Calibration errors: Printer does not seem to attempt alignment with non HP toner

[BlueWanderer]

I have two HP m653 printers. They are fairly decent color printers that unfortunately have very high cost per page compared to similarly priced printers from other brands, though the quality seems slightly better. Therefore, they are only economical if they are used with 3rd party toner.

Lately on one of the printers someone complained about a "shadow" on mixed color documents that was starting to cause a problem.  I checked for errors in the error log and found "Calibration error Color Plane Registration" and "Calibration error consecutive DmaxDhalf" repeated 4 times (one for each color) each time the printer calibrates, whether automatically or when requested. Colors seem within acceptable parameters, but the alignment is slightly off. Errors indicate a problem sensing the halftone and CPR sensor out of range. 

I followed the directions in the manual for fixing the alignment. Doing the "full calibration" seems to do nothing. When I did the "Restore Calibration" It made the calibration significantly worse! Doing the "full calibration" again did nothing besides add more lines to the event log.

I took it to a HP authorized service center and they found no problems with it, tested it with 4 HP toner cartridges. There was no error added to the event log, and the printer aligned the colors to an acceptable quality. When switched back to the 3rd party toner the errors are back, and the alignment is back to the slightly misaligned state just before the "restore calibration" ran. They charged me $75 since it works fine with HP toner, so they do not consider it a warranty issue.

Anyone have any ideas? color quality besides alignment seems ok. The other printer is getting the same errors, but the alignment is fine, very similar color band test results to the problematic printer with the HP toner, even if I switch the toner from the "bad" printer. To me it looks like the printer is not calibrating when the non-hp toner is present.

[Repairatrooper]

the obvious answer is that if you want premium performance you will need to use HP supplies. You cannot expect a manufacturer to warranty their product if you are using supplies that they have no control over in terms of quality or meeting required technical specs. They could have different electrical specs, the drums might require more force to rotate, they could dump excess toner causing issues for the calibration sequence.

You could try cleaning the calibration sensors in the registration assembly.

[BlueWanderer]

The third party toners do seem to dump more toner than the HP toners, but even the HP toner that initially came with these printers dumped more that I would have expected, even compared to their other HP color laser models I have worked with (a few M551's and a CP2025.) 

The manual says the way to clean the sensors is to open and close the toner door. That appears to do the "full calibration" again, which does not seem to do anything.

Do you have any other suggestions? Is there a way to clean without performing the full calibration, such as manually cleaning the sensors?

<rant>

Thanks for your frank response. I agree with all you say.

However, I do recommend that manufacturers keep in mind that I as a customer can chose other manufacturers based on how well they work with others. Personally I would be willing to pay more initially for a decent printer for which I can get good, cheap toner. HP's toner quality is higher than I need and the cartridge price is higher than I am willing to pay. Not that anyone from HP will read this  🙂

</rant>