Maintenance procedure · Written to ASD-STE100 Issue 9 · Formatted to ANSI Z535
Print Quality Recovery — HP OfficeJet Pro 9010 Series
Streaks, white lines and missing colours on an HP OfficeJet Pro 9010 series inkjet
ApplicabilityHP OfficeJet Pro 9010 series inkjet all-in-one printers, as covered by the HP OfficeJet Pro 9010 series user guide. Check the model name on the front of your printer against the guide before you start.
Task time22 min to 31 min editorial estimate, not a measurement
PersonnelOne
Revisionv1 · 2026-07-29
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Before you begin. This procedure is general reference information, not professional advice. Equipment varies by manufacturer, model, and year. Always follow the documentation supplied with your equipment — where it differs from this page, follow the manufacturer. Verify that you have the tools, the working conditions, and the ability to do this task safely. If anything is unclear, if the equipment is damaged, or if the task exceeds your experience, stop and use a qualified professional. You are responsible for your own safety and for the outcome. This site accepts no liability for any loss, damage, or injury arising from the use of this information.
Specifications marked unverified could not be traced to a manufacturer source. Do not rely on them — obtain the value from your equipment documentation.
Summary
When an HP OfficeJet Pro 9010 series printer starts laying down streaks, white lines or the wrong colours, there is a fixed order to work through, and doing it in the wrong order wastes ink. HP's own sequence is: prove the fault with a print quality report, check the cartridges, then clean the printhead one stage at a time, and only then align it. This page is that sequence as a single checklist.
Every step here carries a page link into HP's own user guide for this printer, so you can check any instruction against the manufacturer's document in one click. Nothing on this page is copied from that guide, and nothing on this page is a guessed number. The guide itself scatters this job across two chapters and about sixty pages; the point of the checklist is that you do not have to.
Necessary equipment
Item
Note
Plain white paper
Letter or A4 paper is satisfactory.
Replacement ink cartridge optional
Get one only if the printer shows a cartridge as empty.
Examine the print quality
Estimated 3 min
NOTEThe report in this section shows the condition of the printer. Start here, because the fault can be in the document and not in the printer.
Fill the input tray with white paper.
Letter or A4 paper is satisfactory.
Paper with a colour causes a failure of the alignment later.
KEEP YOUR HANDS OUT OF THE PRINTER UNTIL THE PRINT CARRIAGE STOPS. The carriage moves when you open the cartridge access door and can pinch your fingers.
This page uses one term for each item and holds it throughout, as ASD-STE100 requires. Equipment sellers and other guides use the names below for the same parts.
printhead
Also called: print head, printer head, print nozzles, jets
ink cartridge
Also called: cartridge, ink, ink tank, printer ink, toner
print quality report
Also called: test page, printer test print, diagnostic page, print quality diagnostic page, nozzle check
print carriage
Also called: carriage, cartridge holder, ink carriage, the bit that moves
control panel
Also called: printer screen, touchscreen, display, front panel
streak
Also called: lines, banding, stripes, faded printing, missing colors, ghosting
When to use a professional
Stop if the print quality is bad after the third stage and the alignment. Speak to HP support.
Do not remove the printhead. Do not put a tool into the printer. The printer has no parts that a user can repair. Qualified service personnel must do all other work.
Disconnect the power cord before you clean the outside of the printer. Speak to HP support if the printer does not operate in the normal manner.
Common questions
Why is my HP printer printing lines or streaks?
On an inkjet, streaks and white lines nearly always mean blocked or misaligned printhead nozzles, or a cartridge that has run down. HP's guide tells you to clean the printhead when the output is streaked or has incorrect or missing colours, and to align it when a printed block of colour shows streaking or white lines. Start with the print quality report so you know which of those you are looking at before you spend any ink.
How many times should I clean the printhead?
HP describes three cleaning stages, each stronger than the last, and asks you to look at the printed page after each one and only go on if the quality is still poor. Stop at the stage that fixes it. If all three stages plus an alignment leave the problem in place, HP's own instruction is to contact support rather than keep cleaning.
Does cleaning the printhead waste ink?
Yes, and that is the reason this page puts cleaning fourth rather than first. HP states plainly that cleaning uses ink, that each stage uses more of it, and that cleaning or aligning unnecessarily wastes ink and shortens cartridge life. A printer cleaned reflexively every time a page looks slightly off will get through cartridges faster than one that is only cleaned when a report shows a real fault.
The printer says a cartridge is low but it still prints. Do I replace it now?
Not necessarily. HP describes the ink level display as an estimate for planning purposes and says you do not have to replace a cartridge until the printer prompts you to. Treat a low warning as a reason to buy a spare, not as a reason to throw away a working cartridge. The reading can also be wrong or missing on a refilled cartridge or one that has been used in another printer.
Printhead alignment keeps failing. What now?
Check the paper first. HP says alignment fails if there is coloured paper in the input tray, so it needs unused plain white paper. If it fails repeatedly on the right paper, HP's guide points at a printhead that needs cleaning or a faulty sensor, and the next move after cleaning is to contact support.
Is this the same as changing a toner cartridge or a maintenance kit?
No. Toner cartridges and maintenance kits belong to laser printers, which work in a completely different way and get hot inside. The OfficeJet Pro 9010 series is an inkjet: it has a printhead that stays in the printer and ink cartridges that clip in and out. People search for "toner" on inkjet printers all the time, so the word is here to help you land on the right page.
Every specification on this page is traced to one of these sources. Tier 1 is a manufacturer document, a published standard, or a government safety authority. See Standards for the full tiering rule.
Current version 1 · updated 2026-07-29 · next review due 2027-07-29
v1 · 2026-07-29First draft. Built end to end from a manual fetched by scripts/manuals.py, with per-step deep links into HP's own PDF.
Corrections to this page are listed in the public corrections log. Reports that are credible and not yet verified are listed in the public errata register, and an open one renders above the step it concerns.
Comments and corrections
Found an error? A correction with a manufacturer source is applied and logged publicly. You can also write to corrections@fixchecklist.com.
Every step above carries its own report control, which tags the report with that step so a correction reaches the right place. For anything about the procedure as a whole — the order of the sections, a step that is missing, something that did not match your equipment — use this: report something about this whole procedure.
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