HP Officejet Pro 8000 printing half pages

[cookie_monster]

We have recently bought three of these printers and are seeing odd issues. They seem to print fine for a while but then start printing half pages or just missing the bottom of documents. When I look at the printing defaults on the server they keep reverting to A5 and switching it back to A4 'seems' to sort it but i'm not quite convinced that it's the solution. Reinstalling the driver on the server also seems to sort the issue for a while. We have over 20 printer on this server and only the 8000s are having this issue.

These are all network printers shared from a Windows 2008 SP2 server with the latest HP drivers.

Any ideas what else I can try?

Thanks.

[contink]

To be completely frank... Sell them on eBay and get something that works..

I started using HP Officejets when the K550 was around and the drivers were bad then... As the printers have developed* their driver writing skills have regressed further and further into the stone age to the extent that they simply do not work.

I was producing CIS kits for K5400, K8600 and L7000 series printers and MFD's... This was working ok except for some issues with the black ink which killed printheads constantly and finally got it all sorted enough when the 8000 series appeared.

Any thoughts I had of supporting them in a similar fashion has gone completely out the window when I did a cursory scan of reviews and forums. They are loathed, despised and completely unsuitable for purpose...

Perhaps the most telling point is that HP now license many of their home printer designs from Canon and you can see which ones very quickly when you look at the cartridges and realise they are clones. Unfortunately Canon doesn't write the drivers!

So, as I said... waste no more time on them... SimpleSi has been fighting them for some months now and will probably mirror this opinion...

[plexer]

If they are supported anything liek the 7000 I'm having problems with then server/client setup is a no-no as far as HP are concerned.

What do you recommend in A4 and A3 contink?

Ben

[contink]

What do you recommend in A4 and A3 contink?

Well.. It's not perfect but I have finally honed my systems down to:

K5400DTN
L7780's (multi function versions of the K5400DTN)
K8600DN

It's important to note that I have fought with these long and hard though and created my own CIS systems along with Auto Reset Chips which recently caused issues too.. They work but the key to keeping them working is staff training and a bit of patience.

The key lessons I learned are as follow:
- Do not use the OEM or any other pigment Black ink in the printers as it causes massive clogging issues in most school environments (air con & or stupid airless "boiler won't turn off" classrooms)
- Do not use a commercial CIS kit.. Instead recondition some high capacity cartridges and refill these or convert them into a CIS type kit yourself. The reason for this is that the commercial CIS/Refill kits use a cartridge that side steps the safety mechanism (pump) built into the OEM cartridges. Without it the printer can suck air into the printhead and knacker it in short order... OEM carts design does not allow this.
- Find some decent Auto Reset chips (I'll have some soon)

Costs are about one fifth of what they would have been and because it's bulk ink you aren't changing cartridges constantly which makes it easier for staff to handle the usual resetting routine.


Probably worth noting that I am looking at building a few kits again for these printers (mainly because the original kits are now a bit old and need replacing for my schools) so I'll have some for sale in a couple of months.

The down side is that all but the K8600 are retired so finding any is a bit tricky...



If you happy enough with cartridges though I'd look to older Canon printers like the iP4500.. and Epson 1400... CIS systems are available for the latter but I would never recommend a CIS for a Canon printer... Too much hassle.

Hope that helps..... Now to allow this back on topic

[cookie_monster]

To be completely frank... Sell them on eBay and get something that works..

I started using HP Officejets when the K550 was around and the drivers were bad then... As the printers have developed* their driver writing skills have regressed further and further into the stone age to the extent that they simply do not work.

I was producing CIS kits for K5400, K8600 and L7000 series printers and MFD's... This was working ok except for some issues with the black ink which killed printheads constantly and finally got it all sorted enough when the 8000 series appeared.

Any thoughts I had of supporting them in a similar fashion has gone completely out the window when I did a cursory scan of reviews and forums. They are loathed, despised and completely unsuitable for purpose...

