The printer prints with a black stripe around the edge. Canon printer prints in stripes - what to do? The print head is dirty or misaligned

Why does the printer print in stripes? Everyone puts their own meaning into this question: for some, the stripes are always in one place, for others they are located chaotically, for others they are red, for others they are black, others complain about white, etc. They can also be vertical or horizontal. Everyone has their own, so let’s look at the main reasons in order.

If the stripes are always in different places

When the printer prints in such a way that the stripes on each printed sheet are located randomly, in different places, then the problem in 90% lies in the damaged integrity/tightness of the cartridge. In other words, the toner wakes up. It’s easy to check it yourself (if you’re not afraid of getting dirty), take out the cartridge and start... shaking it. Got dirty? Take it to the technician, it is likely that the problem can be easily solved.

The black bars are always in the same place.

I see two explanations for this.

1. If the printer is old (3-5 years), then it shaft It could well have fallen into disrepair, this is due to the usual obsolescence of technology.

2. Again, the shaft, but it could be deformed due to foreign objects: for example, paper clips, buttons, seeds, etc. After all, the material from which it is made is ordinary rubber, which, you see, cannot boast of great stability. To give you an idea of ​​what it is, here is a screenshot:

Horizontal stripes.

We check the nozzles, see which colors appear in stripes, and calibrate the print head.

The program will help with this Print Head Alignment

After installation, make sure there are no printing errors,

load A4 paper into the printer,

Click on the printer icon (in the taskbar) and select the appropriate one. item “rint Head Alignment”

Vertical stripes.

If the result is as in the picture, try cleaning the nozzle.

For Epson, this is done programmatically, in the settings, “service” tab, cleaning function. 3-4 times is enough. Sometimes this is not enough, so be prepared to work with your hands, or, what’s easier, take the printer to a service center.

The stripes are located along the edges

It doesn't matter if it's from the left or right edge. This is due to a worn-out photoconductor. The problem is solved by replacing it, and it is also necessary to clean the cartridge.

General algorithm of actions

In case of any printing problems, first of all, always check the print head; if cleaning it does not help (software), check the nozzles, clean them. If this does not work, the fault is with the cartridge, or with a failed head, the latter is the saddest.

White streaks are visible when printing on the printer.

Most printer owners have experienced this. The reason is prosaic - the paint is running out.

IN average one cartridge is enough for 1200-1400 pages.

If you need to print something extremely urgent, shaking the cartridge will help. Literally. But I don’t recommend doing this often, because... The image drum wears out faster.

Interesting things on the blog:

What to do if a refilled cartridge prints in stripes?

Print quality problems sometimes persist even after refilling the cartridge. Read about why this happens and what to do if the printer prints unsatisfactorily.

The essence of the problem

Typical print quality defects include smudges, uneven printing, poor image saturation and, of course, various streaks. The latter can be white, black or colored, vertical or horizontal, they are located in the same place or wander chaotically across the sheet. The result remains the same - it becomes almost impossible to read printed text or drawings.

As a rule, in such cases, the first step is to add new ink or toner. But now the cartridge is refilled, and the “streaking” is not going to disappear. What's the matter? Most likely the reason is wear or contamination of the cartridge components.

Various malfunctions in the operation of the cartridge with consumables lead to the appearance of one or another defect. Let's look at the main causes of malfunctions in more detail.

Why does the printer print in stripes?

It is not difficult to verify the presence or absence of problems with printing on your own. For diagnostics, create a file with a black rectangle the size of an A4 page and send it for printing. If the cassette is working properly, you will receive a black sheet with a continuous, uniform fill. The appearance of pale and empty areas indicates paint depletion or other problems.

The next step is to print a test page and carefully examine the result. In particular, if a vertical gray-black stripe is printed on one or both sides of the sheet, then we are talking about wear or damage to the active layer on the photosensitive drum (photodrum). Duplication of the image indicates wear of the charge shaft, and light “bald spots” in the image indicate a breakdown of the dosing blade.

What should I do if the cartridge streaks after refilling?

