HP 5500 - Smearing 11 x 17 only

[prntrfxr]

My turn,

A tech buddy of mine brought in some samples of some 11 x 17 prints from his customer's HP 5500. The images are from customer document. The top is clear and clean with all colors correct. The lower 6 inches looks like something has smeared the toner, with the color coming out the worse. Looks like mainly red and cyan. The tech did try changing from plain paper to cardstock (makes printer print slower so it gets fused with heat longer) and there was no change. I would say it could be the fuser, but 8 1/2 x 11's are good. I would say it would be cartridges, but 8 1/2 x 11's are good. Also when he prints a test page from the control panel it comes out clean, but there is no color on the lower half of HP's test pages. Demo and print quality pages once again print in the 8 1/2 x 11 area of the page.

I dont know any more about what he has tried, but I'm sending him an email with a list of things I thought he should try. Namely: Try a different document, program, check driver settings as driver overrides control panel settings, make sure all cartridges are OEM or Reman. No mixing and matching cartridges, try new cartridges, try calibration, try new transfer belt and etc...

What I want to know is anyone else had this problem? and what fixed it? Does anyone have any suggestions other than what I've posted?

[mo0651]

You could have him try just using one color at a time, If the black comes out good, cyan, yellow.etc. Just to see if its cartridges. Does the transfer belt show damage or poor cleaning? Have had this style of printer not like generic toners. Just some thoughts.

[fixthecopier]

I know this is a long shot, but I have had this more than once. A whole or partial document was left in a open area before the fuser and the new print would rub it smearing the toner. I know the 8550 have a large cavity to loose that jam in.

[prntrfxr]

HP 5500 - Smearing 11 x 17 only

Thanks for the quick replies. The printer is basically like the 4600 series only wider (like a 5000 made into a color laser) and HP usually groups the troubleshooting of these machines together. The fuser is on top of the printer and the entire path is exposed to the technician when he opens the transfer belt. If he had a jam in the p/u asm he could see it by opening the tray and the fuser is clearly observable.

Its the fact that you have great print on top and the lower 6" of the page is what's bad. Its almost like even though the printer recognizes 11 x 17 its only fusing 11 x 10 or 11 x 11. It may be related to grounding contacts, but once again why great prints on shorter paper and the top of the page. It doesnt matter how many times he prints the images look the same and magenta and cyan are worse.

[mo0651]

Hey printfxr, If he can print 11x17, he can print portrait 8.5x11. Is it the lead edge or trail edge we're talking about? Also these printers even most new ones don't work for 11x17 without additional memory. Again a crazy engineering feature. They say it can do it but forget to tell you that more memory is required. Has this printer always done this?

[prntrfxr]

HP 5500 - Smearing 11 x 17 only

Trailing edge - bottom 6-7 inches of paper. Seems to be worse on magenta and cyan. Thats why I think its either cartridge related or software. I think they must be using a very sub-standard toner thats causing accumulation of toner in the fuser, but every page is the same its not one page half bad and the rest completely bad. I will let him know about the memory, though. thanks.

[mo0651]

The bright colors are easy to see. Even our new konicaminoltas need more memory for 11x17. My other quality issues were with off brand cartridges mixed with HP. But that was messing up throughout the copies. Good luck!

[10871087]

test post

[ACSTech]

well... just some thought adding to this, check the paper tray. or try to use a different tray for the 11 x 17 paper... this could also happen if the tray was defective or the paper size sensor defective.

[mo0651]

Hey printfxr is there a fuser speed adjustment on these models. Don't have the service manual handy. Some printers need adjusted because the fuser is pulling or slowing the paper before image is fully transferred. Especially 11x17

[prntrfxr]

HP 5500 - Smearing 11 x 17 only

sorry I had a problem with updating my email address for this forum and was able to get on but couldn't post.

Anyway, I thought the printer was a 5500 because thats what the test page samples he brought me said. When I talked to him he kept calling it a 5550. Apparently someone (different company) had replaced the formatter on this machine with a 5500 formatter.

Secondly, another tech said he had this same problem and said he had to pay for HP's tech support to find out after going to Tier 3 that the problem was the fuser drive motor asm (gears and motor at the top like the 4600's have). He said he replaced it and it fixed the problem. So I suggested that he change the formatter to the correct one (likely to cause other problems-don't know what bonehead did that) and if the problem didn't go away to change the fuser drive motor asm.

I will try to post an update as to whether that fixed the problem. Thanks for all your help. I appreciate it.

[prntrfxr]

HP 5500 - Smearing 11 x 17 only

Tech finally brought it in so I could look at it (he didn't want to listen to me about the fuser drive asm). Turned out to be fuser drive asm (includes the motor). It's the correct formatter by the way. I had 2 techs telling me 2 different stories. It's ok, cause I charged them for the repair.

[RRodgers]

Do the belt speed adjustment. I've seen it and I'm pretty sure that's what I did to fix it.

**edit**
sorry, I thought you were talking about an HC 5500.