Printer - no yellow!

Check for cracks in the ribbon cable to the print head, and check the contacts which mate with the cartridge are clean.

Dave

Thanks. The ribbon cable is a possibility. What's the best way to check it? [I have already well and truly cleaned all the contacts].

Was the new cartridge laying around for a while? Even sealed in the package they will go bad. Yellow seems to be the first color to go. What was the expiration date on the new cartridge?

Tony Marsillo Nutmeg Repair

Technically, it's slightly out of date - having an expiry date of May 2005. But you can get yellow ink out - and out of the old one, for that matter - by blowing on the vent hole.

It's a pain, but the only way I can think of is to remove the ribbon cable from the connector on the logic board and painstakingly check each trace for continuity from that end to the contacts on the cartridge holder. Often though a cracked ribbon cable will be visible through a decent magnifying glass and a soft, diffused light behind the ribbon.

Have fun!

Dave

It just occurred to me- have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers? I've had corrupted drivers cause all manner of weird and wonderful symptoms with printers.

Dave

I went through the exact situation as you with an HP722 printer. Before you take the printer apart buy a new cartridge and try it, make sure it is within the expiration date. I use to keep a spare cartridge, but they do not have a shelf life after the expiration date. Some places will exchange you cartridge if you have the receipt. Staples will do that, and HP will send you another cartridge if you complain.

Tony

Also check this link for more info:

Tony

No, but I've tried the printer on more than one computer - so that sounds unlikely!

That's interesting! I do have yet another unopened cartridge which I *think* is still in date (it's not readily to hand, but I'll dig it out). There's little to be lost by trying that one - except that will prevent me from selling it on Ebay!

I have to say that I'm not overly optimistic. The printer stopped printing yellow in the *middle* of a document - and the cartridge in use at the time is definitely not empty of yellow ink. A brand new - albeit out of shelf-life - cartridge behaved exactly the same. It seems too much of a co-incidence to me, and I still suspect that an electronic component has failed.

Incidentally, someone suggested checking the ribbon cable. As far as I can see, this is non-removeable and is soldered to a PCB at each end, making it extremely difficult to check for continuity.

It's probably a problem on the printhead driver board. If there's nothing obvious I would just get a new printer, those things cost about the same price as a set of ink cartridges these days.

My Canon has very inexpensive cartridges. Thats why I bought it. Five separate ones in my home printer, and four in the multifunction at work. Same cartridges.

Unfortunately I have also have a problem. AT first it told me I was running low on black ink. I replaced the cartridge. Shortly after, the print was very funny. Every fourth line was missing or garbled. I started a cleaning process. Shortly after, no black ink has been seen comming out of this printer. I cleaned and cleaned. I really think there is an electrical problem now, but how it relates to all this, I'm not sure. So I'm getting some sort of deal from Canon. I suppose an authorized fix is going to cost a bit, so thats probably why I might just buy a new one, at Canon's discount. I wonder how much that could be? Didn't hear from them yet

greg

We have already replaced the printer - but I'd still like to get the old one working as a spare.

Personally if there's nothing obvious wrong I'd just use it to print text with the black cartridge. If it needs new parts then the repair is unlikely to be economical or even feasable.

Dave