Post by Deleted on May 15, 2014 13:35:44 GMT -5
Anyone who knows printers want to take a crack at this?
Yesterday I tried to help someone with their printer and it had a strange problem. It doesn't seem to want to print in color, and when I checked the ink levels, it gave me little question-mark icons for the CYM ink levels (and showed the actual levels as empty, but clearly there's something else going on if the little question marks are showing up). I tried everything I could think of and every resource I could find online, short of calling tech support because the thing is past warranty and HP's website says fees will probably apply for calling tech support with an expired warranty.
Here's what I did that didn't work:
- I ran the diagnostic tools and did an alignment check and automated printhead cleaning. Most of the test pages printed with CYM completely missing. Two diagnostic prints had faint smears of magenta at some points, but that was the only trace of color I saw all day.
- I took the cartridges out, checked them, and plugged them back in. They were plugged in correctly in the first place, and all three vents were completely clear of debris. Everything on them looked normal.
- I specifically told software to print in color. Still came out grayscale.
Stuff I didn't try:
- I didn't manually clean the printhead. I tried that before when her old printer had similar problems and it didn't work. And it was messy and tedious and annoying. I didn't feel like trying it again and I didn't think that was the problem, especially since the black ink cartridge worked fine.
- I didn't reinstall the software. This seems to be a hardware problem. I was also pressed for time and had other things I was helping her with, and I didn't want to spend half an hour on something that I didn't think was likely to work.
So at this point I think she just has some dud cartridges. She mentioned she bought them a few months ago and they've never worked. My final suggestion was to buy a new package and try those, but if anyone has any insight into this problem I'd love to hear it.
The printer is an HP Photosmart 6520, used with Windows 7.
Yesterday I tried to help someone with their printer and it had a strange problem. It doesn't seem to want to print in color, and when I checked the ink levels, it gave me little question-mark icons for the CYM ink levels (and showed the actual levels as empty, but clearly there's something else going on if the little question marks are showing up). I tried everything I could think of and every resource I could find online, short of calling tech support because the thing is past warranty and HP's website says fees will probably apply for calling tech support with an expired warranty.
Here's what I did that didn't work:
- I ran the diagnostic tools and did an alignment check and automated printhead cleaning. Most of the test pages printed with CYM completely missing. Two diagnostic prints had faint smears of magenta at some points, but that was the only trace of color I saw all day.
- I took the cartridges out, checked them, and plugged them back in. They were plugged in correctly in the first place, and all three vents were completely clear of debris. Everything on them looked normal.
- I specifically told software to print in color. Still came out grayscale.
Stuff I didn't try:
- I didn't manually clean the printhead. I tried that before when her old printer had similar problems and it didn't work. And it was messy and tedious and annoying. I didn't feel like trying it again and I didn't think that was the problem, especially since the black ink cartridge worked fine.
- I didn't reinstall the software. This seems to be a hardware problem. I was also pressed for time and had other things I was helping her with, and I didn't want to spend half an hour on something that I didn't think was likely to work.
So at this point I think she just has some dud cartridges. She mentioned she bought them a few months ago and they've never worked. My final suggestion was to buy a new package and try those, but if anyone has any insight into this problem I'd love to hear it.
The printer is an HP Photosmart 6520, used with Windows 7.