Maintenance

Maintenance isn't much of a problem with inkjet printers. They should be installed on a hard suface with plenty of ventilation. If you set one on a material like a rug you are liable to contaminate the inside of the printer with dust and fibers from the rug. Plus if the rug or material is thick enough it could block the flow of air under the printer. Heat is the worst thing for a printer. The manufacturers recommend using a dust cover of some sort when not in use.

This applies to either brand of printers. If the green light on the adaptor doesn't come on when you plug it into the terminal take it back off and remove the washers from the mounting screws. This will allow the adaptor to slide deeper into the port making a better connection.

Should the terminal either not recognize the printer or not respond at all by not showing a print button on the Options key pop up panel you should reconnect the printer cable. It may look and feel like a good tight connection but with that many pins it doesn't take much to make a bad connection. It may take 3 or 4 tries before it works.

1. I just installed a new HP cartridge and I can't print in black and/or color.

Check to make sure you have all the protective tape removed from the cartridges.

2. My black ink is starting to fade.

The black ink cartridge is probably running out of ink.

3. My colors are starting to change. (or printing too dark/light)

The color cartridge is probably running out of one of it's three colors.

4. I'm getting smearing and or streaks when I print.

The print head is probably contaminated with debris and needs to be cleaned. Check with the respective printer links at the bottom of this page.

HP Printer Troubleshooting Page

HP 600 Series Maint

How Inkjets Work

More Canon Info

Fix Auto Shutoff

Canon Cart Problems

800 Series Cleaning
and Test Page

Refills and HP Warranty

Paper Feed Problems

HP Diagnostic Test

Clutch Adjustment

Clean Encoder Strip

Paper Jams