When i print the lines are missing some color almost as if the printer is dusty

Hi,
Dots, Lines and smudges on the printouts are due to deteriorating cartridges and cleaning the green drum of the cartridge may help temporarily. Take out the cartridge and gently clean the roller/ green drum with a dry, soft, lint-free cloth wiping off the toner dots marks/ lines. (corresponding to the location where you are having a green line on the paper)
Also, make sure that the visible inside of the printer is clean and there is no spilled toner inside, which sometimes results in dots.
Moreover, streaks (thicker lines) and dots etc indicate faulty PCR Roller which is located behind the green drum inside the cartridge. Replace the Cartridge or get the PCR Roller changed by a professional.
Try cleaning the toners and see if it makes any difference. You would also have an idea about the toner drum/ parts quality etc and check if they need to be replaced. Furthermore, issues with Laser Unit like dust/ toner dust on the lenses and mirrors inside the printer usually result in faded or discolored prints. For instance, faded text/ picture at certain areas or any color missing when you print.

Hope it helps! Good Luck! Thanks for using Fixya!
CreativeTECH

Hello
The color of HP LJ 2600n fades due to following reasons
1. the color cartridge near to empty 2. due to dust on reflection mirrors inside the printer
if the color cartridges are OK, then you need help of HP technician support, because cleaning of mirrors is very technical in nature for 2600n.
Dusty Environments can lead to Laser Scanner Contamination. The dust layer on the mirrors prevents proper transmission of the laser output in the imaging system leading to faded colors on the printed page. The initial stages of this failure typically occur in the magenta or yellow color planes as faded or light color. Often the left side is more faded than the middle.
You may need to contact the nearest Authorized Service Tech and get teh Laser Scanner replaced with the new released service part that has a mirror in a location where the dust ideally cannot reach easily.
Also, please ensure that the printer is relocated from the current location to a more dust free zone.
Hope this helps, if so do rate the solution

f print quality does not improve by the standard cleaning of the Print Head, clean the Print Head deeply. Cleaning the Print Head deeply consumes more ink than the standard cleaning of the Print Head, so clean the Print Head deeply only when necessary.
1. Make sure that the power is turned on.

2. Clean the Print Head deeply. (1) Press the (Maintenance) button repeatedly until y appears.
(2) Press the Black or Color button.
The machine starts cleaning the Print Head deeply. Do not perform any other operations until the machine completes the deep cleaning of the Print Head. This takes about 2 minutes.

3. Check the print head condition.

When the deep cleaning is completed, the LED returns to the copy standby mode. To check the print head condition, print the nozzle check pattern.

See " Printing the Nozzle Check Pattern".

If the problem is not resolved, turn off the power and clean the Print Head deeply again after 24 hours.
If the problem is still not resolved, replace the FINE Cartridge with a new one.

See " Replacing FINE Cartridges".
If the problem is still not resolved after replacing the FINE Cartridge, contact the service center.

Printing the Nozzle Check Pattern
Print the nozzle check pattern to determine whether the ink ejects properly from the print head nozzles.

NOTE If the remaining ink level is low, the nozzle check pattern will not be printed correctly. Replace the FINE Cartridge whose ink is low.
See " Replacing FINE Cartridges".



You need to prepare: a sheet of A4 or Letter-sized plain paper

1. Make sure that the power is turned on.

2. Load a sheet of A4 or Letter-sized plain paper in the Rear Tray.

3. Open the Paper Output Tray gently, and open the Output Tray Extension.

4. Print the nozzle check pattern.

(1) Press the (Maintenance) button repeatedly until A appears.
(2) Press the Black or Color button.

The nozzle check pattern will be printed.

5. Examine the nozzle check pattern.
See Examining the Nozzle Check Pattern.

Examining the Nozzle Check Pattern

Examine the nozzle check pattern, and clean the Print Head if necessary.

1. Check if there are missing lines in the pattern (1) or horizontal white streaks in the pattern (2). (1) Check if lines are missing in this pattern. If yes, the cleaning is required.
See " Cleaning the Print Head".


(A) Good
(B) Bad (lines are missing)

(2) Check if horizontal white streaks are present in this pattern. If yes, the cleaning is required.
See " Cleaning the Print Head".

(A) Good
(B) Bad (horizontal white streaks are present)
Post back!

Have ou gone into your menus. Into troubleshooting, then image quality.
You will want to run both the eliminate light stripes and eliminate smears procedures. that will purge the print head, blow air through the jets and hopefully resolve the problem. I do believe the 8550 has a Jet Substitutin procedure where you can do a workaround and make other jets make up for the light areas.
here are some directions, Will forward more

1. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button on the Control Panel to select [Troubleshooting] on the Display Screen, and then press the [OK] button.
2. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Print Quality Problems], and then press the [OK] button.
3. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Troubleshooting Print Quality Page], and then press the [OK] button.
4. Evaluate the 'Light Stripes Test' page for missing printhead jets, such as missing Cyan, Magenta, Yellow or Black color bars. The 'Light Stripes Test' page is the last page of the Troubleshooting Print Quality Page that printed.
   
