The potential is across multiple domains
like architecture development, chip design,
synthesis, verification, test, physical design, and
manufacturability and so on.
The integrated circuit (chip) design industry is
pegged to grow into a multi-million dollar
market in India. The investments required are
heavy. A wafer fabrication plant requires
investments, in the range of $2 billion. US-based
engineering giant Emerson the UK-based
Invensys are contributing significantly to the
growth of this industry in India.
Semiconductor design has moved from hardware
to software. Instead of drawing the design, it is
described in a language called Verilog that
generates a design. Chip design is a high-end area
with good growth potential in areas like design
verification. India will need between
15,000-20,000 engineers with chip design skills by
2005. Nasscom estimates 20,000 jobs in this area.
The bio medical and electronic world will begin
meshing together. Examples of these are
injectable recognition systems new kinds of
diagnostic equipment and bio-CAD. The cross
disciplinary approach is quite challenging.

Why Recycle Your Electronics?

Recycling electronics responsibly is very
important for everyone on the planet earth.
Used, outdated or broken electronic devices
should not be thrown into normal landfills along
with other household trash. These items are also
known as e-waste and account for a growing
number of waste that is being thrown away on a
day to day basis. However, what most people
don't know is that these old outdated electronic
devices contain harmful components like
mercury, chromium, cadmium, lead and several
other dangerous metals.
All of these are very harmful to human health,
the ecosystem, and can leak into our drinking
water if they are put into landfills. In order to
protect our planet for generations to come it is
imperative that we do not throw old electronic
devices into landfills. These devices include
computers, cameras, monitors, batteries, cell
phones, printers, and any other electronic device
you no longer need or use.
Recycling your electronic devices is very
important for keeping our environment clean
and healthy. There are centers that are designed
to take care of your needs and that know how to
recycle electronic devices. If you throw old
electronic devices directly in landfills these
dangerous chemicals harm animals, humans,
plants and drinking water. In fact, many people
predict that over the next few years millions of
computers and electronic devices will be thrown
into landfills. As technology continues to advance
people will no longer need their old devices and
will need to dispose of them. This is where the
importance of electronic recycling comes into
play. It is a great way to safely dispose of your
used devices without harming the environment.
As a consumer, you should know that it is your
responsibility to dispose your e-waste
responsibly. This is your earth too, and you
should do anything you can to protect it. This
means acting conscientiously and not disposing
of harmful things into regular landfills. It is your
job to keep our earth clean and everyone should
do their part to protect the planet from harm.
This means recycling old electronics. You can find
a company to take your old devices by searching
online or in the phone book for a company
nearby. You can keep dangerous chemicals and
components out of landfills easily. It is important
to remember to do your part to protect the world
we live in and keep mother earth healthy for
generations to come.

Cheap Ink Cartridges - False Economy

Whether it is at home or in the office, many
people are seeking out cheaper ways to replace
the ink in their printer. One way they can do this
is to switch from using genuine or OEM
cartridges to 3rd party produced or compatible
cartridges but unfortunately many
manufacturers are making it increasingly difficult
either to use alternative cartridges in their
printers and for customers to refill their
cartridges.
Compatible cartridges or rather printer
manufacturer's efforts to quash the compatible
market are again making headlines. Recently HP
followed in Epson's footsteps when they were
granted a favourable ruling on patent
infringements as have Lexmark, who have also
released a statement on facebook justifying their
firmware updates relating to their 100 cartridges,
following a backlash on the social networking
site from angered customers.
So with large companies such as HP and Epson
going out of their way to aggressively follow-up
alleged patent infringements and Lexmark
updating their firmware specifically to prevent
customers installing 3rd Party produced in their
printers - why all the fuss about compatibles?
Well for the manufacturer's this is purely an
attempt to secure and protect the lucrative
printer consumables market. Home printers are
sold as loss leaders by all manufacturers and they
reclaim these losses though selling their ink
cartridges at an inflated cost, not by the suppliers
of the cartridges, but by the manufacturers
themselves. The margins for genuine ink
cartridge products are minimal in and most cases,
less than 20%. This also allows the printer
manufacturers to sell their cartridges on their
own site cheaper than any other retailer could
hope to sell them elsewhere. So this allows the
manufacturers to raise their profits even higher,
literally getting as much as they can from the
consumer.
So most although people are under the belief that
because compatible cartridges are cheap, they
will be compromising on quality this is not
necessarily the case. If you consider instead that
3rd party produced compatibles only appear
cheap when compared to the over inflated costs
of the printer manufacturer's cartridges and not
because they are a cheap copy of the original. The
compatibles market has sprung up because of the
wide gap left between the actual manufacturing
costs of the cartridges and the costs that the
manufacturers sell their cartridges at. 3rd party
companies can therefore produce cartridges and
sell them at a much lower price and still make a
reasonable profit. Of course if you are purely
motivated by only purchasing the cheapest
possible cartridge you can find, you may find
that, rather like cheap dustbin bags, this is just a
false economy. Of course if you are purely
motivated by only purchasing the cheapest
possible cartridge, you may find that rather like
cheap dustbin bags, this is just a false economy.
If you do a little research you should be able to
find compatibles will suit your needs, many
online retailers will offer a range of compatibles
so there should becheap ink cartridges to suit
you and if you're unsure, buy one basic set and
see how you get on - there'll be minimal costs
involved but potentially a whole lot of savings!

The Basic Ways I Clean My PC Quickly

If you happen to be a computer owner, you
might've probably wondered about how to clean
your own PC quickly once you've been using your
computer for quite some time. Most computer
owners will be wondering about the same thing
when their computers are beginning to go
through a little bit of a 'meltdown' in terms of its
performance after some period of time. The
'meltdown' that your computer is experiencing is
actually a 'slowdown' and it can be extremely
frustrating for any computer owners like you.
You will find processes getting a little slower,
thus it'll be crucial for you to spare some time
and learn the multiple techniques in cleaning
your computer.
When you learn the right way of cleaning your
troublesome computer, you will have your
computer functioning back to its normal speed
again (or even faster). The first thing that you
could do to clean your computer quickly is to
install an anti-virus program (plus, this is also the
most basic part in cleaning your PC quickly). The
anti-virus program is specially designed to
provide solid protection to your computer
against spyware, malware, worms, and viruses.
Since these 'attacks' will tremendously cause a
negative effect on your computer, you must
install a specific program that is compatible with
your system in order to prevent from any further
damages done by the attacks.
You should see some good changes once you've
gotten rid of the attacks, such as an improvement
in your computer performance and that your
computer is working on its usual normal speed
or even faster. Meanwhile, you could also clean
your PC quickly by defragmenting your system.
Defragmentation is highly necessary as it really
helps when your computer's hard drive is
fragmented along with a few numbers of broken
files (which is the main reason for your computer
to slow down). When you're dealing with this
kind of situation, it's recommendable that you
defragment your computer system for at least
twice a month.
Other sure-fire ways to clean your PC quickly is
to upgrade the RAM of your computer and
remove any unnecessary files or programs that
you no longer need. Bear it in mind that some
computer programs will need a large RAM space
just to run, and your computer will probably fail
to function if the memory is reaching its
maximum limit. You'll notice about this when
some applications begin to slowly respond.
Anna has been writing articles online for nearly 3
years now. She is specialize in diet, healthcare,

fitness and weight loss.