The technology for restoring the print cassette varies depending on the type of printer. Let us recall that, depending on the design and printing features, these devices (and cassettes for them) are divided into three categories:
  • matrix;


Dot matrix printers are practically not used today, so we won’t talk about them. Here are instructions for solving printing problems for inkjet and laser cartridges separately.

Inkjet printers

An inkjet printer cassette is a unit with a container filled with liquid ink and a print head. Some models are equipped with a chip to determine the number of pages printed and monitor the level of remaining ink.

Many defects that occur when printing with an inkjet printer can be corrected at home. If horizontal gaps appear on the test page, the nozzles will need to be cleaned. To clean the print heads programmatically, through the “Start” menu, go to the “Devices and Printers” section, find the desired printer and right-click on it, selecting “Properties”. On the Tools tab, first select Printhead Cleaning, then Cleaning and Start.

If necessary, repeat the procedure 2-3 times. If problems persist, physical flushing of the clogged nozzle plate will be necessary. To do this, use a specialized washing liquid, glass cleaner or an alkaline solution, the recipe for which can be found on the Internet.

Another possible reason for poor print quality is carriage misalignment. To calibrate the print head, select the function of the same name in the utility program and follow the recommended actions.

If white streaks appear evenly spaced, carefully clean the encoder disk. You will find this part in the form of a circle made of transparent material on the left on the paper feed shaft. Carefully wipe the disc with a cloth moistened with a special liquid or other ammonia-based detergent. At the same time, remove dirt from the encoder tape - a transparent strip with markings located along the paper feed shaft.



Laser printers

The cassette for a laser printer provides printing using a special powder - . Its design includes a cylindrical one with a photosensitive layer applied. Some models are equipped with a chip for focusing the laser on the photo cylinder.


What should I do if, after refilling, the laser printer prints with vertical black stripes along the edges of the sheet? You already know that this symptom indicates a problem with the photodrum. If you continue to use a cassette with a worn-out photosensitive layer, you risk damaging the printer itself, where excess toner spills. Therefore, without delay, take the problematic cartridge to a service workshop.

You cannot do without the help of specialists in the case of wear or contamination of the dispensing blade, which removes excess toner from the surface of the photodrum. Problems with this part, along with light stripes and bald spots in the image, are recognized by the cracking of the cartridge - this sound appears when the photodrum jams. As a rule, both parts (metering blade and image drum) must be replaced at the same time.

If longitudinal stripes of different widths appear in a new place each time, bursting rubber seals are to blame. Professional repair will also solve this problem.

A separate group of symptoms are vertical white or dark stripes across the entire sheet, including outside the printing area (in the margins), as well as horizontal stripes consisting of dots and blots, which are repeated at intervals of 2-4 cm. These defects serve as a sign damage to the magnetic roller shell - the element that transfers toner to the photodrum.

Print quality also suffers if the magnetic shaft is warped due to deformation of the pressure plates. This failure is recognized by the uneven density of the image on the print. The way to solve the problem is already familiar - replacing the worn part.

So, you have learned how to correct printing defects that occur when the cartridge is refilled. In conclusion, we emphasize that it does not always make sense to restore a worn cassette, limiting it to replacing failed parts. If the cartridge has long exhausted its resource, it is better to buy a new one than to regularly spend money on repairing the old one.

In a special section on the website you will find a wide range of consumables for inkjet and laser printers. Study the catalog, choose the appropriate model and make a purchase, and then enjoy the excellent print quality!

The problem of print distortion sooner or later overtakes every printer user. When printing documents or images, the ink is not distributed evenly across the paper, resulting in the formation of vertical or horizontal stripes, which naturally interferes with the normal perception of the text.

Of course, in cases where the documentation is not very important, and small stripes do not significantly affect readability, the problem can be ignored. But what to do in cases where you need to prepare important documents and the finished printout needs to look presentable? Here you need to determine the cause and try to eliminate it.

Why does my HP printer print in stripes?

Many causes of streaking and other distortions in printing can be determined by their appearance.

