HP Color LaserJet 2600 2605 - Faint Red Or No Red

If your Hewlett Packard Color LaserJet 2600 or 2605 prints the red (magenta) faint or not at all, the laser scanner assy needs to be stripped out of the printer and cleaned.

This fault affects the red first and is usually worse on the left hand side of the page. Before you start stripping the printer down, it's a good idea to try another red (magenta) toner cartridge in it first.

There are two probable causes of this. Firstly, the magenta scanner sits at the bottom of the printer and will tend to collect any stray toner or dust that's floating about inside the printer. Secondly, there is a fan situated right next to the scanner which will blow any stray dust or toner into it.

This is, briefly, how you remove the laser / scanner assembly from the printer:

1. Remove the right cover; remove one screw at the back and pull the right cover off
2. Remove the left cover; remove one screw at the bottom of the cover, press the clip in at the front, and pull the cover off
3. Remove the nine black screws holding the metal plate on at the back of the printer and remove the metal plate
4. Remove the cables connected to the two logic boards except for the flat cable connecting the two boards together and the yellow cables at the bottom of the right hand board
5. Remove the cables from the black plastic cable guides
6. Remove the L shaped cable guide at the right by pressing in two clips with a small screwdriver and pull the guide out
7. Remove the long horizontal guide by sliding it to the left and lifting it away
8. 2605 - unclip the cable guide on the left
9. Remove the eleven screws from the metal plate with the two logic boards on it and lift the plate away complete with the boards
10. Remove the white plastic clip holding the two flat cables from the scanner to the printer chassis
11. Remove the three screws from the scanner, two at the top and one at the bottom, and lift the scanner assembly out of the printer (2605 - bottom screw has a metal spring plate covering it)

 With the scanner on the bench in front of you, you can now dismantle it ready for cleaning.

Remove one screw and a spring from the front of the scanner and lift off the cover. Remove the long plastic arm which will fall out if you turn the scanner over. Remember how this arm fits.

You will see four 6 cm long red / purple coloured mirrors inside the scanner. Inspect the bottom one. Initially it will look the same as the others. Carefully wipe a small part of it with a cotton wool bud and you will see the difference it makes. It is this thin coating on the mirror that causes the fault.

Carefully blow away the dust from inside the scanner. Use the cotton wool buds to clean all the mirrors and lenses. Blow again to remove any fluff left behind by the cotton wool buds. It's now ready for reassembling.

When you fit the scanner back into the printer, make sure it's seated correctly. It hooks in at the top first and there are two locating lugs on the right hand side, one at the top and one at the bottom.

Be careful not to pull the two flat cables out of the scanner. When you fit the plate and logic boards back into the printer, be careful not to trap the purple wires from the top of the scanner behind the metal plate.

It's probably best to leave the side covers and back cover off until you're sure it's working. Power the printer on. If you get any error messages, check all the cables are connected. Any scanner related errors are usually caused by the flat cables from the scanner coming out or the purple wires from the scanner trapped behind the metal plate.

 Do a test print. It should be looking good now. If the color alignment isn't spot on, run the calibration routine which is desribed in this post:

HP Color LaserJet 2605 - Colours Out Of Alignment 

One final note. I once had one of these printers where someone had attempted to clean the outside of the lense from inside of the printer. Whatever they had used to clean it with had scratched the surface leaving it opaque instead of transparent. This required replacing the whole laser / scanner assembly to cure it.

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13 thoughts on “HP Color LaserJet 2600 2605 – Faint Red Or No Red”

David

Many thanks.
Have had this problem for a long time and it persisted despite use of HP cartridges and regular calibration.
Your instructions were relatively easy to follow, and the improvement in quality is amazing.

AJ

Great article and corrected my problem with faint printing in “red”. Thank you!!

David (another one!)

Brilliant! I had three printers with this problem, and was contemplating replacing them. Using your excellent and accurate instructions I now have three quality printers once again. Thank you!!

Tony G

Many, many thanks. We run a small business and need this printer every day especially for the reds! Everything was as described and all problems are now cleared.

Stephen B

WOrked fantastic. Saved us a few quid!

Hiten Shah

I am stuck trying to unscrew the three screws from the scanner, please can someone advice which screwdriver is best for this?

Amy

I’m back, trying to do this fix to correct faint magenta and colors still out of alignment. I have the 2605dn, and yes there is a metal plate covering the bottom screw on the scanner. How do you suggest I get at that screw?

Thanks.

admin

Hi Amy,
Lay the printer on its front and look at the bottom. You will see two shiny metal spring plates. There will be a screw behind one of them. The metal plates are springy and will bend so you can either flip them out with a screwdriver or flip them up with your finger nail.

