Solved: Officejet 6700: Poor print alignment on second page when dup... - HP Support Community

Rank_Outsider · ‎03-12-2013

Hello,

I've been having trouble for some time now with our Officejet 6700 Premium All-in-One printer (model number CN583A [Option: BEV]). When printing two-sided documents using the automatic duplexer, the text on the second page is poorly aligned, sometimes to the point of being unreadable (as if it has been printed twice, with the second print not quite in alignment with the first).

I can think of no changes that might have caused the issue - as far as I am aware, this has happened since we bought the printer (or soon afterwards).
The situation improves when using normal quality printing instead of draft quality; however it is not fully resolved.
The strangest thing is that it only seems to affect black formatted text - images and text formatted in colour do not seem to be affected, even when the colour text is printed in greyscale! (i.e. the text is in colour in the Word document, but printing using “black ink cartridge only” in printer properties results in clean text even though black text in the same document comes out misaligned).
Using the most up-to-date full-feature print driver instead of the one that came with the printer makes no difference.
Running the automatic alignment makes no difference.
Physically removing and replacing the duplexer unit makes no difference.
This affects both MS Word and PDF documents (at least).

The only solution I can think of is to get all our users to format their documents to colour text before duplex printing, but this is far from ideal!

My operating system is Windows XP SP3 and the printer is connected via Ethernet. I would judge my PC expertise as mid-level.

Any help/advice would be appreciated - thank you.

dephead2004 · ‎04-22-2013

Dear Rank_outsider,

Thanks to the great folks around here. There is a workaround. I submit it here for your info:

There were two main suggestions as to how to proceed. I did not uninstall the "bloatware" and revert to basic drivers for the HP Officejet 6700 Premium but I did install the HP Deskjet 6980 series drivers according to the procedure listed in this link http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printing-Issues-Troubleshooting/HP-7510-Duplex-Problem-y-axis-scaling/t... and repeated below with some mods to include the activation of the duplexer within the one set of instructions.

And do you know what? It WORKS! The ghosting on the second side of all duplex printed pages disappears to be replaced with lovely clear crisp print. At the moment all other functions including scanning seem unaffected and function as normal although obviously the new driver (HP Deskjet 6980 series) makes the Properties sheets look different.

In my environment I also have 3 networked XP machines connected wirelessly to the printer via the router and a Win7x64 PC connected by ethernet to the same router . This meant downloading and installing from the HP driver webpage the HP Deskjet 6980 series driver for the XP PCs not the Win 7 x64 as these were no present.

I modified the routine a little and reproduce it below to help others. A/c to the original post this was provided by HP Tech Support. Why no one is Support services seems to know about it or the drivers haven't been fixed I shall never know.

First off you will want the printer already available to the computer before proceeding.

For Win7 PCs (XP is similar but not identical)

Go to Start => Device and Printers => then click on the button labeled "Add Printer" on the top left corner of the device window.
Click the button "Add Local Printer" (Choose this option if you don't know your setup)
Select the radio button "Use an existing port"
On the dropdown list select the option eg CN115130TP05JW but use the correct name for YOUR PRINTER port which is the serial number for your printer (do not use the fax entry)
Now in the Manufacture list to the left select "HP"
On the Printer list to the right select "HP Deskjet 6980 series (HP)"
After the driver installs go into the "Device and Printers" window and right click the newly added "HP Deskjet 6980 series" and select "Printer Properties" on the dropdown list.
Go to the "Advanced" tab, and in droplist next to the "Driver" label select "HP Deskjet 6980 series".
Click the "Apply" button - the configuration window should change it's shapea little.
10. In the HP Deskjet 6980 Properties window click on the "Device Settings" tab on the top of the window.
11. In the list of settings look for "Duplex Unit (for 2-sided printing)" and select it.
12. Once highlighted select from the dropdown list "Installed";
13. Once finished press Apply
14. Now go into whatever you were using to print the documents and select the "HP Deskjet 6980" as your printer. Enable Duplex printing and you should see the pages print out correctly.
15. You can also change the name of the printer in the "General" tab. I changed it in mine to "HP Officejet 6700 with HP Deskjet 6980 Driver to fix shadowd Duplex Printing".

