So you’ve just changed your HP 78 C6578AN (or maybe you have the HP C6578DN) cartridge and only one color prints. What can you do?

First, make sure your paper is not causing the problem. Paper that does not accept ink well can often times cause your printer ink to bleed or smear. We’ve seen paper be an issue quite often when folks are trying to print high density graphics on standard 20lb copier paper. It just does not look that good.

If you can eliminate paper as the problem, then print a clean test sheet to see if the printer and cartridges are functioning properly. Make sure to load your printer with clean, plain, white paper before printing the page. You will need to check your printer’s user manual for directions on how to print the clean test page.

Next, evaluate your clean test page. The images on the page should be free from streaks, missing colors, or wrong colors. If your test page looks good, then your printer and cartridges are, most likely, not causing the problem.

If your test page does not look good, then you most likely have a cartridge that is faulty, empty, has clogged nozzles, or has dirty contacts. If the colors on the test page are completely wrong, then you have a cartridge where the inks have been mixed.

If your cartridge is faulty, empty, or has mixed inks you are going to need a new cartridge. If you have clogged nozzles or dirty contacts there are steps you can take to fix the problem.

Question: My HP 952c inkjet printer is leaking ink and won’t print because the cartridges will not slide. I cannot get to the ink well where the cartridges are located because it is stuck to the right of the printer and doesn’t move when I open the top. How can I clean up this mess and get my printer to work?

Answer: Sorry to hear about the mess. Let’s start with the clean up of the ink. Use a dry cloth or paper towel to wipe up the ink that has spilled out of the cartridge. Wipe gently so you don’t do any damage to the internal components of your printer. The ink will likely color the inside of your printer – That’s okay. Just make sure you get anything that puddles. It should not look wet.

On to the non-moving cartridge carrier. The standard fix for this is to do a hard reset on the printer. Follow these steps.

1. Unplug the power cord and remove the paper from the paper tray.
2. Move the carriage all the way to the right, close the lid and reconnect the power cord.
3. The printer will make some noise as it starts back up. Wait until it stops making noise.
4. Open the printer lid. The carriage should return to its normal position.
5. Try printing again.

If this does not work, then damage has been done to the internal components. You will need to get the printer serviced by a repair person.

A customer called to report she was having trouble with their HP PSC 1315 printer. She wanted to know where she could get some replacement parts to repair the printer herself.

We are all about the ‘do-it-yourself’ mentality, but in the case of printer repair it is not always the best idea. Often times you will spend more on parts than you would to purchase a new printer. In the case of the HP 1315 you can now purchase that printer for under $100.00. You can buy equivalent printers for slightly more. Factor in paying a repair person and you will definitely exceed the $100 threshold.

As we don’t have any information as to where you can pick up spare printer parts we advised her to recycle the broken printer through HP’s recycling web site and go out and buy a new printer.

Having trouble installing new ink cartridges in to your Canon ip1600 inkjet printer. Follow these steps to solve the problem. Just so you can check, you will be inserting the Canon PG-40 and Canon CL-41 inkjet cartridges.

1. After confirming that the printer is powered on, open the front cover. The ink cartridge holder moves to the replacement position.

2. Take out an new cartridge from its casing and gently remove the orange protective tape in the direction of an arrow. Caution: Do not attempt to reattach the protective tape once you have removed it. Do not touch the gold electrical contacts or the print head after removing the protective tape.

3. Insert the color cartridge into the right slot and then the black cartridge into the left slot. Note: Push up on the nearest side of the cartridge until it clicks into place.

4. Confirm that the ink cartridges are installed properly. Image (A) shows the cartridge installed incorrectly. Image (B) shows the cartridge installed correctly.

5. Close the front cover. Wait until the preparatory operation is complete; it takes about one to two minutes.

These great directions and images (as well as more) can be found at the Canon trouble shooting page for the Canon ip1600 printer. The page will tell you now to properly remove the cartridges as well.

This is a strange one. A customer reported that their Epson Stylus NX400 printer won’t turn on.

First we asked the customer to make sure that the printer was plugged in. We even had them try multiple outlets and power strips just to make sure neither was faulty. Both worked fine and provided power to other electrical items.

