Printer cartridge problem

[mountainman]

hey folks:

I put in a new color cartiridge today in my HP printer and it is only printing the red. The cartridge has been around awhile, but it still has all of its ink. Anyone have any ideas how to get it to work?

Thanks!

[The Dude]

You could go to the toolbox and do a head cleaning. Might want to take the cartridge out and make sure all the sticky tabs came off OK.

[mountainman]

Looks like the sticky tabs came off OK. Howver, I'm not sure how to get a head cleaning on this printer. Will keep searching. Thanks!

Anyone else?

[zooner]

mess around in the settings, perhaps there is a setting misconfigured? Perhaps you should delete the printer and let windows reinstall it. If you installed the extras, just install the driver this time.

just some thoughts, my first guess is that the heads are jammed.

[The Dude]

Right click what HP calls the "taskbar icon" (it's in the systray) and select "Open HP deskjet printer series toolbox." That should give you a calibrate, clean, and test options. If the tasbar icon isn't there you can activate it though the start menu. That's the way it works for my HP printer.

[The Dude]

mess around in the settings, perhaps there is a setting misconfigured? Perhaps you should delete the printer and let windows reinstall it. If you installed the extras, just install the driver this time.

just some thoughts, my first guess is that the heads are jammed.

That or the contacts on the cartridge are dirty.

[Dan]

like was said there should be a taskbar icon you can right click for the "tool box" and get to the head cleaning and other utilities there,

and 2nd,there are expiration date stamps on the HP cartridge packages,see if it's expired.

[mountainman]

CC, the box for the cartridge is long gone, but I can tell you that I'm 99% sure that it was past expiration date. I bought it in a 2-pack at Sams a long time ago. Oh well.

I ended up buying a new one and it worked great. I figured at much since the old cartridge still had a little juice left in it. But, I had a BIG printing project yesterday.

Thanks all!

[Richer_Big]

If you want to keep a cartridge after you have removed it form the package the best way to keep it is put it in a ziplock bag and stick it in the fridge. It won't keep forever but it will help extend it's life.