Poor print quality on office jet 8020 pro

[billob]

Machine prints reds as brown.   

It also puts vertical lines in the photo.

I replaced cartridges and the test page colors are not bery bright.  This is the first time the cartridges have ever been replaced on this machine.  The printer entered service for the first time in mid 2020 but HP refuses to help because it was sold in late 2019 and not used until later so HP considers it to be out of warranty even though it is essentially new.  This is the first time that it has been used to print photos.

HP phone techs care less.  Rather than address my problem they try to get me onto the internet but the printer will not accept the router's password which has been verified as correct by Century Link.  Then they talk about charging me for service and finally end up in a "take it to a repair shop mode"  and end the conversation.

couldn't care less about having it on the internet. 

I just want quality photos.

I can remember a time when HP phone techs were a pleasure to work with...but not anymore.

[Kumar0307]

@billob, Welcome to the HP Support Community!

I understand your concern. If the printer is out of warranty, technical support is not available for free. There will be a charge applicable.

I see that the print quality is not satisfactory. Do you get the vertical line on regular papers too or is it only on the photo paper?

Let us try these steps to resolve this issue:

Check the ink levels and replace any low/empty ink cartridges.

Clean the printhead up to 2 times and print a quality page to check the result as shown in this document - Black Ink Not Printing, Other Print Quality Issues

Try making a standalone copy in black and color to check if that prints fine. By this, we can conclude if this is a hardware or a driver issue.

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accept as 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!

Have a great day! 

[billob]

Hi Kumar

Let me tell you about this printer.

It was purchased new, along with some ink in December of 2019 and placed in storage because

we still had a lot of ink for the old printer that needed to be used up because HP ink is very expensive.

The printer was installed in September of 2020 and we immediately encountered serial number problems.

There is no serial number anywhere on the printer but there was TH97D1Q0BB printed on the shipping box.

During set up that number appeared on my computer screen.  Later when I contacted HP support they

informed me that  no such serial number exists and that the last two digits of the serial number are really 88.

I started using the printer and it worked fine until  January, 2021 when the printer informed me that the yellow

and cyan cartridges needed replacement.   How could this be?  I had never printed anything but black and white

text documents.   I replaced the color cartridges with new ones that I purchased with the printer and learned 

that they go out of warranty this month.

Then a few days later I tried to print come color photos for the first time and noticed that the reds were not showing

up and there were several vertical lines on the prints that looked like they were placed there with a pen.  I did use

photo paper.

I printed out a test page and the colors are all there but appear weak, especially the red bars, when compared to what 

the HP picture of that page looks like on my computer screen.  There were no vertical lines on the test page which was

done on regular paper.

I have also noticed that the printer goes into it's "maintenance mode" many times a day.  I suspect from the sounds it 

is making that it is cleaning the print heads.

I worked with the phone techs and all they wanted to do was set me up for wi-fi which this printer refuses to do.  It rejects

my router's password which I have verified as being correct with the telephone company.  I can print text documents OK using

the USB connection so there is no point in wasting more time trying to set up a wi-fi connection.

When the phone techs accessed my computer trying to set up wi-fi, the file that the hp 8020 pro icon accesses as well as

it's icon disappeared from my desktop and I cannot find it in anywhere in my computer including the recycle bin.

I went to 123.hp.com to download the file again and all I get is a message saying that the download has "encountered an

error" and shuts down.  I still have not been able to restore these files.

In desperation I went to a local Walgreens store yesterday and printed out my photos on a HP kiosk at considerable expense.

Their quality was fine which tells me that there is nothing wrong with the files I tried to print on the 8020.

So as far as I am concerned this printer is/was not right from the start and the fact that an HP printer and/or printer cartridges 

can go out of warranty just sitting in a unopened box tells me that HP has a huge quality problem that needs to be addressed.

Best regards,

William Bickel

[Kumar0307]

@billob

I understand your concern. I shall escalate this issue to the concerned team.

Please look for a private message from me requesting additional information. Keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

If you are unfamiliar with how the Community's private message capability works, you can learn about that here.

Thank you for visiting the HP Support Community.

[billob]

Hi Kumar:

It got worse.

The phone techs tried to download drivers from 123.hp.com earlier this week and could not do it.

They concluded that because I have a Windows 7 machine, the drivers could not be downloaded anymore

even though I had downloaded them late last year when I first installed the printer.

I am having to scrap a nearly new printer to thanks to HP's lack of support.

My problems should soon go away as I have (reluctantly) ordered a new printer.

[Kumar0307]

@billob

You did not respond to my previous message so that I can escalate the issue to get this resolved.

Please look for a private message from me requesting additional information. Keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

If you are unfamiliar with how the Community's private message capability works, you can learn about that here.

Thank you for visiting the HP Support Community.

[billob]

Kumar:

I cannot make the send private message thing work.  the "send a message" box does not appear on my screen.

Like I said I was going to do earlier,, I have replaced the printer.

Earlier today a HP telephone tech helped me set up the new printer and everything went OK.

[Kumar0307]

@billob

Glad to know that the issue is now resolved. Feel free to contact us with any concerns related to HP products.

Happy to help!