cartridge alignment failed!

[magena777]

I have a HP Officejet J5780  All-in-One  printer.  It was working fine until i ordered the new replacement cartridges online from the HP store.  When it came to replace them and use them i started to have difficulty aligning the cartridges.

The error message i keep getting no matter what i try is this:

ERROR:  Align Page not Detected!   

I have repeatedly have tried over and over .... now i can't print anything.  I only had this printer a year and seldom use it!!!  

[markcboyle]

We had the same problem when we replaced our black cartridge.  The answer is that we also had to replace the color cartridge.  The alignment page needs to have color and black alignment bars.  The alignment page that printed upon replacing the black cartridge had no color on it, and thus was rejected each time by the alignment routine.  Once we replaced the color cartridge as well, the alignment page printed with both black and color and the alignment completed.

[Bob_Headrick]

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magena777 wrote:

I have a HP Officejet J5780  All-in-One  printer.  It was working fine until i ordered the new replacement cartridges online from the HP store.  When it came to replace them and use them i started to have difficulty aligning the cartridges.

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After the alignment page is printed it is necessary to load the paper onto the scanner bed and press OK to align.  See here or your manual for the instructions. As noted before you will need both black and color cartrdiges working. 

[QueenShannikwa]

You know, that worked for me too: After changing the black cartridge (which was the only one that had run out of ink), I was able to print just fine (in color AND in black and white) but was unable to scan or get the printer to detect the alignment page and wouldn't scan. Replacing the color cartridge (as mentioned in the post I'm replying to in October 2009)   did the trick.

I find that to be really low down and poor business acumen. I won't buy another HP printer for two reasons: They laid off one of my good, smart, friends (who made HP a LOT of money over the years with various accounts) after 15 years; and 2) this.

I can't wait for someone to come up with some sort of print alternative. Electronic 1s and 0s in in front of your eyes with special glasses or contacts (and then nothing at all). To hell with ink cartridges and toner. HP is hanging on to what it can until the jog is up....

[Mark_D]

I had a somewhat similar problem.  When I replaced the Gray cartridge on my Photosmart 8450 and it went to do the alignment, I got the message "Color Cartridge Failed" and it told me to replace it.  I noticed that the old Color cartridge was within the warranty period.  When I called HP, they almost immediately tried to sell me a new printer!  (They also told me that I would get 70% off, which turned out not to be the case for any option I would want.)  As it turned out, the Photo cartridge was not working properly (as shown on a test page that I generated, not on HP's advice), and I had a new one on hand.  Now that I have replaced it, and re-inserted the Color cartridge just for good measure, everything seems to be working properly.

My advice to anyone having a similar problem is not to give up unless you really want a new printer, but to try less drastic measures first.

I am not really impressed with the response of HP on the telephone.  The rep said that the printer was over six years old (actually, I purchased it less than five years ago, and give the printer very little use, preferring to use a laser printer for text), implying that the problem was with the printer, when it's not clear that that was the case.  I found the solution through my own troubleshooting.

What would have been helpful would have been for someone at HP to say, "Oh, there's something wrong with your Photo cartridge: The test page should show three color bands, not two."  I didn't know what the page was supposed to look like.  It doesn't show this correctly in the 8400 series User's Guide provided with the printer.  Later I found this page on the web: https://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00254233, which shows what the test page should look like, but I don't see any way to find it from the 8450 product support webpage.

Mark