Photosmart 5510 will not print straight, second printer, very frustrated

[matos4df]

i'd just like to add +1

seemed like a good printer but this really ruins it 

[Myria]

Has I had the occasion to say in my previous post, I was very disappointed to find out my new hp printer wasn't able to print a single page straight. And I was even more when even the printer they sent me as substitution had the exact same problem.As I found out it was a mechanical matter I called the support center and talked with a technical expert that confirmed it was a known problem and to compensate for all the inconvenience offered me a different, new printer model (with a different paper tray) that could fit my needs. All the people at customer care were very nice to me and ready to help and the shipping was fast so now I am very satisfied with my new Hp printer!

What I want to say to the people in my situation is just call Hp and talk to them explaining the problem and I'm sure they'll find the best solution for you and you won't have to bring back your "broken" printer to the shop to buy another one, they will help you out with this too!Well done Hp customer care!!

[saleemster]

I bought a CP1525NW laserjet as a replacement and this is also skewed by around 2mm! Not sure what to do, can anyone from HP advise? Is there a replacement model?

[hunter17]

Hi,

I also have had the same alignment issue for several months now. It is only now unbearable as I am having to print off documents for work. Previously, printing for the odd thing about the house was fine but this looks seriously unprofessional. 

I printed several copies of the same document to try and see where the problem lies. The paper tray guides do not work properly. In fact, it seems that on my printer the guides skew the paper, forcing the printout to be skewed also. 

By following the engraved guide, eg. for A4, on the tray, I was able to get one or two decent printouts but this is not an idle solution for me. I am considering taking it back. 

Just wondering what the best route is, if I were to decide to return it - via HP, or return to store where I purchased it? 

Thanks

[ScottR1963]

I am having the same problem. Very dissatisfied with this printer, print an alignment page that is skewed 2 to 3mm scan that to 'align' and all scanned documents and picture also become skewed to a greater extent. The timing of this printer as a Birthday gift only happened because my existing scanjet 2400 started putting black lines on everything I scanned - I worked out it was due to deterioration of the ribbon cable that goes to the scan head, my existing canon printer still worked fine (and prints onto cd's & dvd's) but where can you buy a simple scanner by itself?. I needed a scanner quickly to finish off a photo slideshow for my Mother in Laws Funeral - what should have been an easy(ish) task in the circumstances became increasingly frustrating as I had to 'crop' every scan to make it 'square'. Tomorrow I will be phoning HP Support to see what they can/will do for me.

[amujunen]

This is the same for my brand-new Photosmart 5510---no way I could coax it to print straight with just "misalisgning" the paper, i.e. loosening the guides.  It will re-align the stack and the end result is about 2mm fromt left-towards-right in the vertical. :-(  Thought about returning it but the end result of others did not courage to do so...i.e. no remedy there. :-(  Otherwise a really nice printer but this misalignment makes me consider any other option I could possibly find.  My friend asked for recommendations and I offered him to test my 5510 and also mentioned that 6610 looks pretty much the same and can't recommend that directly before seeing if it also prints skewed... :-(  The funny thing is that if you look at the end of sheets in the feeder, they _already_ look skewed, and if you try to open the feed guides and straighten the sheets up, it does not help---the printer "re-aligns" the sheets so that they will print out skewed, by 2mm or so, in every occasion... :-( :-(

[mike4scuba]

Hi the reason the photosmart 5510 prints skew is because of the paper tray. The sides which align the paper are not strong enough to keep the paper aligned whilst feeding and printing the paper.

HP are aware of this and have created a modified paper feed tray.

The early tray which causes the skew has only one set of lined teeth and a cogged wheel at the front edge of the tray. The modified tray has another set of these lined teeth and cogged wheel at the back of the tray. These keep the guides in place and stop the paper moving to prevent skew.

[amujunen]

Well, how do we all who have a Photosmart 5510 get this new paper feed tray?  The fault indeed seemed to be this, that is, something in the feeding tray mechanism was not holding the paper in the straight path..

Cheers,

Ari

[mike4scuba]

If your printer is still under warranty as most will be due to their age ( at time of posting oct 2011) then you should ring hp.

[ScottR1963]

Thanks Mike, but how do you get the new tray? I can't find anything on HP's website that mentions a new tray for the 5510, however I did notice there is a 5514, which is probably the same printer with an updated paper tray?

ps I read your later post on ringing HP, but they will probably ask me if I've cleaned the scanner glass, along with a multitude of other questions totally irrelevant to fixing the issue!