Inconsistent ink spread

[Mojo3747]

I have an HP Officejet Pro 8028 Inkjet printer that has been printing perfectly until just a few days ago. I replaced the cyan ink cartridge, and now the distribution of the cyan color across the page is inconsistent. On a solid blue box, about 1/2" - 3/4" of the ink toward the bottom of the page when printing in landscape, and toward the right side of the page when printing in portrait, is smudging, so it looks like a light blue smudgy stripe.

I've seemingly tried everything; none of these worked to solve the issue:

• Tested block of each of the CMYK colors to verify that it's just the cyan with the issue.
• Replaced the new cyan cartridge with another new one.
• Cleaned the printheads 3+ times.
• Cleaned smear 3+ times.
• Powered off, powered back on.
• Used distilled water on a Q-tip to clean each cartridge sensor.
• Tried different paper settings.

Attached photos are a block of cyan printed in "Draft" mode on an 8.5 x 11" portrait regular paper, and an image printed in "Best quality" mode on 5 x 10" card stock (for 5 x 7" card), printed in landscape mode on the B5 (JIS) paper size setting, that shows the light blue streak on the right side.

Can someone help?

[Irfan_06]

Hi @Mojo3747,

Welcome to the HP Support Community.

Thank you for posting your query, I will be glad to help you.

I see that you are facing an issue with one of the color not evenly printing from your printer.

As you have already gone through most of the troubleshooting steps.

A) Please follow the steps below to fix the issue.

1) Take out the cartridges

2) Unplug the power cord from the printer & wall.

3) Press and hold the power button down for 15 seconds and release the power button, wait for about 30 seconds.

4) Plug the power cord back into the printer and wall, ensure the printer is plugged into the wall & not into a surge protector.

5) Insert the cartridges back into the printer.

Remove the cartridges > Unplug the power cord > Wait for 30 seconds > Plug the power cord back in > Insert the cartridges

B) Kindly refer to the steps on this link to update the printer firmware and let me know if that resolves the issue.

Please click “Accepted Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

I hope this helps.

Take care and have a good day

Irwin6

HP Support

[Mojo3747]

Thank you, I have been out of town and will try this as soon as I can. Could it also be that the roller is releasing the paper before the ink dries and sort of "stamping" it? That's kind of what it looks like.

[Irfan_06]

Hi @Mojo3747,

Please get back to us after perfroming the above shared steps at your convenience.

We are here to assist you and provide any necessary support.

I will be archiving this case for now. However, you can respond to the same thread to continue the conversation.

Take care and have a great day ahead!

Irwin6

HP Support