Perhaps the most telling point is that HP now license many of their home printer designs from Canon and you can see which ones very quickly when you look at the cartridges and realise they are clones. Unfortunately Canon doesn't write the drivers!

So, as I said... waste no more time on them... SimpleSi has been fighting them for some months now and will probably mirror this opinion...

Oh excellent news. I wish the first one had started playing up before we bought the next two

[Quackers]

Try using the K550 drivers for the 8000, thats what we do on our Office Jet Pro 8000's, and they work fine. The 5400 and 8000 drivers are just not as good as the K550 drivers.

We have over 20 of a mixture of K550, 5400 and 8000 Inkjets and they are great little printers, run trouble free, and cost a lot less than Colour Lasers to run, had the K550 for a few years now. So i give them a big thumbs up

[RobFuller]

We have 20 or so of these with no issues at all (Win2K3R2 server XP SP3 clients) most have printed +1000 copies.

[cookie_monster]

We have 20 or so of these with no issues at all (Win2K3R2 server XP SP3 clients) most have printed +1000 copies.

Hmm we have 3 all not working correctly but running on a 2008 server.

I'll give the K550 drivers a try what version of that driver are you using Quackers?

Thanks.

[contink]

Try using the K550 drivers for the 8000, thats what we do on our Office Jet Pro 8000's, and they work fine. The 5400 and 8000 drivers are just not as good as the K550 drivers.

We have over 20 of a mixture of K550, 5400 and 8000 Inkjets and they are great little printers, run trouble free, and cost a lot less than Colour Lasers to run, had the K550 for a few years now. So i give them a big thumbs up

I just wanted to bump this solution with a thankyou because it completely bypassed my normal troubleshooting processes but saved me from a world of hurt today with a Win2k3 server setup that just wasn't playing nice.

It doesn't deal with background images in word docs properly but that's HP drivers all over...

Anyway, thanks for post it... definitely going in to the noggin as a FAQ solution

[Quackers]

Hmm we have 3 all not working correctly but running on a 2008 server.

I'll give the K550 drivers a try what version of that driver are you using Quackers?

Thanks.

I am on 60.52.623.0

[SimpleSi]

Try using the K550 drivers for the 8000, thats what we do on our Office Jet Pro 8000's, and they work fine.

If this works - I'll be be round with the beer

Maybe delay ordering the skip.


(I'd already tried using K5400s but they didn't work properly)

We have 20 or so of these with no issues at all (Win2K3R2 server XP SP3 clients) most have printed +1000 copies.

PLEASE PLEASE tell us how you set them up (or do you work for HP Marketing )

regards

Simon

@cookie-monster

These are without doubt the worst designed BusInkjet that HP have ever produced

But if the K550 drivers make them work (I'm talking basics like set them up as shared printer on server and deploy to workstations!) then maybe they can be redeemed!

[Quackers]

5400 printed in black and white with us until we used K550 drivers.

[cookie_monster]

If this works - I'll be be round with the beer

Maybe delay ordering the skip.


(I'd already tried using K5400s but they didn't work properly)



PLEASE PLEASE tell us how you set them up (or do you work for HP Marketing )

regards

Simon

@cookie-monster

These are without doubt the worst designed BusInkjet that HP have ever produced

But if the K550 drivers make them work (I'm talking basics like set them up as shared printer on server and deploy to workstations!) then maybe they can be redeemed!

I've changed the driver to the K550 on one printer this morning, ok so far i'll let you know.

[cookie_monster]

Well that didn't seem to work. The only thing that works so far is setting it to draft, the quality is ok and it then works.


Can anyone recommend a similar featured printer that actually works?

Thanks.

[SimpleSi]

I'll get to a 8000 school this afternoon and try it there.

At the same school, I ended up installing the thing as a direct network printer from each computer and then using a postinstall script to set reg entries so it knew it had A4 paper!!!

They def put a boy on the drivers for this one!

regards

Simon