Horizontal Color Lines

[Tptak]

Printing color documents and all of sudden started getting bold horizontal lines Blue, Magenta, Yellow, 4 sets across the sheet of paper. I have downloaded the latest firmware and all cartridges are HP and new. The printer is new and still under warranty. I'm connected wireless and serial number is  [personal information removed]
-Product NO CF389A. I have cleaned and printed test page and does the same thing.

Thanks

Tom

[Dovid]

Hi Tptak,

For that printer, bold color bands across the page in sets often are caused by a short circuit caused by a rotating drum in one of the cartridges not making electrical contact to the circuitry inside the engine.  Each time the roller goes around, there is a short time that either the ground connection is broken or the high voltage connection is broken.  Both have basically the same effect.  Since the same circuit controls all colors (not black) a short in one causes each of the others to produce a band of color also. 

The causes that I have seen in the past are a small broken end piece inside the cartridge (very hard for you to diagnose) or a spot of toner or other material on the end contact (also hard to spot).  If my memory serves me, the outside contacts on these cartridges are stationary and all rotation contacts are inside the cartridge.  Some of the outside contacts are even conductive plastic and not metal, so hard to spot.  Do you have replacement cartridges available?  Replacing them one at a time will tell you which one has the internal defect and that one should be replaced under warranty by whomever you bought the printer or the cartridges from.

Please let us know what you find,  Dovid

[Tptak]

I do not have extra cartridges. I will call Staples and see how they handle this. Cartridges are 2-3 weeks old and would one of them just go bad?

Thanks

[lloyd1982]

Well, the problem is not with a color. There are yellow-magenta-cyan-black lines, in sets, going down the ENTIRE PAGE. Printer has not been subjected to strong electrical current. Three of the carts are new. After a week of being turned off, appeared when running a start page after turning on and continues to overprint on any print job.

Page 106 of the HP LaserPro 300-400 Color Service Manual, under the title "Tools for troubleshooting", "Engine Diagnostics", shows an engine test button and the manual ststes:

1. Turn the product on.
2. Use a fine-point tool, (for example a precision-slotted screwdriver with a 1 mm (0.04 in) blade
width) to press the engine test button.
NOTE: Access the engine test button through a hole in the right-side cover.
3. An engine test page (horizontal lines in each of the toner cartridge colors) prints.

This auto-runs a test page, with the same lines, but the lines don't go away.

Suggestions?

Thanks.

[kevin-t]

Hello,

Thank you for posting in this thread. Unfortunately based on when the last response was made, I have closed this thread to help keep comments current and up to date. We recommend starting a new thread for your issue by clicking here.
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