Printer problem

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AliB

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That is doing my head in!

I'm getting banding across my prints. I'm using an HP Photosmart pro B8350 that I've had for a couple of years now and I've not had this problem before.:thinking:

I've tried new cartridges, I've tried restoring factory settings, I've tried reinstalling the printer drivers, I've tried printing from another application (I use CS3) nothing:thumbsdown:

I'll try printing from a different PC tomorrow to eliminate that but I'm really at my wits end tonight. I've gone through half a box of paper and 50% of a cartridge.

Any ideas folks?:thinking:
 
I have no knowledge of your particular printer but, my Canon printer has a "printer head" into which the ink cartridges fit. The "printer head" has in the past ceased to function probably and required replacement. The cost of this part is about £50 but I can use "pattern" ink cartridges rather than the hideously expensive Canon ones so it is worth replacing. If your macine has a seperate "printer head" could that be your problem?

My machine has a cleaning routine and a deep cleaning routine in the maintenance routines. Is it worth running your equivalent?
 
The heads on most HP printers are built into the cartridge which means that as you change your cartridges you change the heads at the same time. This is the advantage with HPs (but the cartridges are more expensive). Have you tried a head alignment run? My HP6280 was having a similar problem till I aligned the heads using the menu system on the front.

If the heads are built in to the printer rather than the heads then you can often clean them (just have a look at the Epson head cleaning project on my web site for ideas!)
 
Heads align themselves on install and the diagnostics page is printing OK. But, the diagnostics page is mainly white and the banding is at it's worst with greys and blacks. I've tried two different black cartridges and one definately prints darker than the other which just confuses me even more. Both still exhibit banding though.
 
Are you using genuine HP cartridges? The elcheapo ones from Fleabay didn't do my Epson printer much good :bonk:
 
AliB said:
Heads align themselves on install and the diagnostics page is printing OK. But, the diagnostics page is mainly white and the banding is at it's worst with greys and blacks. I've tried two different black cartridges and one definately prints darker than the other which just confuses me even more. Both still exhibit banding though.
Click to expand...

That is confusing. If it is aligning properly and you have tried new cartridges then you have to follow the chain. It could be a damaged ribbon cable or an electronic fault or the print head IF the cartridge is a reservoir.
 
Yep, always use genuine cartridges, printing at "best" and not changed the spool settings at all.

Now you can see why I'm confused.com! :)
 
Thanks leon, also checked firmware and drivers. I followed your link and there is no comparable page for the B8350. Grrr.
 
Probably a daft idea, but have you got a spare pc->printer cable you could try, just to eliminate that from the equation....
 
That's on the list for tomorrow. :)

Always have spare USB's around so I'm going to try installing the driver on a laptop using the orignal cable and then I'll change the cable too.

That should just about eliminate all the variables excluding the extra wrinkles I've got.

Thanks all, I'm going to bed and I'll resume my battles in the morning :)
 
I was going to say it's sounds like a faulty cartridge, but I presume it was doing it on your original cartridge and also on the new one ?

You did replace both (are there 2 or more) cartridges :shrug:
 
Yep, replaced both cartridges and now doing a deep clean before changing PC's. Yawn!
 
AliB said:
Yep, replaced both cartridges and now doing a deep clean before changing PC's. Yawn!
Click to expand...

Might be time to cut your losses and buy a new one if your next steps don't work :shake:
 
That's where I am right now. I opened it up to change cartridges again this morning to find a fine coat of black ink over everything.

Off to find myself a new printer. Rats!
 
Hopefully you will have better luck with your new printer.


** Too Slow

We had a dodgy printer at work and the fix was to install a driver for another printer :thinking: The strangest of things sometimes do the trick.

Trying it on another PC like you plan to may give an indication if it's resources problem such as virus scanner or malware problems. It could even be a service pack of some sort that's causing it.
 
A huge thanks to you all for your suggestions.

I pick up my new one at lunchtime :)
 
I started out years ago with HP, but soon gave that the elbow. Use only EPSON now and never looked back. The first rule Epson gives for banding is, Clean the printer heads. This applys to any printer.
 
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