After replacing the printhead twice after an Officejet Pro 8100 error, blocks of color print next to

[kazbah22]

HP Officejet Pro 8100, after printhead replacement prints blocks of ink, next to images, and random blotches.  Text prints just fine.

I have an HP Officejet Pro 8100, had it maybe 4-5 years and it's wonderful.  Suddenly a month ago, having not used it for say 30 days, notice there is a blinking light and an error.  Research leads me to believe that the printhead has failed.  So I order a printhead/and it comes with new ink to my surprise.  

Full disclosure, I was not aware of the 5 minutes of initialization required, (not mentioned on the instruction sheet, nor any mention about turning the power off.)  So having installed the printhead and old inks, and seeing nothing happening after a minute or two, I removed the old cartridges and put in the new cartridges.  Again, seeing nothing happening (duh), I power cycled the unit a time or two, and eventually left it alone thinking it had died, and only then saw it go thru an initiation phase and the output page looked good.

It worked flawlessly for say 15 days.  Then suddenly, the printer would add "blotches" next to images or on images.  A random block of color, yellow, magenta, green to the side of the image.  For sure the new printhead must have failed.

So I order a new printhead, and I'm very careful.  Open the lids, and unplug the power. Remove the print head, install the new print head and new inks, close the lids, and then plug in the power.  Confident I've done this right, and wait the 5 minutes and 19 seconds it takes to complete initalization.  All looks good.  I go and do a print with an image, and the same problem remains.  Blocks of pure color next to the image.

Thinking its a complex image, I go and find an old image (in a word document) that has printed without errors for years.  I go to print, and again, I get some ink blocks to the side of the image, and an occasional random blotch on the image.

So, I take the document, copy it to a different laptop (or three) and the issue remains.  I take the document to office max, and print it there --> but it converts it to a PDF and prints just fine.  So, back to my laptop, and I save the document as a pdf (MS print to PDF) and it's still the same blocks of ink.  Have I trashed out the printer (I did remove and re-install the HP drivers as well; and try on two different laptops.  Sorry if this is long - but you folks asked for details. kz

[Anand_Andy]

Hi @kazbah22,

Welcome to the HP Support Community

I understand you are facing a print quality issue with your HP Printer. Not to worry I will help you to get a resolution to resolve the issue.

To assist better:

• Were you using genuine HP ink cartridges?
• Does the copy print out the same way? 
• What's the application you are trying to print from? 
• Have you tried printing from a different application or device? 

While you respond to that, let's print a Print Quality Diagnostic page -Post the Print Quality Diagnostic page here so we can help you further. 

You may also refer to this document with steps to fix the " Print Quality Issues" issue applicable to your printer -  Print Quality Issues

Also, try updating the printer's firmware - HP Printers - Updating or Upgrading Printer Firmware 

If the issue still persists, I'm sending out a private message to assist you with the next course of action. 

Please check your Private message icon on the upper right corner of your HP Community profile Next, to your profile Name, you should see a little blue envelope, please click on it or simply click on this link.

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

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!

[kazbah22]

Yes - Were you using genuine HP ink cartridges? (always, and need to get this working because I have a stache of $400 worth of new ink cartridges.)

Yes - no, the ink blocks vary, when printing the same picture. Does the copy print out the same way?

Word 2016, and Adobe PDF. What's the application you are trying to print from?

Yes: word and adobe; and from two different laptops Have you tried printing from a different application or device?

These were ok: The Print quality page, which happens with the new print head appeared to be fine both times; being aware it prints as text. Also, the print properties test page seemed to be fine, but again, it is not graphic images drive. While you respond to that, let's print a Print Quality Diagnostic page -Post the Print Quality Diagnostic page here so we can help you further.

Yes, I removed the printer and re-installed it. I use the HP application and updated the drivers and the HP application "may" have updated the firmware in the printer itself (unverified).

I did NOT update the HP application on the 2nd laptop, so I have two devices, perhaps different drivers, all resulting in the same images getting extra ink added to images. And it was working without incident until the "blinking" ??? print head error, corrected with a new print head.  Worked well for 15 days, then the ink blots started, and continue thru a new 2nd printhead.

Remember: I installed the new print head, and it worked fine, no issues on these specific graphic pages. It worked without issues for about 15 days, then comes the extra print blocks and random blurr in the images only.

With it not working, felt for sure it was the printhead.  So I removed and installed a new 2nd print head, and the quality diagnostic was fine, but again, the images had extra blocks of color to the side of the image, or smaller blotches on the printer. One document I've had for 5 yrs, and it was printing with a blotch of color or two. Again, only with images, no problems with pure text.

[kazbah22 · Accepted solution]

Well its working now.  How?
Short version:  After the repair, removed the existing software and installed new software; seeing a note that USB connections don't give you full functionality, enabled ePrinting.  It was now working but slow.  I plugged it back into the USB port and it continued to work but fast.

The full story:

Sent it in to a repair depot, $100, where they they cleaned and aligned the print head.  Their testing samples were impressive, but when I put it on my laptop, it still did the extra paint blotches..

So, once again, I removed the software, and downloaded a newer package.  Again, the USB print had printing blotches, but I noticed that the install said not all features are available via USB, and encouraged me to setup eprinting/wireless, which I did sort of.  Did enable wireless for sure, but believe there were things left undone to truly do ePrinting.

So I unplugged the USB connection, and a new instance of the printer was installed as a wireless device, printed wirelessly, and no issues, (no blotches) but slow. 

Not satisfied with slow, I plugged the USB back in, creating another instance of the printer, and it still worked , no blothces, and fast.  

So it has been solved. I don't think it was the cleaning. I think the magic was pushing the device to ePrinting did something as it created a new print device.  Then, with "whatever" already updated, plugging in the USB created a 2nd print instance and it continued to work - but fast. 

Thank you for your help and support.  Wanted to make sure I closed the loop - on what got it working.

[Anand_Andy]

@kazbah22,

That's great! Happy to hear that the issue has been resolved. If you need further assistance feel free to reach out to us. 

If the information I've provided was helpful, give us some reinforcement by clicking the Accept as Solution and Kudos, Thumbs Up buttons on the public post, that'll help us and others see that we've got the answers!

Have a great day ahead!