Possible reasons why an inkjet printer may streak:

  • poor ink flow (white or multi-colored streaks),
  • the nozzles are clogged,
  • print head calibration (vertical line breaks),
  • encoder disk contamination (white stripes located equidistant from each other).

Possible reasons why a laser printer may streak:

  • out of toner (white vertical stripes that widen with each new page) - like,
  • mechanical damage (vertical stripes of different widths),
  • overfilling of the toner waste bin (black dots and specks),
  • wear or damage to the image drum (intermittent black stripe along the edge of the page or black dots randomly scattered across the page),
  • Problems with the dosing blade (dark streaks on the page or faint vertical streaks).

We perform nozzle testing

If you find that the ink tanks are intact, but there are streaks when printing, it is worth checking the nozzles. To do this, go to Start - Devices and Printers, right-click on the desired device and select Printer Properties from the drop-down menu (if not Win7, then just Properties).

In the window that opens, click Settings, go to the Tools tab and there you will find the Nozzle Check button.

Some printer models, such as HP, can only perform a nozzle test using the buttons on the device. What exactly and how to press depends on the specific model (find out on the manufacturer’s website).

Are there any gaps on the test page? It is reasonable to assume that the nozzles are clogged and need to be cleaned using a software method.

If cleaning attempts fail, try cleaning manually. This case is quite unpleasant and requires a lot of time and patience when troubleshooting, and in some cases it is better to contact specialists.

Problems with the shaft and thermal film

If the black stripes are located in one place, then you should remove the cartridge and inspect the shaft. It deforms over time and this leads to such results. The problem may also be due to a foreign object getting on it, removing which will help get rid of the streaks.

In addition, the reason for such printing of the printer may be thermal film. It may have been damaged, in which case it is recommended to replace the cartridge with a new one. When removing the cartridge from the printer, you should check to see if the toner is spilling out of it. You can determine this yourself. You should pull out the cartridge and shake it. If this was the problem, then your hands will be stained with black paint. Here you need to replace the cartridge with a new one, since it is unlikely that you will be able to do anything.

The printer prints with cross stripes across the entire sheet of paper

The printer prints with stripes. When printing, cross stripes appear across the entire sheet. It should be added that this is the most common printing problem.

The reasons for the appearance of such stripes:

  • waste toner bin overflowing;
  • The squeegee needs to be replaced.

In this situation, it is enough to empty the waste toner bin and the streaks will completely disappear.

Any person who works with a printer sooner or later faces the problem of streaks appearing. That is, when printing an image, the resulting image is not the same as on a computer screen, but with a large number of stripes, which, of course, significantly impair perception. It’s especially bad if we are talking about color printing of some flyers or business cards - it turns out not to be advertising, but some kind of anti-advertising.

I was involved in the production of printed advertising materials and am familiar with this problem firsthand. The appearance of streaks during printing is one of the most basic printing problems, which automatically entails a number of new ones. What’s most interesting is that no one can avoid it, so you just need to clearly understand the reasons for its occurrence and know how to behave to eliminate it. A question about the type - the printer prints with stripes - what to do is asked by any user of printing equipment.

This difficulty of use is more typical for inkjet printers (and it doesn’t matter whether it’s an outdated model with cartridges, or even some modern Epson equipped with a seven-color CISS - streaks appear in both cases). When using “jet jets” you get the clearest white stripes. But here we need to make an amendment - the stripes may not always be exactly white. If color printing is used, the stripes can have very different colors. This is explained by the fact that the printer creates different shades by mixing primary colors, and if one of them is missing (problems with supply from the CISS), then, accordingly, in some places there will be a “gap” of another shade. For example, there may be pink stripes on a blue background.

However, a laser printer can also produce streaks, but in this case they will be more “smooth”. This is due to the fact that the toner cartridge is running low.

What is the mechanism for this kind of problem to arise?

