Printer Constantly Cleaning

[pfisher]

I am not sure if this is in the correct board.  Please move if necessary.

In an office setting, there is an HP color LJ M182nw printer.   After printing a document either in color or B/W, the printer automatically cleans itself.  Even if you make a copy, it cleans itself.  

It is very annoying for the staff members who use this printer to wait for the printer to finish cleaning itself before they can send another print job.  It is unnecessary for this printer to constantly being cleaning itself when you want to print something out. 

Is this a "normal" function of this printer or can this feature be turned off?  

[Garp_senchau]

@pfisher, Welcome to HP Support Community,

Thank you for posting your query; I’m here to help by guiding you through steps to resolve this issue

No worries about the board - printers can be just as confusing as they are useful! 😄 Now, about your printer acting like it’s obsessed with self-care... yes, laser printers do perform maintenance to keep print quality sharp, but cleaning after every single job? That sounds more like an overachiever than a normal feature. 😅

First let's perform a hard reset

Power on the printer, then wait until it is completely idle and silent before proceeding. Once it's ready, unplug the power cord from the back of the printer while it is still on. Then, disconnect the power cord from the wall outlet as well. 

Leave it unplugged for at least 60 seconds. Then, plug the power cord back into the wall outlet - We recommend connecting it directly to the wall instead of using a surge protector. Reconnect the power cord to the back of the printer, and if it doesn’t turn on automatically, press the power button to turn it back on.

Next, make sure the firmware is up to date. Sometimes, excessive cleaning can be a software bug that has been fixed in a later update. You can update the firmware by going to HP Support and downloading the latest version.

Also, check the toner cartridges. If non-HP or refilled cartridges are being used, the printer might be trying to compensate for inconsistencies, triggering frequent cleaning cycles. Replacing them with genuine HP toner could help.

Finally, if the issue continues, resetting the printer to factory defaults might stop the frequent cleaning. This will erase all custom settings, including network configurations. Refer this document to perform the factory defaults on your printer.

Let’s see if we can get your printer to chill out a bit! 😆 Try these steps and let me know how it goes.

Take care and have a good day. 

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Regards,

[pfisher]

Does this printer have a "color calibration" setting or something similar to it? 

Is this a "normal" function of this particular printer?  

[Garp_senchau]

Hey @pfisher,

Thank you for your response

Yes! 😊 This printer does have a color calibration setting to keep colors accurate. 

However, if it’s cleaning after every print, that’s not a normal behavior.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you need anything else. 👍

Reference: User manual

Regards,