
Am I Being Cheated Out of Toner with My Lexmark MX517 Toner Cartridge?
This can be a common question that we get. A customer puts a seemingly brand new cartridge into their printer, and after only a week or so it starts printing light or with smudges. The customer is worried, "Was I just cheated out of toner???" Before you panic, take a deep breath. Toner isn't a life or death situation. There could be a number of factors that cause these problems to happen, but the most helpful first step is to print out a Device Statistics.
Sides on Cart is the number of pages this specific cartridge has printed. For the cartridge on this Device Statistics, 118 pages have been printed. Check the number on your Device Statistics; has your cartridge lived up to or exceeded it's lifetime?
Printer Lifetime shows you the average toner coverage rate per page. For this printer, the toner coverage rate is set at 6%, which is a good percentage to be at. If the toner coverage rate is too high or too low, this will impact how many pages your cartridge can print and/or what the pages will look like. Read more about it in our Toner Coverage Rate blog post.
One more thing to consider is, how long has the cartridge been sitting on the shelf? Think of toner as being like food - if you leave it on the shelf for too long, it'll eventually "go bad." Unused toner hardens over extended periods of time, which can cause a variety of problems - light print, smudges, spilled toner, etc. Did you purchase your toner cartridge several months ago? That could be the problem.
Still not sure what's up with your cartridge? Give us a call or jump on Live Chat! We'd be happy to help. We're open 8am-5pm, Monday - Friday. At Print.Save.Repeat, we guarantee that our cartridges last as long as (if not longer than) OEM cartridges. Additionally, all of our products are under our unconditional satisfaction guarantee; if you aren’t happy with something, we will refund or replace it at no cost to you. However, our thousands of Amazon reviews show how infrequently this happens!
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Device Statistics have helpful information like page yield, a record of printed pages, printer life statistics, toner cartridge coverage rate, and more. Below we'll walk you through how to print the Device Statistics and what to look for on it.
This step by step can help you look up the statistics for the 51B1X00 toner cartridge or the Lexmark MS517, MS617, MX517, and MX617 printers.
Here’s an example of what your Device Statistics page should look like:
If you need to print out a Device Statistics report on your printer, follow these steps:
- Press the Menu button
- Select Settings
- Go to Reports
- Choose to print a Device Statistics

Sides on Cart is the number of pages this specific cartridge has printed. For the cartridge on this Device Statistics, 118 pages have been printed. Check the number on your Device Statistics; has your cartridge lived up to or exceeded it's lifetime?
Printer Lifetime shows you the average toner coverage rate per page. For this printer, the toner coverage rate is set at 6%, which is a good percentage to be at. If the toner coverage rate is too high or too low, this will impact how many pages your cartridge can print and/or what the pages will look like. Read more about it in our Toner Coverage Rate blog post.
One more thing to consider is, how long has the cartridge been sitting on the shelf? Think of toner as being like food - if you leave it on the shelf for too long, it'll eventually "go bad." Unused toner hardens over extended periods of time, which can cause a variety of problems - light print, smudges, spilled toner, etc. Did you purchase your toner cartridge several months ago? That could be the problem.
Print. Save. Repeat. Is Here To Help
Still not sure what's up with your cartridge? Give us a call or jump on Live Chat! We'd be happy to help. We're open 8am-5pm, Monday - Friday. At Print.Save.Repeat, we guarantee that our cartridges last as long as (if not longer than) OEM cartridges. Additionally, all of our products are under our unconditional satisfaction guarantee; if you aren’t happy with something, we will refund or replace it at no cost to you. However, our thousands of Amazon reviews show how infrequently this happens!