HP Color LaserJet CP1518ni - COLORS NOT ALIGNED

[tainolv]

Has anyone resolved this ridiculous issue where all the colors are not aligned when printing?  Black text prints perfectly. But when printing images, colors are not aligned. Issue has been going on for months and YES I've done the following:

1. Calibrated a thousand times
2. Restored printer defaults 1000x's
3. Wasted my money and spent almost $200 on OEM all 4 color cartridges ... wasted!
4. Reinstalled drivers 1000x's
5. Have the most updated drivers... believe me.
6. Ran the HP Print and Scan Doctor software and it's showing me NO ISSUES... ridiculous
7. Checked the HP Support Forum with no resolution....I'm with you fellow people with this same issue. HP HELP PLEASE! 
8. Please tell me it's a HARDWARE ISSUE!!!! Of course you're not going to admit it.
9. Same issue occurs on my PC-Win 7, Macbook.. doesn't matter... it's the printer!!!
10. And I finally posted this plead for HELP!!!

Thank you HP.

[Shane_R · Accepted solution]

From what it sounds like, it is a hardware problem. I would start by making sure you have the firmware up to date. The firmware of the printer is what determines how the mechanics of the printer will act. If that is out of date, it can cause all kinds of problems. If that doesn't work, try doing a hard reset. I've included a link to the firmware and the instructions for a hard reset below. Let me know what happens.

Firmware:
http://goo.gl/gCXvr

To do a hard reset:
1. Make sure the printer is on.
2. Pull the power cord from the printer.
3. Pull the power cord from the wall.
4. Wait 30 seconds.
5. Plug the printer in and turn it on.

[tainolv]

Shane_R ....awesome! Thank you for the quick reply. It worked! I left my printer unplugged for more than a minute or so and it worked, weird.

Thanks again.

[Rhandel]

I have an idea sir,, try to update the firmware of your unit, but i can't assure if it is the solution... 😄

[rj968]

I ahve done both suggested solutions with no effect.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks

[johndavella]

Printer was working fine 2 weeks ago, now the red and black on the left side are about 1 mm off. This is the thrid time this printer is doing this. 

Nothing suggested fixes it.

Thanks

[ITSwami]

I have tried all of the fixes that have been suggested, including your unplug the power cord suggestion with no success.  Have replaced cartridges, updated firmware, done many NRAM resets and many calibrations.  The left side black cartridge still prints a little too high, like by a millimeter.  On the diagnostic page, the top 17 lines of paramaters all read zero.  the bottom few lines have **** for values in most places.  The values in the lower lines changes when I do calibrations, but always have at least 16 places that contain ****.

I am using windows 7, so the ToolboxFX is not available. 

Is it possible to clean the color plane registration sensors?  Is there a service manual available?

Since the printer will not accurately print barcodes, it is not usable for my purposes.  The barcodes all appear blurred, with a line of magenta to the right of the dark black line. 

Another possible solution for me might be to print in only black ink, but I cannot find a place to force the printer to do this.  Doing it from the print preferences screen makes no difference. 

[Gemini02]

Hi ITSwami

I understand the printer is printing out of alignment.

Make sure the printer is connected directly to a wall outlet. (don't use a power hub or a surge protector)

I have included a document for print quality and alignment issues. In

Solution eight: Print a diagnostics page, if the color alignment bars are off, calibrating is the only method of fixing this issue which you have already ran several times. I would also do Solution eleven: Identify and replace the problem print cartridge, in case it is just one cartridge causing this issue. Remove the toner and check for a tuck blade to make sure it isn't sticking out of the bottom of it.

I have provided all the Manuals for the printer.

You would want to contact HP Tech Support to inquire about getting a replacement toner if that ends up being the issue.

[johndavella]

Well, I thank youi for your help but these tricks do not solve the problem. It is mostly the red color, it is positioned behind all other colors by about 1.2 mm. When I paid tech support to fix it, we worked for over an hour and tried firmware, driver, new cart's hard reboot of the printer etc but nothing fixed it. Other people on the web have the exact same issue. Its funny how this showed up one month before it went off tech support. So, I use it as B&W only. It would really help my business to get it back running on color again. 

even to this day, it tries to calibrate itself but the red is still off. 1/13/14

[Gemini02]

Hi johndavella

Sorry that didn't help.

I searched around for some more information on this matter and came across this post that you may like to check out.

Let me know if any of the fixes worked for you also.