HP Color LaserJet 2605dn color alignment issue

We have a HP Color LaserJet 2605dn at work that recently lost its mind. The red and blue colors are offset from where they should be and producing a rather trippy 3D look. I've performed a manual calibration through the menus and poked at just about everything I could find. These toner cartridges are not new (as you can see they're about 50% used) but only just recently started this problem. They were working great up until this error appeared. It happens on mac, pc, and via the printer menu printouts so I don't think it's a driver problem. The printer has been restarted and reset and is running the newest firmware.

Anyone have any ideas?

enter image description here

robertvt

Posted 2009-09-14T16:03:52.453

Reputation:

Answers

I tried everything suggested for months to fix the misalignment of the colors. I finally took it apart and cleaned the mirrors. No change! I stumbled on this fix today and it worked. It took me all of 10 minutes and now my printer prints beautiful color again! I guarantee you the repair people know this trick and would charge you plenty. Go to this link and do exactly what it tells you in step-by-step order:

http://printers-repair.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/hp-color-laserjet-2605-colours-out-of.html

It states that you could lose all your printer settings, I didn't lose a thing. Anyway, print out all of the config. pages anyway. After you do the NVRAM Config., the red will still be off a little. Do the color config (tells you how in the beginning) and the colors will now be perfect! Why doesn't HP tell you about this? You will now have your color printer back.

Jamac47

Posted 2009-09-14T16:03:52.453

Reputation: 31

today it worked. in short: reset nvram by pressing [<] + [>] during power on, then do a manual calibration (under system-setup/quality) to fix the magenta. – peter – 2015-02-09T08:12:58.390

1I own that website and I'm glad it fixed the problem for you. I've seen that fault a few times now. It's not mentioned as a fix in the service manual but the instructions for the Super NVRAM Init are, which I tried as a last ditch attempt and it worked. I think a lot more people know about it now and have saved a lot of expensive repair costs. – None – 2010-08-19T22:00:11.820

1that site does not seem available any more. it would be nice to include its details in this answer to make it a real answer. – peter – 2013-08-19T07:42:54.500

I solved my problem by Cailbrating the printer colors Go to something like this on the printer itself: Main menu -> Settings -> Print quality -> Calibrate -> Calibrate now

Raivis

Posted 2009-09-14T16:03:52.453

Reputation: 21

The question says, "I've performed a manual calibration through the menus," implying that it didn't work. – Scott – 2017-06-16T19:12:30.607

It's not a once off solution. You may have to run it multiple times. For some odd reason a power outage put my colors in misalignment. I had to run calibrate 9 times before it completely sorted itself out. It got better and better each time. Blowing out the NVRAM did nothing for me. – Justin Emlay – 2019-11-12T00:59:58.110

This page resolved my issue in 5 minutes, my supplies status page had the colour cartridges getting a bit further out of alignment with black triangle of dots the further down the page you went so by the yellow, the yellow was not over the dots at all.

Step 1: reset NVRAM by power up holding < and > buttons. printed status page & This immediately had fixed my Cyan & Yellow alignments but Magenta was still a little low.

Step 2: I ran calibration from control panel as described in the article then printed Status page and SUCCESS in 5 minutes tops.

The first method described to reset NVRAM was holding the Tick & Cross buttons on startup, this did reset something but did not fix alignments.

Bernard Murray

Posted 2009-09-14T16:03:52.453

Reputation: 1

It appears that this is a fairly well known issue with this printer.

The webpage HERE lists a detailed, step by step solution. Not 100% sure this is the same as your issue, but it sure sounds like it.

Also, if you are using non-HP Toner cartridges this can occur as well.

TomB

Posted 2009-09-14T16:03:52.453

Reputation: 323

I found the following solution in a servicing manual for the 2605DN; it solved my problem.

NVRAM initialization

CAUTION – initialization will wipe any user defined information such as static IP addresses and other custom configuration details. Before proceeding further print a configuration page, which contains network setting information.

NVRAM init will perform the following functions:

Resets all customer-accessible menu settings via control panel and software back to the factory default settings.

Resets the language to the value set at the factory.

Resets the default media size to cold reset media size.

Resets the symbol set to PC-8.

Use the following procedure to execute an NVRAM-init:

Turn off the printer.

Press and hold the select (tick) and cancel (cross) buttons.

Turn on the printer.

When you see the message Permanent storage init displays, release both buttons.

When the NVRAM init is complete, the printer will return to the Ready state.

gnbatten

Posted 2009-09-14T16:03:52.453

Reputation: 11

-1

I had this same printer. As TomB noted, this is a very common problem. My symptoms were exactly the same after installing new cartridges. I attempted new, official cartridges, basic cleaning, tearing the printer apart and cleaning.

I also took the printer to a repair shop. A new board may fix the problem, but I have seen online reports where the problem is still unknown and a new board does not necessarily fix it.

Based on the cost of new color laserjet printers and the total costs for repairs, I considered repair a wash and bought a different printer.

RussellW

Posted 2009-09-14T16:03:52.453

Reputation: 683