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- HP Community
- Printers
- Printing Errors or Lights & Stuck Print Jobs
- Printed pages have a light grey background

Create an account on the HP Community to personalize your profile and ask a question
04-27-2023 11:54 AM
HP Laser jet Pro MFP M28-M31 has been working well with the catridge I have but suddenly started to print a grey background on all the printed pages. I get no help from the instructions given by HP Support Assistant. For example, cannot find a way to "print a cleaning page". The age of the printer or the catridge should not be an issue. Any help on this is greatly appreciated.
04-27-2023 03:24 PM
Hello @Pauliina11 ,
Welcome to the HP Support Community!
Look here: Step 6: Print a cleaning page (Windows only)
Hope this helps! Keep me posted.
Andr-1611
If my post resolved your problem please mark this post as an "Accepted Solution".
Or click on the YES button to reply that the response was helpful and/or to say “Thank You”.
I'm not an employee of HP, I'm as volunteer here.
Inquiries via private messages (PM) cannot be answered.
05-04-2023 06:42 AM
Hello @Andr-1611,
Thanks for trying to help. I had found the same instructions earlier and had tried to locate the HP Device Toolbox but couldn't. I have tried again but still cannot find the right place to print a cleaning page.
Kind regards,
Raija
05-05-2023 12:54 PM
Hi,
@Pauliina11 wrote:
I had found the same instructions earlier and had tried to locate the HP Device Toolbox but couldn't.
I think you had to install the complete software:
- HP LaserJet Pro MFP M28w/M29w/M30w/M31w Printer Full Software Solution
or - HP LaserJet Pro MFP M28/M29/M30a Printer Full Software Solution
Here's what you need to do:
- Uninstall HP printer software, and then remove the printer from your Devices list.
- Restart the PC
- Close all programs
- download only this complete package for M...w or M...a, see above
- Close all programs
- Open up the run command with the "Windows Key + R" key combo > in folder Downloads double-click on the EXE
- The installation was completed successfully, now you must ...
- Restart the System again
- Now the installation is complete.
Document error messages accurately, even better is to take a screenshot of it and upload here.
Then the toolbox should be available.
Hope this helps! Keep me posted.
Andr-1611
If my post resolved your problem please mark this post as an "Accepted Solution".
Or click on the YES button to reply that the response was helpful and/or to say “Thank You”.
I'm not an employee of HP, I'm as volunteer here.
Inquiries via private messages (PM) cannot be answered.
05-05-2023 01:58 PM
If the cleaning page does not resolve the issue then most likley the imaging drum in the printer needs to be replaced.
I am a volunteer, offering my knowledge to support fellow users, I do not work for HP nor speak for HP.
05-07-2023 01:22 PM
Dear Andr-1611
Thanks for the instructions. I tried but cannot install software on this computer. But I managed to print the cleaning page and run a catridge cleaner by going to the ip address found on the network configuration page. This did not help though.
Thanks for your help!