Flickering lights when laser printer on

[Max]

Hi, Group.

I have a Samsung ML-1740 laser printer and when it's active the lights periodically flicker. I mean the house lights, not the lights on the printer. This happens when the printer is actively printing something and it affects lights in the office and the kitchen (maybe other rooms too but I haven't noticed yet). Once the print has finished the printer remains active for a few minutes and when it receives no more jobs it returns to the sleep mode and the lights are fine. Basically any time the printer is in sleep mode everything is fine, it's when it's actually "awake". Any ideas? I have a lot of peripherals in my office and most of them are on all the time but none of them have the same affect on the house lights.

Of course, this question should be sent to Samsung technical support and I will write to them but first I want to hear what the experts have to say.

Cheers, Max

[HayZee518]

only thing that comes to mind is in sleep mode unit goes into standby and doesn't draw much current, but when it switchs into print oe copy the power supply kicks into high gear and draws a lot of power. there's no high frequencies involvd like for a microwave so we can eleiminate rf radiation. laser is just light so I'd have to say excessive wattage on that one circuit.

[Max]

Thanks, HayZee.

I'll check up on the specs of the printer because I wouldn't have thought that it should draw that much power. Maybe it's buggered.

Cheers, Max

Edit: Got this online:
* Operational power consumption
* 250 Watt

* Operational power consumption (standby)
* 10 Watt

so that is quite large spike i.e. 0.1A to 2.5A. I do have a lot of equipment on in that room so I will need to check the rating and perhaps disconnect some peripherals - at least to see if that cures the problem.

[OMKEN]

Many copiers and printers have a heating element that cycles on and off to maintain the required temperature to properly fuse the toner to the paper. What you are seeing in your lights flickering is the heating element going on and off.

The solution is to put this device on a separate circuit that does not have other lighting loads on it.

Hope that helps !