Comments on: Review: HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless Print/Fax/Scan/Copier

By: tgoelz

tgoelz — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:27:11 +0000

replying to con from march 16: my printer stays on and has a only 5-10 second delay before it prints. not sure what setting it is on but it is never actually powered down. i do remember the long startup time you are talking about when i was turning it off trying to reset the “out of paper” problem but i no longer have that issue.

By: con

con — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:21:31 +0000

Is there anyway to just turn the printer on without it taking 2-5 minutes to clean the printheads or check the device. It is so frustrating when you just want to turn it on and make a copy and go!! Having it do this EVERY time it’s turned on is ridiculous…….

By: Tom G

Tom G — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:43:24 +0000

reporting back since feb 9 posting, i am still shocked to report that all “out of paper” messages have ceased since i did the hard reset (disconnect power cord from back of printer for 60 seconds). i’ve used it quite a bit since that time. dunno why this works or what was “reset” but i am running free these days. note: i also had the roller marks on the paper and wondered about that possible hardware problem so i will check into that if the problem comes back again.

By: Vic

Vic — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:53:10 +0000

Believe it or not, one of the “Out of Paper” problems is your tray selection within the Print menu.

If you are like me, the 8500 has only one tray. However, I also use a HP9100 that has 2 trays. Well, my setting within Word was on Tray 2 and I was trying to print something on the 8500 and was getting the “Out of Paper” error. To correct it, I changed the selection to Tray 1 and no more errors.

By: Saital

Saital — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:56:43 +0000

Another victim of the dreaded “out-of-paper” issue. But I have a real-life fix that worked for me.

I started getting the issue maybe 50 pages into unboxing the machine. I was soo disappointed. Next day at work, my Xerox service tech was working on my machine, and I explained everything to him. He said the best bet for the rollers is to use a Q-Tip with rubbing alcohol, on all the rollers, then with the doc glass and ADF empty, make 25 copies to dry the rollers. All rollers, the ones that you have to reach under for (lead feed rollers) remove duplexer, swab those, and the exit rollers. I’m telling you, since I tried that, I’ve changed three sets of 940XL’s in all colors, and a set of print heads. The only time I was “out-of-paper” was when I was out of paper. Try my fix, before you frag your 8500.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:18:25 +0000

I too have the dreaded “out of paper” problem. When I look at the top sheet in the tray there are small grey roller marks at the top – clearly the rollers are too shiny to get traction.

Also have had to get black/yellow printhead replaced by hP after only 2 months; now the cyan/magenta printhead condition status has changed from “good” to “fair” (HP said not a problem) then to “monitor”. I don’t know what that means but I suspect it should not be happening on a 4 month old printer

By: Miguel

Miguel — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:32:43 +0000

Update: HP had me try a couple of things to get rid of the “Out of Paper” error message- things that sounded promising, however to no avail. They sent out a replacement within 1 week and they paid for shipping back to them via a prepaid label. They also included a brand new set of ink cartridges for our trouble, free of charge. It’s been absolutely great since we replaced the unit. Some are just lemons out-the-box I guess.

By: Pal

Pal — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:09:54 +0000

The static build-up certainly makes sense and the previous fix probably works in many cases. However, the only thing that seemed to work for me was to buy a cleaning kit and clean the two rubber/fiber rollers that are sopposed to pick up the paper. (STAPLES has their “Inkjet Printer Cleaning Kit”). Two different (new) HP 8500 machines printed around 40 to 50 pages before they quit feeding paper and gave the “out of paper” message. A third machine printed around 75 pages before it did the same thing.

After I cleaned the two rollers using a foam swab and cleaning fluid from one of these kits from Staples, I proceeded to print around 200 pages with no further problems. (This cleaning was a little difficult to do but can be done through the back when the duplexer is removed. Another (probably less effective) method would be to use one of the pre-moistened sheets that come with the kit and feed it through a number of times or hold onto it and feed slowly thus making the rollers spin on the surface.

I have used/owned at least five other HP models and never had this problem with any of them. I suspect that at least part of the problem with the 8500 is that the type of rubber/fiber used in making these pick-up wheels is not “tacky” enough and and becomes glazed or clogged with paper dust and just won’t grab a sheet of paper.

PS: Thanks to those of you who take time to make helpful comments (both pros and cons) about this machine. I plan to read through them again before I dedide whether to return or keep the one I have now. There are many things about it that I like.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:11:06 +0000

I have a comment to offer about the bogus “Out of Paper” Error message. After setting up and using 2 of the HP Pro 8500 machines for several months I have found the root cause of the mis-feeds I was getting. I could see that it was caused by the paper feed rollers failing to pickup the top sheet from the paper tray. There were roller marks on the top sheet after a mis-feed. I have experienced this before with other printers and it was usually caused by static build-up on the paper stack. Fanning the paper stack is a common practice that actually makes the static worse. My solution was to place an anti-static floor mat over the carpet in front of the printer stand and also placed an anti-static pad under the printer with the grounding wire attached to a good ground connection near the poer outlet.

The results have been dramatic. I don’t believe we have had any mis-feeds since the anti-static measures were installed. I don’t know why HP can’t seem to figure this out and add it to theis trouble shooting suggestions but hopefully this will help someone out there.

By: Alan S

Alan S — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:10:42 +0000

I have three HP 8500’s and on all three scans to blk/wht pdf to file on and it turns a 8.5 x 11″ paper and turns it into a poster “36 x 45″ any suggestions how to correct this?