Itay

Hello.. im trying to dissamble the parts of the tuner, im currently stuck at part 4 : “Remove the cables connected to the two logic boards except for the flat cable connecting the two boards together and the yellow cables at the bottom of the right hand board”

Some of the cables seems not removeable.. the Purple ones, i cant seem to unplug them.. seems like i need to put too much force on them to get them out… but im afraid they will cut. Am i doing the right thing..? please answer… How to get the purple cables out.. thanks…

Betty Paysur

I have followed these instructions and everything worked fine. Thanks for a great job helping out. My red is now printing an even red across the page. I have one problem, though… ALL of my colors now appear “faded.” They aren’t as brilliant and bold as they were before cleaning the mirrors and lenses. I used a dry cotton ball to clean the mirrors and I rubbed them several times each.

Could it have created a slight abrasion on the mirror surfaces that would result in “faded” colors, or is it more likely something else is going on?

I also have a cleaning kit to clean the photo sensor of a DSLR camera. The kit includes a high-grade “cloth” and a cleaning liquid that evaporates without leaving residue or spots. Would it be advisable to use that on the printer mirrors?

thanks for your help!

admin

I usually use a cotton ball or soft cloth without any problems. I wouldn’t use any solvents. You might find that the scanner isn’t seated properly in the printer. Unscrew it, lift it out slightly and try to reseat it. Make sure it’s lying flat in the printer before you put the screws in. It hooks in at the top first and there’s a round plastic lug that goes through the chassis. Sometimes the lug doesn’t go through the hole in the printer.

Marcus Soyke-Matthews

MIRROR CLEANING PHOTOGRAPHS. Having just done the 2 hour process of getting inside at the mirrors I found it easier using a sequence kindly put together with photos here:

http://www.reeves-hall.net/tech-gadgets/fixing-washed-out-colour-on-hp-color-laserjet-2605/

TIP: It also answers the question above about the purple wires (there are TWO parts to the black socket – only the INNER part comes out eg with a small partial pull at each end with a thin nosed pair of pliers)
TIP: when putting the metal plate back, make sure ALL the 4 white flat cables bottom right are out to the right side! I missed two and had to re-unscrew the whole thing again!

Gyorgy Zolnay

Excellent article! Many thanks for it. I have a new printer now again.

             

HP Color LaserJet 2605 - Colours Out Of Alignment

The symptons of this fault is that the colours appear to be out of alignment. If you look closely at a printout, you will see it is actually the black that is shifted horizontally and the other colours are ok.

You will also find that running the calibration routine in the menu makes no difference.

Just in case you don't know how to perform the calibration, this is how it's done:

1. Press the green button with the tick on it (select)
2. Press the right arrow button, System Setup shows on the display, press select
3. Press right twice to show Print quality and press select
4. The display will now show Calibrate Color, press select
5. Calibrate Color Now will be on the display, press select
6. You will now see Press √ to calibrate now, press select
7. The display will briefly show Printing Document and change to Calibrating
8. After a few minutes, the printer will return to Ready

You can try calibrating the printer and see if it cures the fault. If it doesn't, the fix is to perform the Super NVRAM Initiializer.

Super NVRAM initializer

 CAUTION Super NVRAM initialization will erase all network settings. Before performing Super NVRAM initialization, print a Configuration page, which contains network setting information.

 When a super NVRAM init is performed, the printer enters the Generic Product Mode, which changes the language and country/region settings to “undefined.”

 NOTE Super NVRAM init will erase all data stored in the protected NVRAM settings.

Before performing the Super NVRAM Initializer, you will need to print out the config page, network config, and service page. You will need to print these out again after and change any settings that have been reset. The two times I've had to do this, I've been lucky and the settings have been ok.

Config Page

1. Press select
2. Display shows Reports, press select
3. Press the right button twice
4. Display shows Config Report, press select

 Network Config

1. Press select, on Reports, press select
2. Press right four times, on Network Report, press select

Service Page

1. Press select, on Reports, press select
2. Press the left button, on Service Page, press select

Now you've printed out your settings, you can do the Super NVRAM Initializer:

1. Turn printer off
2. Hold down left and right arrow keys
3. Turn printer on
4. When you see the message Permanent storage init, release the (Left arrow) and (Right arrow) buttons

 You will then be asked to select the language and location (country). When you've done that, the following message shows on the display:

TURN OFF

You won't have to turn the printer off and on. If you wait a few seconds, it resets itself.

When the printer is "READY", print out another test page. You should find that the black is now aligned properly but the image might look blurred because the red is not aligned. Simply run the calibration procedure described earlier and everything should now be ok.

Don't forget to reset any settings, especially the network settings.

