HP All-in-one C310 Printer prints first line of text off the top of the page

[Beemer65]

My printer has been working fine for 2 years, then suddenly this week..... the first line of printout is missing! The first line of any text is printed just off the top of the paper and at the bottom of the paper, there is a large gap between the last line of text and the bottom of the paper. I.e. the printed text is not aligned centrally, vertically on the paper. I have tried switching the printer off and on and also rebooting the PC, but still does the same thing. It also does this from any source of print - eg Word or IE. I have checked all the printer options and apps settings - all looks OK and everything says A4 paper for example. What could be causing this please? I am running Windows 8.  

[Rich1]

Hi Beemer65,

What happens when you try to make a photocopy of a full page of text?

[Beemer65]

Thanks for the reply Rich - good idea, just tried it.
and yes it also cuts off the top part of the page - not sure what that tells us, but it is consistent!

[Beemer65]

Rich, I have just noticed something else, purely by accident.....
if I print as "fast draft" quality, then the page aligns perfectly...but change the quality setting to "normal" (same doc, nothing else changed) and it prints the doc too far up the page missing off the top line again!

[Rich1]

What your Message 3 tells us is that the problem is most likely a hardware and not a software related issue.

Your accidental discovery tells us that the problem might be firmware related.  I'm glad that you noticed this and shared it.  Some of the greatest discoveries were made by accident.    

Try doing a Hard Reset as described in the following link.  Click Here 

If that doesn't help, I suggest that you follow the steps in the  Out of Paper  troubleshooting document even though you don't have that error message.  This may solve the problem and it involves good maintenance steps.  Cleaning the rollers is important, along with making sure the paper type and size are set as closely as possible to the actual paper feeding through the printer.

If that doesn't help, the next step would be a semi full reset.  Let me know how it goes.

Good Luck !

[Beemer65]

Sorry Rich, neither worked. What you say, makes sense,
I tried the "Hard reset" and it did take about a minute for the light on the power supply to go out, but it did eventually, replugged everything back in and tried a copy, but it still missed off the top of the page.
Followed the "out of paper" cleaning instructions - the rollers seemed pretty clean, but did as the instructions said, then tried a copy and still the same problem.

[Rich1]

Since the cleaning and hard reset didn't help, the next step would be a semi full reset.  If successful, this would reset the printer to factory defaults and clear the memory.  If the printer was on a wireless network, it would be taken off and would need to be reconnected.  If you want to give this a try, I can send the steps in a private message to your HP Forums in-box.  I would need you to agree not to publish the steps.  Let me know what you decide.
 

[Beemer65]

Thanks as ever Rich, please send me the steps and I agree not to publish them. I will try anything as I can't copy or print a whole page unless it is in draft.

[Rich1 · Accepted solution]

No problem.  I'm happy to try and help.  I've sent the steps to your Forums in-box.  Follow them carefully and let me know how it goes.

Good Luck !

[Beemer65]

HORRAY !!! It worked Rich, thank you so much, BRILLIANT! I have sent you a detailed reply via private message. Thanks again