First, let's look at the reasons why streaks occur when printing on an inkjet printer. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that now it is much better to buy printers with CISS, since their use is much more economical than purchasing cartridges. So, the reason that leads to striped printing is that the print head, through which the pattern is applied, becomes clogged. That is, when ink enters, the microscopic channels connected to the print head become clogged. Or another reason is air getting into these channels. This is due to the fact that printing continued when the ink had already run out. But in any case, the result is the same, only in the second case there is a risk of “burning” the print head.

What to do if the printer prints in stripes and how dangerous can this be?

When this problem first occurred to me, I was very puzzled and quite alarmed, but after reading articles on the Internet about this, I quickly figured it out. So now I am happy to share my many years of experience with other people.

Below I will describe the clear sequence that I followed when eliminating this kind of defect. I would like to draw the reader’s attention to the fact that some details in terms of the interface differ between printers, but the essence of this operation does not change. Personally, in my case, streaks were eliminated when printing on an Epson L355 printer.

Algorithm of actions to eliminate streaks.

The print head needs to be cleaned. To do this we do the following:

Again, it should be understood that each such cleaning consumes a certain amount of ink, which leads to the need to reset the so-called “Pampers” counter - which is very problematic. So we should try to carry out such cleanings as little as possible.

Streaks when working with a laser printer.

This may well be the case too. In the event that the “laser” begins to produce stripes when printing, you need to check three things and draw the appropriate conclusions:

  1. Is there enough toner? Perhaps the problem is on the surface, and you just need to add more toner.
  2. Is the camera working properly?
  3. Is the cartridge itself OK?

In the vast majority of cases, you just need to add toner and that’s it. So everything is simpler here than with the jet fighters.

A printer is a peripheral equipment that is used to print text from electronic media onto paper sheets. Users who use these types of computer equipment should be aware that printers also need recovery time. It may depend on how intensively the type of equipment is used.

If the printer starts printing in stripes, then this is a reason to sound the alarm. This means that it is not functioning properly and needs to be repaired. This article will consider several situations where various kinds of stripes appear on paper after information is printed on a printer. Options for solving these problems will also be proposed.

White streaks appear on paper when printing on a printer

White streaks after printing on the printer are not an indicator of anything bad. They form when the paint on a given type of equipment runs out. In order to cope with this situation, you just need to purchase a new cartridge. However, this cartridge can be quite expensive. It is for this reason that some office equipment services offer their services, which consist of refilling the cartridge. This manipulation can be carried out at home.

Every user who decides to purchase a printer for himself must definitely ask the seller whether it is possible to refill the cartridge if necessary or not, so that no problems arise in the future.

Black stripes appear when printing on the printer


It should be noted that photodrums must be replaced after every third refill. However, there are often situations in which problems appear quite early. To correct them, it is necessary to clean the shaft. In this case, it is possible to use soft fabric. In order to find out where cleaning needs to be done, you just need to carefully look at the paper. On it, black stripes may be located on a certain side. This is where the cleaning needs to be done. You can also brush off any dried dye buildup. This should be done with great care.

There is also another problem that users often encounter. To solve it, you do not need to contact specialists, but you can do everything yourself. The problem is that the drum lubricant may dry out. This happens because no one uses the printer for quite a long period of time. To solve this problem, it is recommended to activate the self-cleaning option. It is available for each user in the Printers and Faxes section. It can also be used to cope with the previous problem.

The appearance of longitudinal stripes during printing on the printer

If users very often use printing information from electronic media onto paper and longitudinal stripes appear on it, then only specialists can cope with this problem. This requires replacement of the photodrum. In some situations, it will cost less money to purchase a replacement drum unit and use it for replacement. However, it is very important to be completely sure that the problem with the printer lies precisely in this type of component.

The appearance of cross stripes during printing on the printer

If pepper stripes form on the printer during printing, this is a sign that the magnetic shaft is in a completely worn out state. This problem happens quite rarely. However, prices for its use are relatively high. Every user should know that if both the magnetic roller and the photodrum in the printer are in a faulty condition, then it is much more profitable to replace the cartridge than to repair them.

Video: Is the printer printing stripes? Let's fix it!