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.