I had a little problem in that for some reason in the document (eg Word/ .pdf etc\) printer properties dialogue box under the Effects tab my radio button was mysteriously set on 20% so until I changed it it was hard to see that there was no ghosting.

So after 1 complete rebuild of the original printer with parts sent from HP support services since Novembe 2012, an escalation to higher powers within HP (no reply yet) and a new printer from A....n, VisionAiry has pointed me towards a solution that I had tried with DJ 450 drivers to no avail after a post from Shane_R dated last year.

So thanks to you and also to 007OHMSS who was working on this problem as well as to the original posters

All I can say is it worked for me and I am so grateful to all on this forum for ensuring that I did not doubt my eyes and sanity looking at any more duplexed printed shadowed/ghosted print and willing them to be what they weren't.

So Kudos all round and thanks again

View solution in original post

8lives · ‎03-12-2013

Hi Rank-Outsider, check the firmware on the 6700.

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Rank_Outsider · ‎03-13-2013

Hi 8lives,

Thank you for the suggestion, but unfortunately the firmware version on the printer is MPM3CN1232AR, the same as the one in the link you sent.

Rank_Outsider · ‎03-13-2013

When originally posting, I didn't mention that the general vertical alignment of the text is poor when printing in draft, because that particular problem affects all pages (both text and graphics too) so I assumed it was a different issue. This issue means that some lines of text look like they're formatted in italics because sections of text don't quite vertically align with previous sections of text.

Thought I should mention now it in case it is relevant to the problem I describe in my original post.

8lives · ‎03-13-2013

Does the Print Quality Diagnostic Page also produce the same results?

On the product control panel, touch the Right Arrow to display more options.

Touch Setup.
Touch the Down Arrow, and then touch Reports .
Touch Print Quality Report.

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Please mark the post that solves your issue as "Accept as Solution".
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Rank_Outsider · ‎03-13-2013

Hi 8lives,

The printed Print Quality Diagnostic page does not display the 'ghosting' or 'shadowing' effect I described in my original post, although since this sheet is one-sided and does not go through the duplexer I am not sure whether this means anything.

If I was being really critical of the quality of the diagnostic page, Test Pattern 1 is very slightly misaligned at the bottom of the patterns, but this is true of all the colours and is not due to duplicate lines (probably related to the misalignment experienced when printing in draft quality which may I am assuming is not related).

[Edited to improve clarity]

8lives · ‎03-13-2013

If the warranty is still valid I would call HP customer support.

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Please mark the post that solves your issue as "Accept as Solution".
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dephead2004 · ‎04-07-2013

Hello Rank-Outsider,

I am pleased to find your thread as I have the very self same problem as you.

I have had my printer and duplexer replaced under warranty by HP and there is no difference. I have seen this and am wondering now if it is something to do withthe power supply:

3. Ghosting
Ghosting is a condition where the image prints properly, but a much lighter copy of the image also prints elsewhere. This can be due to a problem with the power outlet that is supplying power to the printer. Check the power outlet by plugging in a different printer to see if the same results occur. Ghosting can also be caused when consumable printer parts (such as the drum or imaging kit) are near the end of their life. All of the consumable parts in a printer are rated for a certain number of pages. Once a printer gets near that magic number, you'll need to replace those parts to eliminate ghosting.

Like you I am at a loss to understand what is happening in Word, .pdf and WordPad

This was my post and I was receiving some forum help but no replies for a while:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printing-Issues-Troubleshooting/Duplex-Printing-ghosted-on-all-second-p...

I think there is something more to this than you and I doing something wrong.

Please can someone from HP or an expert help us.

One is random . Two is a pattern

Rank_Outsider · ‎04-08-2013

Thanks dephead2004,

An interesting idea, however if it is the power supply, then the problem didn't affect our previous Dell printer. Plus, I don't see how it would affect black text differently to colour text and how it doesn't affect images.

This obviously isn't a straightfoward issue.

I am using Windows XP SP3 with Office 2007.

dephead2004 · ‎04-08-2013

I agree. The whole thing is a mystery but to have two independent customers with the same problem is beyond coincidence. There might be a faulty batch? The only part not replaced on mine was the PSU.

Did you get any joy from customer services? They told me that it must be a software problem because I was using Win7 and Office 2003. But I also had ghosting with .pdf and wordpad.

Officejet 6700: Poor print alignment on second page when duplex printing

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