With that out of the way we moved to the printer. We first had the customer try to use a different power cord (from the printer to the power strip). Again, no luck. At this point we knew it was the printer, and the problem had to be with the printer itself. Unfortunately there was no way for the owner to open up the printer and work on it. Nor was it worth the cost to take it to a repair shop. Since the printer had just been purchased yesterday, we suggested that the printer be taken back and exchanged for a new one.

The Brother DR-520 Drum Cartridge was just released for sale on the Pacific Ink web site. This cartridge works in the following Brother printers.

Brother MFC-8460N
Brother MFC-8660DN
Brother MFC-8860DN
Brother MFC-8870DW
Brother DCP-8060
Brother DCP-8065DN
Brother HL-5240
Brother HL-5250 Series
Brother HL-5280DW

Today we released genuine HP cartridges for the HP OfficeJet 6500. If you want to get the upper hand on office productivity, this is the printer for you. Print, fax, scan and copy with the HP All-in-One printer. Easily share your printer using built-in wired networking, and make scanning and faxing more convenient so you can keep your business running smoothly. Want affordable color printing? Get professional color for up to 40% lower cost per page and less energy use than lasers. With four individual HP OfficeJet inks, you will print documents with sharp black text and impressive color graphics.

The 6500 uses 5 different cartridges (black, cyan, magenta, and yellow). These cartridges are available in standard capacity and high yield (labeled XL). The high yield black cartridges will give you about 700 more pages of print. The high yield color will provide 400 more pages.

The HP cartridge numbers for this printer are:

HP 920 CD971AN Black Ink Cartridge

HP 920XL CD975AN Black Ink Cartridge

HP 920 CH634AN Cyan Ink Cartridge

HP 920XL CD972AN Cyan Ink Cartridge

HP 920 CH635AN Magenta Ink Cartridge

HP 920XL CD973AN Magenta Ink Cartridge

HP 920 CH636AN Yellow Ink Cartridge

HP 920XL CD974AN Yellow Ink Cartridge

Well, maybe not, but some researchers from McMaster University think the inkjet printer could soon become a life saving device. How?

The researchers have proven it is possible to use a specialized printer to apply printer ink that can detect dangerous toxins. The printer applies ink in layers that, when joined, are able to react to specific agents and reveal their presence by changing color. The use of small batch inkjet technology means that the ink formula can be customized to search for different compounds.

Read the full article at Mac: ink-jet printer can detect toxins.

If your Epson Stylus NX400 gives you an error message that says it cannot recognize the ink cartridges, try the following.

Double check to make sure that the cartridges you have placed in the printer are the correct cartridges. You’d be surprised at the number of times people accidentally purchase the incorrect cartridge. This happens more frequently with Epson and Canon because their printers use so many different cartridges.

Make sure any, and all, tape has been removed from the cartridge before you install. The area where ink comes out of the cartridges is often covered with some kind of protective tape. This keeps ink from leaking from the cartridge until you put it in your printer.

If you have the correct cartridges, make sure that they are fully fitted within the cartridge carrier. They must be making solid contact within the carrier for the printer to read the cartridges.

Check your printer drivers to make sure they are properly installed on your computer.

Your printer telling you there is no ink in the new cartridge you just put in it happens from time to time. Of course you know there is ink in the cartridge, so it is just a case of the printer not recognizing the cartridge, or cartridges, you have just replaced.

We’ve leared over time that printers do not always do the best job of determining which cartridge (black or color) is causing a problem, so it just blames it on both. The best thing you can do to fix this typeof problem is a hard reset. Here’s how to do it:

Remove all cartridges from the printer.

Unplug the printer’s power cord from the wall, then disconnect the power cord from the printer.

Let the printer site for 1-2 minutes (this will allow any power to the printer to run out).

Reconnect the power source to the printer, then plug the power cord back in to a power source.

Turn the printer on.

Place both cartridges back in to the printer.

Allow the printer time to reset to the new cartridges, then print a test page.

If you are still having problems after doing all this, then there is a problem with the cartridge you are trying to replace.