hp officejet pro 8500 a909a -- out of paper problem

[centralseniors]

hp officejet pro 8500 a909a -- originally hooked to Vista HP, now on same HP but updated to Win7 platform.

printer has a 2-side module for printing both sides.

When printing many pages, printer sometimes will put out blank page and then say out-of-paper when there is plenty.

Sometimes will print one side of 2 side page and not the other and then say out-of-paper, also on large jobs.

Very evident right now doing a mail-merge--lots of blank pages and blank sides and out-of-paper false warnings.

Seemed to have problems with paper handling since upgrade to Win7 from Vista--downloaded and installed all the drivers HP and MS suggested.  At least I thought I did, so many patches and upgrades to find and deal with.

Using usual 20# paper--nothing unusual.  Don't know if a software problem (how to even begin except to start from scratch) or if something mechanical is wrong--and if that is it, is it fixable or not.

Thanks

[Mdstephe]

I have a HP Office jet Pro 8000 and I am having the same issue.  Windows 7. I have uninstalled drivers with printer unpluged. rebooted laptop and pluged in printer and let winblows re-install drivers. The printer prints one or two two-sided pages and then quits in the middle of the next page and I hear a bonk bonk from the laptop but no messages appear. I look at the printer in controll pannel and it show printer out of paper but the tray is full.  Please help!

[centralseniors]

UPDATE-- gave up on mail-merge of newsletter and did a bulk printing--100 plus copies of 8 pager.

Except for the first batch having one blank page and then an "out of paper" error, there were no problems.

Of course, the printer doesn't have that "end of job" 2 note chirp noise until it does print a whole job.

With the mail-merge--every single 8 page newsletter was a job.  

So, something about an "end of job" signal and a paper feed and a "start new job" signal get all jumbled together, hence the crappy performance.  Hence, the software--the hardware worked well when it was getting proper signals from the software.

So, is anyone from HP aware of this--can't be the only one with a problem.  Or do they prefer we buy the 8600 model?

[Doolin]

My recommendation is to contact HP Support by phone and ask for a replacement, but not another 8500 model as I have had 2 of this model both giving multiple problems. They were both replaced with what HP call refurbished models and both replacements had the same issues as the original units.

This model has multiple issues and is unsuitable for use, even the  replacements issued do not work.

WARNING: AVOID: HP Officejet Pro 8500A ( THEY EVEN SEEM TO BE REMOVED OFF THE MARKET NOW)

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[centralseniors]

Thanks for info.  Checked online and saw about pieces snapping off and cogs sticking and so on.  And basically no real help from HP, no actually solutions.

I traded the 8500 in on a different printer--not an HP.  That solved the problem.