I have streaks printing on laserjet 200.

[AlaskaMariner]

All of a sudden I have red streaks printing down the right side of my documents. I have tried using the utility for cleaning page and it doesn't seem to help. I also have small black dots in various parts of the document that keep appearing on my documents. Cleaning that didn't fix that either.

There seems to be some red residue on the sponge roll just prior to the paper exiting the printer. How does one clean that roller or must it be replaced to fix? I used my vacuumn to attempt to clean it, but it didn't seem to do any good.

Need help.

[X-23 · Accepted solution]

Hey @AlaskaMariner,

Welcome to the HP Support Forums!

I understand that you're experiencing a magenta print quality issue when printing from your HP LaserJet Pro 200 color Printer M251nw. I would like to assist you today with resolving this issue. Thank you for including the troubleshooting steps that you have already attempted before reaching out for support.

On this model of printer there are no areas within the product that you can manually clean. The only supported method of cleaning this printers paper path and cartridge area is by running the cleaning page. You may need to run the cleaning page a few times to resolve this issue.

Occasionally red streaks can be caused by a low toner cartridge. When toner gets low it can gather in certain areas within the cartridge and create a 'streaking' affect. Can I have you hold the cartridge by the sides and rock it gently from left to right to redistribute the toner. Once the cartridge has been rocked please reinstall the cartridge. Once your cartridge is reinstalled please test printing again to verify if the streaking issue still occurs.

If the issue continues can you please click here to access the supported print quality steps for your printer. Once the support document opens please run through the steps for 'Check toner cartridge status', 'Perform additional print quality troubleshooting', and 'Inspect the toner cartridge for damage'.

If the quality issue persists than you may need to try a new genuine HP cartridge to verify if this issue is being caused by a defective magenta cartridge or the printer.

The black dots that you're seeing are often caused by a paper path roller being dirty or a fuser issue on your printer. As previously mentioned, the only way to resolve a dirty paper path would be to run multiple cleaning pages. A defective fuser would result in a whole unit replacement.

Please respond to this post with the result of your troubleshooting. Good luck! 🙂

[AlaskaMariner]

I have taken all the steps mentioned in your response. What it finally came down to was cost effective measures to cure the problem. The Black, Magenta and Cyan cartridges needed replacement and for just a few dollars more, I decided to replace the printer itself that just happened to be on sale.  Probably not the best solution, but the best for me at this time. Can keep this old printer as a spare. Thanks for your help.

[learntolive]

This is what I don't get about HP printers now adays.  In our business we've had hundreds of them and if you go back just 10 years our HP Laserjet III's had over 1,000,000 prints on them.  Now adays you buy a $300-$500 printer from HP and the following year its a piece of Cr*P.  Can't get parts.  Everything is throw away and yes buying a new printer is normally less then or equal to the price of the original printer...How wrong is that?   HP needs to figure this out.  They used to have it made in the Printer world, but we don't even use their printers at work anymore.  Why because they just don't last like they used too.  Really sad.   Why am I following this and replying because I have the same exact printer with same issue (at home) and so in the same boat.   So sad.

[JK1939]

YOUR HELLP STEP BY STEP SUGGESTIONS ONLY MADE MY PROBLEM WORSE.  I RAN CLEANING PAGE THREE TIMES NO CHANGE, USED THE "PRINT OPTIONS" SUGGESTIONS, AND NOW I HAVE NOT ONLY YELLOW STREAKS, BUT SHORT BROKEN BLACK LINES.   

IF YOUR INTENT IS TO ASSIST, WHY THEN HAVE YOU AND ALL OTHER RETAILERS SHUTDOWN AVAILABLE LIVE HELP LINES OR MADE THEM SO DIFFICULT TO ACCESS.   

YOU SELL AND ITEM THAT COSTS $300 AND AFTER 90 DAYS IT BECOMES THE BUYER'S PROBLEM MORE OR LESS, AS MENTIONED IN OTHER EVALUATIONS AND REPLIES, HP HAS JOINED THE RANKS OF DISCONNECT RETAILERS, ONCE THEY HAVE MADE THE SALE, HOPE THEIR PRODUCT LAST THE LENGTH OF WARANTEE PERIOD IS PAST, HOPEFULLY THEY'LL BUY ANOTHER.

POINT OF IMPORTANCE TO YOU HP;  I AS A CUSTOMER EXPECT THE SAME RELIABILITY THAT FROM DAY ONE UNTIL IT DIES 4-5 YR. LATER, IF SAID PRODUCT FAILS IN LESS THAN 1 YR,  I WILL NOT EVEN CONSIDER HP OR ANY OTHER PRODUCT RETAILER WHOSE MERCHANDISE IS THAT POORLY MADE!

HP AND ALL OTHER RETAILERS ADVOCATING THROW-AWAY SHORT TERM PRODUCTS, ARE THE LEADING CAUSE TO EVENTUAL SERIOUS MINERAL AND OTHER VITAL RESOURCES, WAKEUP IF PRODUCTS BECOME TO EXPENSIVE AND SHORT TERM USAGE ITEMS, PEOPLE WILL NOT BE ABLE NOR WILLING TO DEAL WITH SAID RETAILERS.

CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDES AND QUALITY STANDARDS OR QUIT SELLING "CHEAP PRODUCTS!"

[William_Moroney]

We had magenta rows printing on our pages.  My VOP used the calibrate color function and fixed our issue

after the first try.

[nelly05]

how was this issue resolved?