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32 thoughts on “HP Color LaserJet 2605 – Colours Out Of Alignment” 

Mike

I seem to have to do this once a week. Does anyone have any idea if this is indicative of faulty NVRAM or just a 4 year old printer?

admin

Mike, 

How bad are the colours out of alignment. If it’s only slight misalignment, it could be a toner cartridge problem, especially if it’s old and nearly empty or a refilled one. 

If the misalignment is bad and you have to keep resetting the NVRAM and colour calibration, it could be that the dc controller is losing it’s settings when it’s powered off for some time.

brendy nelson

Fantastic, I had tried all of the usual fixes for this printer including stripping it twice!!!
Thank you very much.

M Soyke-Matthews

Dear Admin/ Thank you VERY much for this solution. I had black out of alignment on a 2605dn,with a grey sheen over the whole page even to the edge. Calibration did nothing so applied above fix and it has resolved the mis alignment. Thank You! Marcus London UK. Keep up the good work!

Christine

The Magenta was missing on my HP2605dn, I carried out the instructions for cleaning the lenses and all went well. I have magenta back, but the colours are still out of alignment and I am missing about an inch of toner on one side. I have calibrated and performed the Super NVRAM Initializer, re-calibrated but to no avail. Any other suggestions? Thank you.

admin

Hi Christine,

It sounds as if the scanner assembly isn’t seated correctly in the printer. Remove the toner cartridges and look into the printer. Look at the bottom scanner lens and try to compare the distance between the lens and the metal chassis at the left and right hand sides. You might find that the lens is further back on one side.

What you will need to do, is to go through the process of removing the scanner again. When you refit it, place the printer on it’s front on something soft so that you don’t damage it. Be aware that, because the front of the printer is curved, it might be a bit unstable.

When you fit the scanner, drop it into place at the top first. There are two clips on the top of the scanner that have to hook onto the metal frame of the printer. There are also round lugs on the front of the scanner that fit into the frame.

What commonly happens is that the scanner is just placed up against the printer frame and the screws tightened up. Because the screws are long, you won’t notice that the scanner isn’t seated properly. The plastic lugs on the front of the scanner don’t go through the holes in the frame properly and you end up with the scanner sitting in the printer at an angle.

If you look at the plastic lugs closely, you will see a ridge on them where they’ve snagged on the frame. I usually take a sharp knife and take off the edge that’s been produced before I refit the scanner.

I hope this helps. Let me know how you get on.

Amy

Hi,
I have now done this twice on my printer. First the black will line up, but magenta and yellow are still out of alignment, so I run color calibration. Then the colors line up but black is off again. Argh! Any ideas?

admin

Hi Amy,
Another problem I’ve seen is that the link that engages the transfer belt drive becomes detached. You might have to remove the top cover and right side cover to see it. It’s a white plastic assembly in the top right hand corner of the printer underneath where the fuser sits. When you close the front door, the engaging wheel should move in and and drive the transfer belt. If it doesn’t, the arm that operates it has slipped out of place. It’s hard to see how it should fit unless you have another working printer to compare it to.
This picture shows you where to look, with the red circle round it:

This is a link to the service manual to remove the covers, right click and save to your computer:
HP Color LaserJet 2605 Service Manual
Once you figure out what’s wrong, it’s just a case of bending the arm out and dropping it back in to place.

Amy

Thank you for the suggestions. I did take off the covers and observed the wheel engaging with the transfer belt, so I don’t think that’s the problem. NVRAM Init brings the black into alignment, but then I have to do 2 color calibrations to get the colors lined up…at which point the black has moved again. I have color jobs to print (and deadlines :-S ), and everything looks terrible! Any other ideas??

admin

Amy,
A very common fault with this printer is faint print, particularly with magenta. This is caused by dust or toner getting on to the laser scanner mirrors. I saw one today where the magenta was only slightly faint and the colours wouldn’t line up properly. When the laser scanner assembly was stripped down, there was a fine layer of dust on the mirrors. Once this was cleaned off and the printer reassembled, the colours then lined up properly after calibration.
You can read how to do this repair here:
HP Color LaserJet 2600/2605 – cleaning laser scanner mirrors 

Elangovan

Hi Everybody,

I Got same problem (Colours Out Of Alignment on HP CLJ CM1017MFP). How to slove it. Plz help me.

admin

I’ve not worked on this printer but it looks like it’s a Color LaserJet 2605 with a scanner added to it. As for the fault, it depends on how bad the alignment problem is. If it’s only slight, it could be a problem with a toner cartridge. Sometimes non HP cartridges can cause a slight alignment problem. I’ve also seen it on genuine HP cartridges that are nearing the end of their life.

Have you tried to calibrate the printer from the control panel or the Toolbox. Instructions are on page 39 of the service manual that you can download from here:

HP Color LaserJet CM1015 MFP (CB394A), CM1017 MFP (CB395A) Service Manual (right click and select save as)

 If that doesn’t work, you can try the NVRAM initialization on page 159 followed by calibrating the printer again. Note that this will wipe all your settings so print out a network config page first.

