How to Fix an HP Color Laser Printer Alignment Problem

While laser printers can be great for high-speed printing of multiple color documents, they have a tendency to become misaligned. When your HP laser printer's color plane registration (CPR) unit is misaligned, text and images are skewed at an angle or appear at the wrong end of the page. HP color laser printers have a built-in feature that lets you automatically correct the alignment by clicking on an option in the software program.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Double-click the HP printer icon in the system tray at the lower right end of your desktop. Navigate to the "Toolbox" tab.

2. Click on the "Status" link on the left side of the window. Scroll through the "Status" menu and click on the "Print Info Pages" link.

3. Click the blue "Print" button located to the right of the "Configuration Page" heading. Check the print page to see if the "L" shaped bars are overlapping or bleed into each other.

4. Contact HP directly for a repair or replacement if the "L" bars do not have any overlap, as that will indicate an extensive mechanical problem that can't be fixed through troubleshooting.

5. Return to the "Toolbax" tab if the color bars are overlapping. Click on the model number of your HP color laser printer at the upper left end of the window. Click on the "Device Settings" link.

6. Choose the "Print Quality" option and then click on the "Calibrate" button on the right side of the window. Click "OK" in the new window that appears and wait for the alignment calibration process to finish.

7. Attempt to print a document again and see if the alignment is still off. If the alignment is not correct, repeat the calibrating, since the HP color laser printer may need to be calibrated more than once to fix the alignment.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have an all-in-one HP color laser printer that stands upright, the alignment can be thrown off if the stabilizing legs are not set properly. Unplug the machine and check to ensure the legs at the bottom are all pulled out of their slots and are even with the floor.
• If you are see splotches of color on your page or parts of the image are faint, then the problem is not with the alignment. Replace the toner cartridges to fix the problem.

References

• Fixing HP Laserjet Alignment Problems
• General HP Printer Troubleshooting