How to eliminate print test page at each startup?

Hi Monica,

You should have replaced new ink cartridges recently and since from that the printer must be printing Alignment test sheet. It means that you have not completed the alignment test.

Please follow below step to complete the test

1. Turn the printer OFF and then ON, allow the printer to print the test page.
2. Place the test page correctly on the scanner flatbed and press the scan button.
3. Now the printer ON light will start blinking.
4. Wait until the power light stops flashing.
5. Now the test is complete and test the printer again by powering off and on.

Regards
Riztech
If this solution is helpful,kindly vote 'thumbs up' and testimonial.

In Printer Control panel look for 'Startup Page' and switch to off also check 'Auto Log Print'. Switch to off aswell.

Dan

somewhere in settings is a checkbox "print test page at startup" untickit

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.

You can pull out each cartridge and shake it gently to redistribute the toner. Try a half page test to eliminate the various stages of the image formation. The timing on this is not easy but through trial and error it can be helpful.

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

hi, frined,

which u on printer u get test print , that page u put on scanner and press sceen button on top of printer , after scan page printer understand cartridge if work perfect

check the print queue from the computer (printers and faxes, right click printer icon, cancel all documents)

I found the owners manual for your model, and it has detailed explanations of how to turn off the printing of the Startup page: This is where the owners manual is available online in .pdf format, at this URL: http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Manuals/printers/0340211ALW12640UM.PDF Startup Page Info From your Owners Manual: (Yes, I've been reading the Manual for your printer. I have no life. :P ) From page 25 of the manual: "The printer takes a minute or two to warm up, and then it automatically prints a startup page. It prints the startup page every time you restart unless you turn the startup page off using either the Apple Printer Utility for the Mac OS or the Apple LaserWriter Utility for Windows. See Appendix A for details on these utilities." From page 249 of the manual: "Appendix A - Setting the Printer Default Settings" "Though the printer itself has no control panel, you can configure it by using programs on computers connected to the printer: - On Mac OS?based computers, use the Apple Printer Utility and the desktop printer?s setup function." So the answer is YES, you CAN setup the printer to not print the test page, but you have to use the setup utility on your computer to do so. Opening the Apple Printer Utility (From page 251) "The Apple Printer Utility has two windows: the Printer Selector window, which is similar to the Chooser, and the printer features window, which you use to view or change the printer?s settings." 1. Double-click the Apple Printer Utility. - The Installer puts the Apple Printer Utility in the Apple LaserWriter Software folder. You can move it wherever you like. 2. In the Printer Selector window, select and open the printer you want. - If the network has zones, click the zone where the printer is located. - Click the name of the printer you want. 3. Click Open Printer. - The printer feature window appears with the Printer Information category displayed. 4. To view or change settings under a category, click the arrow beside the category name to open the category and display its information and options. - Additional options may appear that you can also open and work with. When you are finished changing options in a particular category, you can click the arrow again to collapse the options. (NOTE: The option you want is "Startup Page".) 5. After viewing the information and making changes, click the Send button to send your changes to the printer. 6. Click the Close box to close the window. Turning the startup page on or off (From page 257) "The LaserWriter 12/640 PS normally prints a sample page when you turn the printer on. This page shows the printer?s name, the total number of pages printed, the amount of memory, installed options, and communication settings. You can turn this feature off if you wish. 1. Open the Startup Page category. - The Startup Page panel appears. 2. Click the checkbox to turn the startup page on or off. - When an X appears in the checkbox, the printer is set to print the startup page. 3. Click Send to send the startup page setting to the printer. That should remove the default printing of your startup page. HOWEVER, there is another possibility to affect a repair to your problem... As the paper-feed rollers get older, the rubber on the rollers gets slick and won't grip the paper anymore. Try buffing the rubber rollers with some fine sandpaper and see if that allows the machine to pick the paper up once again. If this is your problem, then you might make the lower-feed paper tray work again. Hope this helps, but let us know if you need more information to solve this problem. ;)

I had the same problem and being helped by HP operator.
first take the USB cable out of your computer, then put it off and then on again...it starts to print the test page again...then after the printer stops printing, put the just printed testpage face down on the scanner(glas) and press scan manually...after the scanning(you wait till that is finnished) and then put the printer off and on again....then connect the USB cable to the computer and that will stop the printer from printing the testpage every time you startup your printer....

hope it wil solve your problem, it did for me...

Dick van den Broek
The Hague
The Netherlands