This doesn’t cure the problem with the 2605, the Super NVRAM Initializer is used but the procedure for this isn’t shown in the CM1017MFP service manual. If the above steps don’t work, as a last resort, you can try the Super NVRAM Initialization routine I’ve described in this post.

Mark

HP Color Laserjet CM1015 Printing Problem

When printing images the printer alignment seems to be out. I have tried cleaning and resetting printer to default settings. When printing out text its fine, the problem only occurs when I print images. I have tried to print different images from print art gif images to jpeg no difference. When the image is placed to the right hand side of the paper a bigger ghosting affect appears when printed. When the image is placed to the left hand side of the page little ghosting appears.
Can you help?

admin

Hi Mark,
Measure the distance between the ghosted images. Measure from the start of the original image to the start of the ghosted image. If its always the same distance, we might me able to work out what’s causing the problem.

godcace

The info above has been really helpful, but…. I am still having problems with the colour printing. I’ve callibrated several times, run the Super NVRAM Initialiser and every cleaning option =- including cleaning the ETB. But still any colours printed (text or graphic) appear to be out of alignment.

Anything else you can suggest?? Of course, I have an urgent colour print run to do! The printer has only done around 3,200 prints from new.

Thanks.

admin

Hi,
Check the previous comment with the picture. Check that the white plastic link hasn’t come out of place.

godcace

Yes, I already checked the belt drive link, and it is all working fine…

Ger Heffernan

Hi
Used the Super NVRAM initializer

and it worked thank you

Paul

I’ve got a 2605 that developed this after we moved house. ToolboxFX reports Colour Plane Registration Sensor Error. Super NVRAm Init didn’t work, in fact I now have misalignment between all colours, yellow magenta and blue all misaligned with black.

Checked the scanner and that seems fine (I’ve not taken it apart, I can’t remember where the instructions were!). The plastic link driving the belt is located correctly. I’m really at a loss….

Any suggestions?

A.Tech

Thank you very much for this informative solution, worked perfectly!

Teros Pi

I have a CM1015 (the version with scanner) and I had the same problem (shifting of 0.5 mm in the black toner printing). 

I did EVERYTHING explained in this page (reset to default values, Super NVRAM initialization, cleaning of mirror and lenses…) and nothing worked.

What worked for me was to clean the “Color plane registration sensor” (also called “density sensor unit”), located on top of the ETB belt (on top when the frontal door in closed; when you open it to access the toners department, this sensor is the rectangular thing nearest to you with a black plastic cover, attached to the ETB belt). What I did was to clean all the sensor with a soft brush (mainly the part looking to the ETB belt; you don’t need to unmount it), calibrate, and finally it worked!

Heinrich

Hi

Thanks alot. I had the CM1015 and the scanner/laser needed to be cleaned becuase the magenta did not come out. After that the alignment was of and i was not sure what i did wrong? After the reset the machine worked 100% fine. Thanks alot you really helped alot  

jose

exelente ayuda, muchas gracias

Sib

Help me please,

I Have horizontal line on all my pages. What happen? How can I fix it?

Thanks
Sib

admin

Sib,
What colour is the line and how thick is it? Do you just get one line on each page? It might be caused by one of the toner cartridges.

Holly

Thank you so very much for the Super NVRAM solution. I have spent lots of moneyover several years and have blamed it on the toners. I had given up on printing in color with the 2605. I ordered new toners (remanufactured) and the mis-alignment isue was still there. Finding your solution is amazing! I can enjoy the 2605 and still save money!

Ali

Hi, I have an HP colour laserjet CP2025 which always prints a black line down the page about 4 inches in from the left margin. Any ideas on how to get rid of it?

admin

Ali,
You might have a scratch on one of the toner cartridges (possibly the black one if it’s a black line), the transfer belt, or the fuser.

Frank

Thanks for the information on aligning colors for an HP 2605dn. I had tried many ways to correct it but none seem to correct the problem. With your Super NVRAM Initializer instructions, the process was able to align the colors. Again thanks for this valuable information.

B Dalal

Extremely helpful post…
My printer was really messed up after I gave my printer for servicing. Alignment was huge issue and tried everything…nothing worked.

Finally i found this post and tried resetting NVRAM as per instructions. and bingo!

Printer back to normal.

Kudos and many thanks to the person who posted this. Very helpful. No money spent.. and worked perfect.

Mary Anne

Thank you so much for this post. Just about to send printer off for expensive repair and this solved the problem. Thanks!

mahi boum

I have same Problem color not matching But with my printer hp laser jet cp 1215 if u have video demonstration to clean & resolve a problem