HP CLJ 3800 prints color pages in b&w

**freginold** · 10-30-2015

I've seen many other people have this problem but haven't seen a fix for it yet. Has anyone here experienced this? HP Color LaserJet 3800, when you print in color, it intermittently spits out the pages in black and white/grayscale. Everything that is supposed to be in color -- even the supplies status page -- prints in black. Sometimes you can get it to resume printing in color by opening and closing the front cover, and sometimes by rebooting, but neither method works 100% of the time.

It's very random. Prints everything in black and white when it happens, and I've ruled out the print driver because it happens even when printing from the printer itself (ie. the supplies status page). Am going to try firmware, but don't have high hopes for it. So far I'm having this issue intermittently on two 3800's. One of them hasn't had the problem recur in months (as far as I know).

Has anyone else seen this problem? I'm thinking maybe a board issue but don't want to just start replacing boards without any evidence or input. Thanks.

**freginold** · 10-30-2015

After looking through documentation, I'm thinking it maybe has something to do with the printer thinking one of the color toners is out, therefore it switches to b&w printing only. However, no low toner or toner end message ever displays on the screen when that happens.

**theengel** · 10-31-2015

Sometimes on these printers the transfer unit will cause the pages to come out MINUS colors--so something in cyan will not print at all. If it's being replaced by gray, then the machine probably thinks one of the colors is out. Even if it doesn't display the warning, print out a supply status/useage page to see if one of the colors comes up as 'unreadable' or something weird. Could be refurb cartridges causing something.

**theengel** · 10-31-2015

Rereading this, it really sounds like a transfer unit. The reason I say this is that a supplies status page could appear to be printing gray where you might normally see color, but really the print is supposed to be gray & color mixed. I can't remember, off hand, what the supplies page looks like. It'd be better to print a diagnostics page and look at it for missing colors.

Plus, you mentioned you can get it to go away sometimes by opening and shutting, indicating that the transfer unit is what's at fault.

Also, sometimes misaligned gears will wreak this kind of havoc--but you wouldn't have this unless you had replaced some of those plastic pieces that break and you had that gear assembly apart.

**freginold** · 10-31-2015

Thank you for the suggestions. It's not skipping any colors -- all of the pixels/dots are being printed, just in gray or black instead of a color. It looks as though you tried to print a color page, but selected black and white instead of color. I don't remember the supplies status page indicating a problem with one of the cartridges, but I'll print another one and check.

**Iowatech** · 11-01-2015

There's a chance that the program that is being printed from is at fault. If the data sent to the printer contains even one pixel of color, the printer will print in color.

**freginold** · 11-01-2015

Originally Posted by Iowatech

There's a chance that the program that is being printed from is at fault. If the data sent to the printer contains even one pixel of color, the printer will print in color.

Appreciate the suggestion, but it happens from many different programs. Personally I've seen it happen from Word and Reader/Acrobat, but it also happens when you print internal pages from the printer itself.

**theengel** · 11-01-2015

And you've printed the diagnostics page or the print quailty troubleshooting pages?

**Iowatech** · 11-02-2015

Originally Posted by freginold

Appreciate the suggestion, but it happens from many different programs. Personally I've seen it happen from Word and Reader/Acrobat, but it also happens when you print internal pages from the printer itself.

I just reread your initial post, and what I suggested was the exact opposite of helpful.
Sorry about that!