HP CP3505x - Problems when printing in colour

[al92]

At work we have an HP CP3505x printer which is surplus to requirements. It works perfectly if printing in black and white but has issues printing in colour, and I'd like to see if these are fixable.

The printer is currently fitted with non-HP replacement toners. I am aware that they may be the cause of some of these problems but I can't afford to spend £650 on a new set of toners just to test - because if that isn't the only problem, its a lot of money wasted.

Issue 1: When I print a page, even if there is no colour on the page, the page is speckled with magenta-coloured dots right across. This issue does not occur if I lock the printer into Black and White mode using the settings menu. It's almost as if the magenta toner is leaking? Is that possible?

Issue 2: If I try and print an image in full colour (for example a test photo print), it comes out with a distinctly pinky hue to it, as if some colours aren't printing properly. 

I've attached scans (compressed due to forum limits) of two test pages. One of them is supposed to be a colour scale or something like that, the other is the demo page. All toners have at least 20% supply. 

Can anyone advise if this a fault with the printer itself, and if so whether it can be fixed, or if it's just down to dodgy toners?

(and I know I shouldn't ask this, but where can I get reliable replacement toners without paying £650? I know you get 6,000 pages out of it but it's just not sustainable!)

Any help appreciated, thanks.

[Alex-TATS]

Hi al92,

It is known that non-hp toner cartridges may have quality issues, not properly tested to work flawlessly and even cause harm to printer itself.

Issue 1: This probably means that your magenta toner cartridge is faulty and does not work properly.

Issue 2: You are right that colours are missing. The colour band test page shows us that the yellow cartridge is not working properly.

I would suggest that you should replace at least the magenta and yellow toner cartridges with ones that you know that they are working ok.

Do three full colour calibrations and then test again.

The above steps are what you should try first. However, this may or may not resolve your print quality issues. The printer may have other issues apart from its cartridges. We can't test the printer further, if we aren't sure that we have good toner cartridges.

I hope this will help,

Cheers!

[davidzuts]

Lets not take any chances. Your printer has very good diagnostics which should enable you to determine which toner(s) are bad. On the menu of the printer scroll to the diagnostics menu and then scroll down to the item disable cartridge check. When the printer says ready, diagnostics mode, you can open the toner door and remove toners or switch the toner slots so as to determine which toner has issues. For example you can move the magenta toner to the black slot and the black toner to the magenta slot and print the pq troubleshooting pages which give half pages of solid color which will show which toner has issue. You can even remove 3 of the toners and put one toner in the top slot and print which will give you information about the toner condition.

[al92]

Thanks gents. I'll test the individual cartridges first and then replace as necessary.