Intermittent printing occurs when the printer receives a job after it has entered sleep mode. When the printer wakes from sleep mode, it performs a warm-up sequence. During the warm up sequence, the transfer drum and photosensitive drum are both rotated several times creating friction between the two. This friction causes wear on the photosensitive material causing the photosensitive drum to eventually wear out. Thus, life expectancy of the photosensitive drum is determined by the thickness of the photosensitive material, which is reduced very slightly every time the printer warms up.
One method for monitoring the effectiveness of the photoconductor is to print the startup and demonstration pages after a new photoconductor is installed and record the current date and page count on the top of the page. Compare the original print samples with those printed later on to determine whether the photoconductor should be replaced.