Officejet Pro 8500 printhead won't align

[swilson317]

I just went through the same problem.  Spent 90 min. on the phone with HP Tech Support.  After replacing the Cyan and Black ink cartridges, the printer tried to align the heads and failed.  I noticed that Cyan wasn't printing.  It's quite painful to deal with printer issues due to how long it takes to do EVERYTHING such as print head cleaning, alignment, and other diagnostics. 

Tech Support had me not only clean, but deep clean the heads using the options from the HP Solution Center > Printer Toolbox.  Then he had me run the Calibrate Linefeed.  Still no Cyan.  Note...at one point during all the print head aligning, the cyan printed, and then stopped.  Once the printer settled down and stopped doing anything, I was asked to remove the cyan/yellow print head, shake it, and re-install it.  Once again the printer went through all of its painful self diagnostics and print head alignment.  But I'm happy to say that the cyan is printing once again.  I have to say, though, that an unexpected byproduct of the deep clean and realignment, is that the print quality is better than it has ever been!  Amazing.

Like some of you, this isn't my original printer.  But fortunately, it's only my 2nd printer.  The first one went back due to the paper sensor flaking out.  I'm hoping that this printer hangs in there. 

My advice...as someone else mentioned elsewhere on the forum...you have to be diligent (and patient) about going through the deep clean and alignment.

Steve

OfficeJet Pro 8500 A909g

[bogart99]

Got my black to print by telling HP the printhead was faulty, which it was. I found this out by swapping the black/yellow one with the magent/cyan one.  You can swap them if you remove little plastic lugs that are there to prevent you accidently putting in the incorrect slot. They sent me a new printhead and now the black is fine.  Alas the cyan does not print now.  So I will contact them and ask for that printhead.  What really annoys me is this alignment failure after any print job.  Mind you this printer has always taken ages to get its act together.  Everytime its switched off it has to go through numerous checks before being able to print.

If it wasn't still under an extended warranty it would be out the door now!

[swilson317]

Just a follow-up to my previous post.  When I did another Google search on HP Officejet 8500 Pro alignment failed, this thread was at the top of the results.  I had initially missed the link to the extensive troubleshooting doc (that HP sent me the link to after my 90 min. on the phone with support).  I also found a video on Youtube.  Here are the links to the doc and video:

'Alignment failed' Error Message Displays on the All-in-One HP support doc

How to Fix a Failed Alignment HP OFficejet Pro 8500 video

Hope others find this info helpful!

Steve

[ralphhross]

This appears to be a common problem.  Here's what I did to fix it. Removed and reinserted 'crisply' the two sided printing accessory in the back. I also noticed the magenta was not printing at all in the alignment sheet so I reseated the printhead for the magenta/cyan.  The machine tried to realign and it failed with a paper jam... now after a lot of looking I realized I did not put the 'bar' down back on the printheads... so that's probably what some people do when I see they get paper jams. Anyway after putting that down, I did a printhead cleanning. This may start automatically or not. You can selet it to start via the small screen on the printer... Now it finally aligned... I am concerned about the next time a printer head needs replaced but I am going back to BestBuy and get an extended warranty tomorrow.

[theresaann1]

every time I change my ink, I have problem with it restarting. It keeps saying aligning paper for ever.Been working  on  it now for 30 minutes. Tried unpluging

[ralphhross]

Ultimately I exchanged the 8500A for an HP Photosmart Premium C410A ( same sale price at Best Buy). This printer is much superior. It does not have replaceable print heads so the print heads stay aligned. It also has much better quality printouts. I could not get the HP 8500A to stay aligned. Turns out this is a very frequent problem based on forums. So I would say take it back if you can and replace  - as the design is faulty or the manufacturing process is faulty . Either way , the 8500A is not a quality printer.

[docbillnet]

Same for the Officejet Pro 8500A.   However, for the 8500A the menus are slightly different.  There is little point in following the steps in the video, as the printhead alignment includes printhead cleaning for that model.  If you are seeing bands, and you don't get improvememt after multiple cleanings, then it probably is the printhead.   Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be anything user servicable you can try, just call HP if either your printer or your printheads are still under warrenty.   You'll spend about an hour with them on the phone, running through the printer diagnostics.  If you are lucky, they'll solve it, otherwise you'll need to wait 5 days or so for a replacement of either the printheads or the printer.

Of course you might want to check for stupid mistakes first, like if you are using non-HP ink cartridges or refilled cartridges try the original HP cartridges again to see if you still see the same problem.  With the 8500A, if you put dye ink instead of pigment ink, then you probably destroyed your printheads and you should not expect HP to replace them.  I do not know what type of ink the 8500 uses, but if you used the wrong type same comment.

[Jacs2012]

11/10/2011

Returned the display I bought because in 2 days, it kept saying Out of Paper! in the middle of jobs!

3 other printers came in, got a new 8500A Plus HP Office Jet.

First two alignments failed.

Removed Print Heads.

Removed Ink,

Reinserted all of the above.

Alignment successful.. It  is something with the print head insertion and I had trouble getting the cyan in from get go.

Guess I am keeping it. Day 3. 

[Philipson]

Recently purchased an Officejet Pro 8500. Followed setup instructions but printer cannot align printheads. Have reinstalled printheads, cleaned heads, etc. but to no avail. Self diagnostic Test indicates both printheads are good. If I click "OK" when the printer gives the alignment fail message. then prineter stop then same fail message.  how can solve  this? Thanks.

[Mrgdog]

Hi There. You are not alone. HP isn't a bad company per say,  it's just the Office Jet 8500 Pro is a lemon. They are caught with their pants down now with a complete lemon product and are back peddling as best they can.

Your issues are the same with me. I've gone through 3 printers and each time I call I have to fight not only a language barrier but a cultural barrior as well when I speak to a customer service agent who is outsourced in India, the Philippines or other place.

It is very frustrating. Buy a new printer. A brother I highly recommend. This particular printer is a lemon and HP is generally a good company but they blew it big time with this printer. Kind of like Ford Motor Company and their Pinto. They knew it was bad, but marketed it anyway.