Blank stripes on page left to right

Based on your description I would assume this has something to do with the Transfer belt, where in the cleaning blade of the belt is already worn or defective.
You may need to replace the printers transfer belt unit.
For further diagnosis and assistance, please contact Lexmark Technical Support.
Regards!

Clean the Corona Wire carefully to remove any residue. As the charge on the wire is effectivley masked it cannot deposit any toner to the page and will result in a consistent white vertical stripe.

What you have is a dried up color cartridge. You can try to use the <clean print heads> in the diagnostic tools section of you priner software. (usually, just try to print something & the window will appear) Sometimes you have to clean heads, then print test page like 2 or 3 times before it clears up. If that doesn't correct it, don't worry. Have your color cartridge filled (staples, office depot, & other stores do it cheap) - or - replace it with a new cartridge. You may have to run the clean print heads program after installing a new cartridge, but this will definitely fix your problem.

Everyone will tell you that it's the Imaging Unit - happy to say that's not true. If it was the imaging unit the colors would not come out right either. I bet if you print a test page that all the colors come out fine across the page. It's only the black.

Also - if you replace the black toner cartridge, or reinstall your printer and drivers like some people will tell you - still no results.

The problem is in the black toner cartridge PATH inside the printer. Something has jammed it up a bit. Try taking out the black cartridge and blowing firmly into the small hole at the bottom of the spout that looks to have a sponge inside. Use a straw and make sure your air blown is dry. Then lightly tap the cartridge a few times. Then use the straw and once again blow very firmly inside the receiving path (inside the printer) for the spout on the cartridge. Make sure you are blowing into the spout path at the bottom - not the gear drive path in the middle - as that will not do any good.

Replace the cartridge, warm up and print another black and white page. You should see that the faded out section is gone or diminished in size. If it is not gone, simply repeat the above steps until it is gone. You will see that the faded out strip gets smaller and smaller each time until it's gone. I had to repeat five times, but eventually got it corrected. Now prints like brand new so don't get discouraged.

Loki

Open the top cover, lift up the PCU lever & remove the PCU. Rotate the carousel (Toner holder) by hand and check that all of the toner levers are locked down fully. Check if any of the toner levers are loose and possibly moving as the drum is rotated. There is a small clear plastic flap below each cartridge, it is possible that one is fitted incorrectly or even missing allowing toner to leak past and fall on to the laser lens thereby blocking the laser and causing these symptoms. Hope this helps.

Is your transfer roller clean?
How does the drum look on the toner cart?
Is the fuser getting bad?

Would you consider this an old image that is ghosting?

I would move the printer to another computer. See if the problem follows. I have seen the issue a few times with issues in normal.dot but also in other office applications.

Problem I'm fighting with on my 1720 is its printing extra pages between pages. basically print a 5 page document and get an 8/9 page final with the extra blank pages. Think its a user error but could be machine related. going to try it on another PC and see what happens.

You just might have a faulty black toner cartridge think back did the problem arise when you installed the new black cartridge. Also is the toner a original if not change for a original.

Hope this Helps
Thanks J

This happens alot, iteithermeans your inks running low, your inks too new, or its a low quality printer.
My suggestion would be to check your ink level, and if its fine, print out a few pages, then see if it helps.

Try cleaning your ink nozzles or ink jets. It sounds like you have a plugged nozzle or two. Your printer program should have maintenance options that allow you to test for plugged nozzles and clean them.
In control panel, open the printing/fax icon, right click on your printers icon, left click properties, then on the bottom of the page the panel that opens you will see a button that says printing preferences, and that should open your print program.