Smudges and light grey coating with new toner

[Nuclear Krusader]

Howdy all,

I just bought a new toner for my old LaserJet 1012; I didn't buy the HP one but a Verbatim. Guess the price for saving money and maximising yield is to have this light grey coating on the pages after they're printed (now, this printer used to do the same with the HP consumable but only if I put the same page through more than twice; now it's doing it right off the bat). And sometimes there is an ugly, ~1-in-wide smudge on top of the page as well.

Any clues as to how to fix this? Is there something in the printer I can clean or something to have clean prints? Taking the printer to a shop is not an option.

Thanks in advance.

[EzyStvy]

Sorry - have to ask: Did you read through the manual for cleaning instructions?

[Nuclear Krusader]

Well, I did clean the printer following the manual.

Unfortunately, according to the manual, in order to clean the media path I need to do it via the HP Toolbox, and the darn thing doesn't work on Vista (point in fact, getting this printer to work under Vista was a real pain). I guess it's time to chuck it. Too bad, just brand new toner.

[EzyStvy]

Do you have access to an XP machine where you can install the print drivers etc??

[Nuclear Krusader]

I have dual boot, but the thing is also not working on XP. Beats me why.