Officejet Pro 8500 printhead won't align

[charlsie]

My printer is "aligning printheads" almost constantly.  The sheet it prints out does not have any magenta or yellow on it.  I have replaced both of the ink cartridges recently.  Do I need to replace the printheads? 

[minoru]

I would suggest that you save your money and not buy a printhead. Instead use it towards buying another printer. Brother, Canon, Lexmark anything but an HP. You will be much happier... believe me.

[jv00]

same problem.

[jeff246]

Try snapping the unit in the BACK of the printer out and snap it back in so it clicks on both sides, worked for me.

[ralphhross]

You've bought a bad printer, you really need to return it. I bought one and returned it because of same problem. The printheads are manufactured improperly and the tolerances are off imo.  I am an electrical engineer and I did follow the forum on this printer and probably like you did not investigate enough before purchase. There is no fix actually. I like HP printers so I'd suggest something like the HP 7510 or 7520, same functions as yours but fixed print heads and very reliable.

[minoru]

RE: "Buying a bad printer" You're right! I did buy a bad printer it's an HP. I gave up trying to find solutions to my problem with the Print alignment failure. I went and bought a DELL. Works for me!

[shred]

I am having exact same problem as described in most of the other posts.  It all started when I replaced an ink cartridge.  Now every time we send a printjob, the printer runs a printhead alignment and fails.  The alignment takes between 5-10 minutes.  If we try and cancel the alignment it takes the printer even longer to go back to the ready stage.  We have cleaned the printhead through all 3 stages numerous times (which uses alot of ink).  Eventhough it didn't make sense to me, I tried removing the unit in the back and snapping it back as recommended by another person.  No luck. Unless HP or someone else has a new remedy, I plan on replacing the HP with something else because I have already spent too much time trying to get this one to work properly.  Sure wish I could have my old HP 5P back again.

[shred]

OK - so this is what finally worked for me.  I ran into same problems as everyone else.  repeated alignment failures after replacing my ink cartridges.  Eventhough my cyan was full, no blue was printing on any of the test pages.  According to the printer readout, the conditions of my printheads were "good"  I conducted all of the steps outlined regarding cleaning etc...  I went ahead and ordered a new cyan magenta printhead (you can't buy in a store in our area).  Installed the new printhead...low and behold the new ink cartridges I installed which caused the comedy of errors were now empty.  All of the failed alignments and test pages wasted brand new cartridges. So...back to the store bought more ink cartridges, replaced them and all seems to be working fine.   If your 8500 no longer prints one of the colors and your alignment fails just go ahead and replace the printheads.  They are expensive but at least you'll save your ink.  Best bet of all, is to buy a different printer!!!!

[pmk1]

Buying a new printer shouldn't be a solution for faulty design by the manufacturer - particularly after spending all the money, time and effort.  This is has been a defective printer since Day One and HP needs to own up to its mistake.

Did anyone look at the first message in this string?  Dates back to 2009!  There have been over 33,000 views on this one issue!  What does that tell you?

[minoru]

It tells me that there doesn't seem to be a solution to the problems. Should I continue to expend the time, effort and money in buying Printheads, Ink and other items that, so far, has not done anything to resolve the issue? Or, should I accept responsibility for buying a bad printer to begin with and get one that works?  You know what I did.