HP Designjet 500, 510, and 800 Series Printers - Understanding the Diagnostic Test

Troubleshooting procedure

When image quality problems are encountered, the Troubleshooting Utility should be used to determine the cause.

note:
It is important that the paper used for the Troubleshooting Procedure is exactly the same type used when the image quality problems were encountered. If a different paper type or size is used, the problem may not be resolved.

Running the Troubleshooting Utility

From the main front-panel menu, select the Ink menu () and press ENTER.
Select Troubleshooting and press ENTER.
The Printer first checks to see whether the Printheads are aligned. Misalignment of the Printheads is a common cause of image quality problems. If they are not aligned, you are prompted to accept the Printhead Alignment. This procedure requires that a few centimeters of paper be loaded and takes several minutes to perform.

note:
It is not necessary to interpret the patterns printed by the Printhead Alignment routine.

If the Printheads do not seem to require alignment, the Printer prints Diagnostic Print A.

Diagnostic Print A

Diagnostic Print A contains several blocks of color and a block of thin black broken lines, as shown in Figure 1 (the lines are actually much closer than those represented here).

Figure 1.1: Diagnostic Print A

Figure 1.2: Diagnostic Print A

note:
Ignore the solid black bar on the left side of the broken-line image.

Interpreting Diagnostic Print A

Examine the broken lines in Diagnostic Print A carefully and indicate whether there are problems with them. The sorts of problems to look for are:
- Jaggedness or serrations in the thin lines (see Figure 2); the thin lines should be straight, though not necessarily perfectly aligned.
- The irregularities that are significant extend along the whole of the length of the lines.
- Shorter irregularities, arranged in columns, can be ignored at this stage.
  
  Figure 2: Jagged or serrated thin lines
Examine the blocks of color in Diagnostic Print A carefully and indicate whether there are problems with them. The sorts of problems to look for here are:
- White streaks or bands in the solid blocks, as shown in Figure 3.
  
  Figure 3: White streaks or bands in solid color blocks
If you indicate that there is a problem with the dashed lines in Diagnostic Print A, you are prompted to use the Advance Calibration routine; the Printer will be at Step 3 of the routine (to continue without running the calibration, press the CANCEL key).
If there are problems in the blocks of color in Diagnostic Print A (for example, white streaks or bands), the Printer will try to clean the Printheads that have the problem. A Printhead can be cleaned up to three times this way; then the Troubleshooting routine will finish. In that case we recommend that you try to reprint and, if necessary, start the Troubleshooting routine again.
After cleaning the Printheads, the Printer reprints the blocks of color (but not the black lines) in Diagnostic Print A, and asks you to examine it again (as in Step 1).

Diagnostic Print B

If no problems are indicated in Diagnostic Print A, the Printer prints Diagnostic Print B as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Diagnostic Print B

note:
Ignore the solid bars on the left side of Diagnostic Print B.

Interpreting Diagnostic Print B

For each color in the pattern in Diagnostic Print B, the Printer asks about the quality—look for missing lines.
If you answer that a color is defective, the Printer tries to clean that Printhead.
If the Printhead cleaning process completes, Diagnostic Print B is printed again and the same questions are asked.
If problems with images remain, use the Troubleshooting procedure again.

No problems identified

If none of the patterns or blocks in the two Diagnostic Prints show any problem, it could be that the image quality problem is caused by a wrong setting in the software used, or perhaps the job should have been printed with the Print quality set to Best instead of Normal or Draft.
If the Troubleshooting routine didn’t indicate that Printhead alignment was necessary, select Align printheads in the Ink menu to try to solve any further image quality problems.