Officejet Pro 8500 printhead won't align

[George007]

Officejet Pro 8500 printhead won't align

[FieldOp]

Spot on with that assessment, the whole 8000 series is flawed and we had so many problems with them that we stopped buying them in the end. We went for a Samsung device instead and slowly replaced the 60 or so HP devices as they became problematic.

[Marstar]

I had this very frustrating problem as well! I initially had an issue with ink and was told to clean my printhead. I did that and reinstalled the printhead and cartridges. Then my printer wouldn`t align! I kept getting the message no matter what I tried, no matter what sugesstion I took from the Forum. Luckily, I didn`t give up, I`m kinda stubborn that way! Besides, I couldn`t afford a new printer, and mine had always worked, up until the problem with it not printing black ink (apparently another problem HP users have). So, today, I decided to check the Forum again to see if I had missed something or if there was a new sugesstion. Guess what?! A brilliant idea showed up! I`m sure it was here before, but I missed it. All it said was to remove the back of the printer, the paper feeder thing (technical term), and put it back on. Well, I did it and that did it! Seriously! As if by magic, there came a PRINTED paper, color, black ink, and all! Unfortunately, after trying to clean everything, align everything, and test everything, I now have to buy all new color cartridges. Well, at least I don`t have to buy a new printer!So thank you to everyone that posted this fix, it`s simple and the results were immediate. Apparently, if you ever called Hp support about this problem, they don`t even tell you about this fix. Maybe they aren`t aware of it. Thanks again everyone that shared.

[pmk1]

Marstar - I'm glad you found a (temporary) solution that works.  Most of those of us related to the 33,000(!!) posts on this printer have used that solution.  It proves to be temporary at best.  I hope its permanent for you.  In the meantime, HP wins because you just spent another $80 on print cartridges, pocketing HP ~$65 net.   This is the crux of the problem with this horrible machine.   It is worthy of a class action suit.

[Ziffer]

After reading all the many complaints about the "printhead won't align", I finally saw an answer to fixing this.  After cleaning the rollers (I have a black line running vertically on copies when using the document feeder) and replacing the print heads, I too had an issue with "printhead alignment failed". 

Guess what?!  A brilliant idea showed up!  I'm sure it was here before, but I missed it. All it said was to remove the back of the printer, the paper feeder thing (technical term), and put it back on. Well, I did it and that fixed the problem! Seriously! As if by magic, there came a PRINTED paper, color, black ink, and all!

Hopes this helps all those that find themselves suffering the "Printhead won't align" problem.

[medicare1939]

I have an OfficePro 8500, have used it for several years and have been happy with it. Periodic heavy use.  After a brief period where the color was "off," producing weird shades, it began giving me error messages, "alignment failed." Every time I print a file (it will still print, black and white just fine, color with weird shadings), it prints out a test page (taking a long time), tries to re-align itself (taking a long time), and comes back to the error message, directing me to "documentation" which I can't find.  I called HP support, paid for a service consultation, they couldn't fix it but still charged me.  Any ideas?

[pmk1]

Congratulations and welcome to the club.  You now have a new anchor for your boat!   I have struggled with this piece of garbage of a printer for years - unfortunately, that's not being very kind to garbage, it's worse than that.  Look at the number of posts complaining about the HP 8500 series - almost 35,000 the last time I looked.  And HP does nothing about it.  If this isn't the basis of a class action suit, I don't know what is.

[doyle-1]

I've ran the alignment program 4x with no sucess. is this a normal problem with this printer, how do I fix it?

[jwh0215]

Credits to person who had this idea in YouTube.

I know it was PAIN when I tried to solve this problem for 10 hours lol

but now I got it fixed, here is how you do it. But this is not a official fix. It is BYPASSING that ALIGNMENT PROCESS. Works GREAT!

In Home Screen with menus like Copy, Fax, Scan, & App, push the bottom left "UNLIT" return curve arrow button 4 times. SUPPORT MENU will pop up. Click SUPPORT MENU. 

Next, you will see SUPPORT LRP*******.

Click left or right arrow until you see PRINT DIAGNOSTIC MENU. Hit OK.

Scroll again until you see BYPASS PEN ALIGNMENT. Hit OK.

Then hit OK once more to BYPASS PEN ALIGNMENT

CANCEL X button to get back to the Main menu.

No more ALIGNMENT PROCESS 😄

[Peter-B]

You could knock me down with a feather, I did NOT know that the hidden menu existed.  I have bypassed the Pen Alignment. Now lets see what happens. Thanks for the information.

I need some more carts, at least two are empty now from too many cleanings and re-alignment etc.