Color LaserJet CP1515n colour print misalignment between CMYK

[Andrew9By99]

The registration of the 4 colors has significantly gone out of alignment by up to 2 mm both horizontally and vertically.

I have tried all the HP documentation through to section 11, but no amount of calibration or changing supplies will put the colors back in alignment. I had hoped that there would be a registration tool for the laser printer but I cannot find one despite extensive searching of both HP and rest of web.

I recon HP actually register the cartridges by physical alignment, but it is not obvious to me in what way the drive chain may have altered to cause this effect. Clearly a small insert can move the cartridge side to side, but for vertical adjustment there seems to be little or no play in how the toner cartridge fits into the machine.

Clearly the printer was ok recently and nobody had complained, and as it has not been moved or supplies replaced (other than paper), it is probably a physical problem, but what? I don't think it is a software issue, unless there has been an upgrade to the printer driver. I can't think that the firmware would have changed either. The printer is a current model (June 2012), just out of guarantee!.

Does anybody know how to fix this (real solutions only please), or maybe a HP employee will actually know a proper way to do this?

[007OHMSS]

some of this may offer some help:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01691481

[Andrew9By99 · Accepted solution]

No, you did not read my message. I have already tried this (which was my opening comment!). You have not addressed the question i actually asked. I suspect you must be a support person rather than an actual engineer.

The insurance paid out as they said it's not economic to repair a HP printer once this misalignment happens. I did not get to speak to an engineer directly; however from what I gathered from the insurance guy was that when this kind of problem happens it's a full strip down job and realignment of the lasers and mechanism. Unless you have the tools to align everything you may as well take the machine to the scrap yard and recycle it.

ie there is no colours alignment mechanism as with an ink-jet printer. It's engineered to be correct and set up in the factory. If a problem occurs there is no way to fix it easily.

As of 2012, the machine is no longer in production. Its replacement looks identical but takes different toner cartridge shape. So the stupid and misleading HP instruction about putting fresh supplies in means I cannot eBay them as unused and has cost me a lot of money.

I have had two of these machines now and both went bad. Also a HP scanner too which did not last! Clearly HP products at the low cost end of the market are not worth buying if they are so unreliable.

[BartdB]

Hi,

Maybe the following is worth a try:

1) If you had the Toner Out Override in place, did you cancel it when you replaced the cartridges?

From main menu:

press right arrow to "System setup"
OK
right to "print quality"
OK
right to "replace supplies"
select "stop at out"
OK

2) Did you try a reset?

Switch printer off.

Press and hold both the right arrow and X butoons while switching on

keep the buttons pressed until the "Permanent Storage init." message appears.

After performing the above, allow printer to calibrate (leave on for approx 15 min., or use Toolbox, under Device Settings, Print Quality select Calibrate Now)

Regards

[DeboTron]

This misalignment happened on my CP1515n  towards the end of the "introductory" cartridges. A new set of toner cartridges solved the problem. However, now with quite a bit left in these cartridges, the problem has started again. I am not going to throw away half full cartridges every time the misalignment occurs! Especially if people report here that it does not necessarily solve the problem. And now it is out of warranty.
 
This is the second HP printer I am disappointed with. It seems my brand loyalty is based on quality from decades ago.
 
After 20+ years of using (& recommending) HP printers, I am now looking at other brands. From friends & colleagues recommendations, some brands seem to have managed to keep quality over the years. Oh brother, I cannon wait!

[houbahop69]

Hi all,

I had the same problem anI have tried all software solutions with no effect. I return to HP toner with no effect except wasting some money and I was almost ready to open everything to calibrate  by hand with an hammer !

I then noticed that the aluminium carrier that receives the toner  was dirty andfrom place to place covered with a mix of dust and toner powder of various colours. There was a small quantity of this glue like matter sticked on the places where the toner boxes lie. Idecided to clean these parts with a wet cotton swab tighten to a small stick.

After that procedure and a calibration operation everything went back to normal....I can enjoy again my CP1515n ...

Hope that may help some of you!

[emilythechef]

I  am having a misalignment problem too.  I've calibrated about 7 times.  I also changed the toner out override settings.  The alignment is better now, but not perfect.  I also blew canned air into the empty toner holding tray and inside the body of the machine.  Probably dangerous to send toner dust flying, but I stepped away until the dust settled...

[texacokid]

 Quality and reliability........

After having bought a second hand hp 5p b&w printer about 12 years ago I stare at it and its > 58,000 < paper page printed counter.

Likewise I stare at my 4 year old, bought new,  hpcp1515n color laser printer with 217 pages printed  on its counter.

The B&W printer is still going  and sits next to my so called color laser that only humss and squawks after... > 217 < pages yup 217 color pages!!  ....with a 54.2100 alignment error. No minor fix 

Is there a better manufacturer of laser printers ?   must be , who is it ?  Cannon, Sharp, xerox, samsung,brother?

Tell me and I'l buy a new color laser printer, one that hits I hope at least 50,000 pages printed like the old ones used too....

[Genius999]

OMG I think I have cracked it.

So I bought a CP1515n for £10 sold as spares or repair.  Worth a punt.  No toners though but for less than £7 each on ebay I was ready to go.

😞 the cyan is misaligned, the yellow ‘ain’t printing.  Perhaps the crack at the of the printer indicating it was dropped was the reason.

So I searched the web and came across this useful site.  Did all the tricks but was curious about the dust one.  Mmmmm.

True, fine dust on the thingy may mean a slight lag for the first colour but picking up for the rest.

So I stripped of the sides, top, front and back - basically anything that had an easy access screw and was clipped on.  Gave every nook and cranny a good vacuum with the crevice extension.  Also gave the wide rubber belt a really good clean with micro fibre cloth.  There was plenty of fine dust and toner in really thin layers.  Easy to roll it around with your hand.

Put it back together and printed a test page.

😕  The yellow has suddenly started working but the cyan was still out of alignment.

And now for the solution.

On a whim, I scrolled through the paper Def. paper type list.

It was set to plain.  Urrmmm, see what happens if I set it to rough.

🙂 🙂 🙂

I DID IT, I AM A GENIUS.   IT WORKED

Try setting the paper to rough and see if that fixes it.

So I have a colour laser printer for 10 quid and three new colour tonners for less than 20 quid.

RESULT.

I thank you.....(bows, bows again, and again to applause ringing in his ears).

If you are careful you can just remove the tonner tray to get access to the rubber band that drags the paper through for a clean. There is a plastic widget on the left hand side to watch out for, it clips in horizontally. I found it because it dropped out, luckily I found where it came from.

[serafin]

Someone managed to fix the problem by adjusting some trimmers on the ITB. See this link for details.