Printer printing in with stripes

Most likely the cyan ink is burnt. If the ink sticks are left unused (printing more black than color, this will happen.

Print the test pages for PQ troubleshooting from the control panel and examine each print. Cyan will probably have very dark streaks down the page, magenta should look normal, and yellow also will have dark stripes. You need to replace this burnt ink, and the only way is to print. From within paint (or similar accessory in other OS) Create a full page of cyan, and print about 100 - 200 pages, or until the cyan starts to clear up. Yes it is a waste, but much cheaper than a print head, Do this for yellow as well.

Have ou gone into your menus. Into troubleshooting, then image quality.
You will want to run both the eliminate light stripes and eliminate smears procedures. that will purge the print head, blow air through the jets and hopefully resolve the problem. I do believe the 8550 has a Jet Substitutin procedure where you can do a workaround and make other jets make up for the light areas.
here are some directions, Will forward more

1. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button on the Control Panel to select [Troubleshooting] on the Display Screen, and then press the [OK] button.
2. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Print Quality Problems], and then press the [OK] button.
3. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Troubleshooting Print Quality Page], and then press the [OK] button.
4. Evaluate the 'Light Stripes Test' page for missing printhead jets, such as missing Cyan, Magenta, Yellow or Black color bars. The 'Light Stripes Test' page is the last page of the Troubleshooting Print Quality Page that printed.
   
   WARNING: To avoid injury, do not touch the sharp metal strip attached to the clear rubber wiper blade in the Maintenance Kit.
   
   
5. Use a clean lint-free cloth or a new paper coffee filter to gently clean the maintenance unit's clear rubber wiper blade, use only a wiping motion across the entire length of the wiper blade, and then empty the waste tray. A dirty maintenance kit wiper blade can cause white lines and weak or missing printhead jets.





6. Repeat step 3 to reprint the Troubleshooting Print Quality Pages. If there are no missing or partially missing color bars then the print quality problem has been resolved. If there are missing or partially missing color bars then the printhead cleaning procedure will need to be performed. Continue with the next section.

To clean the printhead using the basic eliminate light stripes procedure:

1. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button on the Control Panel to select [Troubleshooting] on the Display Screen, and then press the [OK] button.
2. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Print Quality Problems], and then press the [OK] button.
3. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Eliminate Light Stripes], and then press the [OK] button.
4. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Basic], and then press the [OK] button. The printer will perform a head cleaning, which will take about five minutes. The printer will then print a cleaning page and a light stripes test page.
5. Repeat steps 1 - 4 one more time. If there are no weak or missing jets then the print quality problem has been resolved. If there are still weak or missing jets after two basic light stripe cleanings, continue with step 6.
   
   NOTE: Do not try the Advanced Eliminate Light Stripes Cleaning mode without performing two basic cleanings first.
   
   To clean the printhead using the advanced eliminate light stripes procedure:
   
   
6. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Advanced], and then press the [OK] button.
7. Select the missing jet color and number. If necessary, check the light stripes test page to determine the color and jet number of the missing jet.
   
   NOTE: Only perform the advanced light stripe cleaning once. If weak or missing jets still persist, continue with step 8.



8. Print the Troubleshooting Print Quality Page. Evaluate the Light Stripes Test page for missing printhead jets, such as missing Cyan, Magenta, Yellow or Black color bars. If necessary, perform the basic eliminate light stripes procedure one more time. If the Advanced Eliminate Light Stripes procedure does not resolve the weak or missing jets, perform the Enable Jet Substitution Mode. See the Related Items below.

the problem is not with the printer but it is with the ink that might be damaged, this is located inside the printer

If the cyan, magenta and yellow blocks print correctly on the self test page but on pages from the computer then I woukld suspect a driver issue.
else
I would suspect the cartridge has run out of magenta ink. Try printing a diagnostic page.If the colors are "wrong" on this test then your cartridge is most likely the issue.

go into the printer and do a test print. start>printer & faxes>right click on the printer in question>properties>printer preference button> test print ... try the printer's own test print. This is usually caused by a poor print head, low ink, poor cartridge or the need for calibration. Look in the maintenance tab in the printer properties for head cleaner, jet cleaner etc. This also happens with refill ink cartridges.

Resolving white, light lines or streaks (eliminate light stripes)

From the printer, print the Troubleshooting Print Quality Pages.
With Troubleshooting highlighted, press the OK button.
Scroll to Print Quality Problems by pressing the Up or Down Arrow button. Press OK.

Scroll to Troubleshooting Print Quality Page. Press OK.
Evaluate the Light Stripes Test page for missing printhead jets (missing cyan, magenta, yellow or black color bars).

Clean the maintenance unit's wiper blade and empty the waste tray. A dirty maintenance drawer wiper blade can cause white lines and weak or missing printhead jets. Using a clean lint-free cloth or a paper coffee filter, gently clean the blade with a wiping motion across the entire length of the wiper blade.

Hi jbasset285: Your printhead may be bad do to third party ink.
Try these steps first.
Diagnosing Print-Quality Problems
The Troubleshooting Print-Quality Page provides a good overview of the most
common print quality problems. To print the Troubleshooting Print-Quality Page,
follow these steps:
1. From the Control Panel, scroll to Troubleshooting, then press OK.
2. Scroll to Print Quality Problems, then press OK.
3. Scroll to Troubleshooting Print Quality Page, then press OK.
The Troubleshooting Print Quality Page includes instructions for printing the
Eliminate Light Stripes test print. These instructions are also provided on the next
page of this manual. The Eliminate Light Stripes test print indicates individual weak
or missing jets or an obstruction in the imaging path that affects a vertical band down
the entire page. Also, you may see color variation from jet to jet on the Eliminate
Light Stripes test print. Some variation is normal, occasionally occurs, and usually
self-corrects within a few printed pages. If a print-quality problem is not resolved
with the information provided in the Diagnosing Print-Quality

Problem seems to be with your Ink Tank(s) or Printing Head. Replace both of them one by one and retry.

perform an Alignment test.

if your still having trouble then dont hesitate to contact.

Well, first off, are the alignment, and nozzle check sheets looking good? If not, then work on that. If so, then we have a problem. Try creating a test sheet in Word. Make red, yellow blue & black text and see if anything else prints wrong. Get back to me!