   WARNING: To avoid injury, do not touch the sharp metal strip attached to the clear rubber wiper blade in the Maintenance Kit.
   
   
5. Use a clean lint-free cloth or a new paper coffee filter to gently clean the maintenance unit's clear rubber wiper blade, use only a wiping motion across the entire length of the wiper blade, and then empty the waste tray. A dirty maintenance kit wiper blade can cause white lines and weak or missing printhead jets.





6. Repeat step 3 to reprint the Troubleshooting Print Quality Pages. If there are no missing or partially missing color bars then the print quality problem has been resolved. If there are missing or partially missing color bars then the printhead cleaning procedure will need to be performed. Continue with the next section.

To clean the printhead using the basic eliminate light stripes procedure:

1. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button on the Control Panel to select [Troubleshooting] on the Display Screen, and then press the [OK] button.
2. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Print Quality Problems], and then press the [OK] button.
3. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Eliminate Light Stripes], and then press the [OK] button.
4. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Basic], and then press the [OK] button. The printer will perform a head cleaning, which will take about five minutes. The printer will then print a cleaning page and a light stripes test page.
5. Repeat steps 1 - 4 one more time. If there are no weak or missing jets then the print quality problem has been resolved. If there are still weak or missing jets after two basic light stripe cleanings, continue with step 6.
   
   NOTE: Do not try the Advanced Eliminate Light Stripes Cleaning mode without performing two basic cleanings first.
   
   To clean the printhead using the advanced eliminate light stripes procedure:
   
   
6. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Advanced], and then press the [OK] button.
7. Select the missing jet color and number. If necessary, check the light stripes test page to determine the color and jet number of the missing jet.
   
   NOTE: Only perform the advanced light stripe cleaning once. If weak or missing jets still persist, continue with step 8.



8. Print the Troubleshooting Print Quality Page. Evaluate the Light Stripes Test page for missing printhead jets, such as missing Cyan, Magenta, Yellow or Black color bars. If necessary, perform the basic eliminate light stripes procedure one more time. If the Advanced Eliminate Light Stripes procedure does not resolve the weak or missing jets, perform the Enable Jet Substitution Mode. See the Related Items below.

This happens due to Laser sCANNER Contamination.

Light Output that typically starts fading along the outside edges of the media. The first noticable color would be Magenta.

Dusty Environments can lead to Laser Scanner Contamination. The dust layer on the mirrors prevents proper transmission of the laser output in the imaging system leading to faded colors on the printed page. The initial stages of this failure typically occur in the magenta or yellow color planes as faded or light color. Often the left side is more faded than the middle.

You may need to contact the nearest Authorized Service Tech and get teh Laser Scanner replaced with the new released service part that has a mirror in a location where the dust ideally cannot reach eazily.

Also, please ensure that the printer is relocated from the current location to a more dust free zone.

If your color improved slightly when running the printhead option then doing more should help get better results. Sometime the printheads get really dirty/clogged and running the cleaning option more then once is needed.

If you get a slight line running across the page (from left to right) usually the indicates dust build up on the printhead or ink carriage. The dust acts as a paint brush being dragged across your paper as the carriage moves across the page during printing. You can clean the bottom of the carriage with a Q-tip or purchase some cleaning paper for your printer.

Seem like blocked hole(s) on the color print head...
Most likely if there is a deep clean option then do it (may need a few times to unblock a hole or never).
Also get the printer physically cleaned up if you can see dusts inside (vrtical lines on color bars).

Resolving white, light lines or streaks (eliminate light stripes)

From the printer, print the Troubleshooting Print Quality Pages.
With Troubleshooting highlighted, press the OK button.
Scroll to Print Quality Problems by pressing the Up or Down Arrow button. Press OK.

Scroll to Troubleshooting Print Quality Page. Press OK.
Evaluate the Light Stripes Test page for missing printhead jets (missing cyan, magenta, yellow or black color bars).

Clean the maintenance unit's wiper blade and empty the waste tray. A dirty maintenance drawer wiper blade can cause white lines and weak or missing printhead jets. Using a clean lint-free cloth or a paper coffee filter, gently clean the blade with a wiping motion across the entire length of the wiper blade.

Hi George,

It sound's like an ink-feed issue:

1) Dirty heads, even after cleaning
2) No-ink or poor quality ink
3) Damaged head: some are part of the cartridge, some are not
4) Air bubbles in ink

The test page is typically not as hi-res nor as saturated as a
photo print. The hi-res photo puts the greatest demand on the print head.

The color lines you see are actually lines of missing color,
where the head has failed to deposit ink, so one or two primary
colors are missing from the complete picture.

For example missing yellow will make a blue line.
Missing magenta will make a green line
Missing cyan will make a red line.... etc..

Clean the heads again and again, print again and again,
hoping to flush the system.

BUT, keep in mind that cleaning wastes huge amounts of
ink and tiny little cartridges of ink cost more than many new printers.

Martin

your printer need head cleaning /
1. Nozzle check monitor the exact color to print / if one of the color missing or line color the printer head ned cleaning ,.
2. Proceed for head cleaning /press head cleaning
3.Nozzle check again after the color complete /test print w/picture