My ancient HP 970Cse has never let me down ~ till now. And it may be me, not the printer.

1. It's been chugging away without a problem for years.

2. It suddenly began printing anything that isn't black text in a pukey shade of pale sea green

3. Tried printing form various apps, all with the same results.

4. Downloaded and reinstalled the drivers.

Here's where it may be me ~

Little Sister gave me a bunch of cartridges, because she got a new printer last year. I've traded these out a couple of times this weekend, same result. So ~ Is my little workhorse just giving up the sea green ghost? Or do cartridges actually go nasty over time? I sure hope it's the latter. These cartridges are easily 3-4 years old.

Before I go waste bucks on brand new ones only to find that some how my little HP is just too sick to work anymore, figured I'd check in here.

Irony ~ For all the page layout and design work I do, I'm obviously ignorant about anything beyond the basics concerning my home printer.

TIA.





Is my printer just dieing of

Is there a printer utility that will let you run a cleaning cycle or print a test page?

Tried both. No joy. I just went ahead and turned in our latest project in a brown paper bag.

I did have ink cartridges go bad , both Epson and they were new so I just return them . I believe that it was that little interface chip thats on the cartridge side that meets the printer side .

Anyway - the sort answer is YES cartridges can go bad with or without age .

I would not recommend you run out and buy new cartridges and still find out thats not the problem ? Weigh the difference of buying new cartridges and from buying a new printer that comes with ink ? ?

Then again could be a simple setting ?
I had a problem with my HP , printing PDF files , it would grab paper and wrinkle it and or jamb the printer , however printing other files like MS Word or Text Edit I had no problems <-- Kinda perplexing . Anyway I stubbled upon changing the setting from ""Auto paper feed" to "Choose printer paper tray"" worked great <-- go figure

I think programers do these things as a inter office JOKE just to piss people off

Hey, some inks are pigment based encapsulated droplets, such as those in the higher end Epsons/UltraChrome inks or whatever they are called. They have an exp. date but usually last waaay past that.
Then there are color printers that have inks that are organic vegetable dyes and these can and do go bad.

Are the carts OEM?

Ran across this..


What follows is the internal test for the 900 series printers.

HP Deskjet 916c, 920c, 930c, 940c, 950c, 970c, 960c, 980c, and 990c series
printers

Running a sample page
NOTE: This test does not work with the HP Deskjet 6840 series.
Turn the printer on.
Press and hold the RESUME button until the printer starts printing.
Release the RESUME button.

Running a self-test
Turn the printer on.
Press and hold the POWER button.
Press the RESUME button four times.
Release the POWER button.

Running a diagnostic test
Turn the printer on.
Press and hold the POWER button.
Press the X (Cancel Print) button eight times.
Press the RESUME button four times.
Release the POWER button.

Two-sided printing module (duplexer) test
Press and hold down the POWER button.
Press the CANCEL (X) button three times.
Press the RESUME button once.
Release the POWER button.

If the test works then you have a driver and or PC problem (maybe a cable
failure in rare cases), if the test does not work (ie black fails to print)
then you have a bad black cartridge or a failed logic board in the printer. If
the test works then I suggest you completely remove all traces of the 970
drivers and re-install them.




Also, here's a site I have used from time to time....

http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/inkjet/13694

I know your budget is limited, but new printers are really cheap at the moment. I recently saw a Brother color laser printer at Office Depot for $149.00 and my HP Photosmart 8250 inkjet was $129.00 at Sam's Club several years ago. I don't think my Brother monochrome laser printer is going to die anytime soon, so I'm not contemplating having to buy a new printer.

Also...

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/foru...threadId=836139

Oh, wow, I don't think I'd have ever stumbled across all that info! Nuc, thank you so much. I'm too tired to mess with it tonight, but I'll jump on it in the AM and let y'all know.

I know, new printers are cheap. But breathin' life back into my old baby is cheaper.

And thanks again, mucho much, all y'all.


LL

On one of those links pages I read that running the self diagnostic bypasses the OS and drivers so you can do a process-of-elimination.