HP Color LaserJet CP1518ni - Colour Alignment Issue

[boidae]

I'm having an issue with the alignment of the different colours with my HP CP1518ni printer. Basically the colours don't really print in the same spot, like the Red(Magenta) printing is never aligned with the Black / Yellow / Blue(Cyan) (so I can have Red text with a Black/Yellow shadow 0.5-1 mm below or Blue text with a red shadow 0.5-1 mm above for example).

Troubleshooting always just gets me to calibrate, but I've calibrated many, many times over many months, and it doesn't help.

Does anyone know of any other solutions? Or should I just buy a new Magenta cartridge and see what happens?

My cartridges are:

Magenta - CB543a

Cyan - CB541a

Yellow - CB542a

Black - CB540a

[boidae]

Just adding some extra information in case it helps:

Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium - Service Pack 1

Connection method: USB cable

Thanks!

[minskintin]

Hi folks

I am also having this problem with my CP1515n. Magenta is not aligned to the rest of the colours by about 1.5mm. Been all through the troubleshooters and only advice is to calibrate and as the OP has done, I have done this many times to no avail. Problem started after magenta had been installed for some time. Have tried installing new cartridge but problem peersists.

Laserjet CP1515n

Connected directly to an XP Home SP3 machine via USB then shared on a small office network.

Really need some help with this as our printer is used a massive amount.

Ta, Minskintin

[strmcsr · Accepted solution]

Make sure you update to the latest Firmware.   HP just recently released a newer version which as helped with a more concise callibration with the color plane alignment.   Many folks have reported these issues resolved after running the update.

The XP update (english) can be found here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?os=228&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=34224...

[minskintin]

Well that worked for me!

Still had to calibrate a couple of times until all colours were aligned but it's just fine now. Thanks for a simple solution.

Minskintin

[boidae]

Thank you so much strmcsr, updating to the latest Firmware for Vista from that website and then re-calibrating worked! Much appreciated!

[foundinhim]

Any other thoughts??? I have this exact issue with the magenta toner being misaligned and upgrading the firmware didn't help. I confirmed that I actually did upgrade it by printing the configuration report. "Firmware datecode: 20100616"

Any other help would be greatly appreciated. HP Tech support said that I should buy a refurb model from them so I would know whether it is the toner cartridge or the printer.

[boidae]

foundinhim - you said it indicated "Firmware datecode: 20100616" - wouldn't that refer to the 16th of June, 2010? If so, that's over 11 months ago, perhaps it didn't update?

[foundinhim]

That is the latest firmware. The problem was actually due to a bad magenta cartridge. After examining the skewed red-line on the supplies status report, i guessed that was the problem and called tech support. They sent a new magenta cartridge, and that solved the problem. (This was the second time calling.) the first time i was advised to buy a refurbished printer and put my toners in this one to see if it was the toners or the printer. I didn't like this option because HP's "deal" on the refurb. unit was $6 more than I paid for the new one.

[RichardANathan9]

I have the same problem. Thanks to your previous messages, i successfully upgraded my firmware (Windows 7 version). I also recalibrated on my printer. I am still having the same problems, except in my case, it is all the colors that are out of calibration, not just magenta.  My cartridges are all HP and not from other sources. Please help!