OK I’ve got a HP Deskjet F4200.

Had it for a couple of years and its always been fine, didn’t use it for a while as I lost the USB wire and refused to buy a new one because I knew that would mean finding the old one. I have now bought a new wire but the printer has become very temperamental.

It has lots of ink, and the software is all up to date; I’ve done all the maintenance things (like cleaning the head, realigning etc.) on the off chance that it might fix it but it didn’t.

Sometimes it prints fine, but other times it just choses to print part of a document or whatever, usually the images, it prints these in the wrong colour and then doesn’t print the rest of it. I’ve tried fiddling with the settings, and I’ve tried printing from different pieces of software with whatever I’m trying to print in a different format. All with no joy.

Any suggestions?

Typically all this has started the week after someone told me if I didn’t have a printer already I could have a new one for free (why didn’t I just go for that?!)

Update the drivers? Can’t think of anything else to try….

does the test print cycle all work ok?

Sounds like blocked inkjets, do you have any spare cartridges?

Do a test print from the printer itself. Hold the power button down, press cancel, release both together.

Does that print reliably? This test will tell you if it’s a problem with the printer or the PC / cable.

Chances are it’s blocked nozzles; you might need to do the cleaning process more than once – for a printer that’s been laid up for a while, a dozen or more cleaning cycles isn’t uncommon.

If it’s been sat for a while it’ll have blocked nozzles. HP cartridges include the clever bits so you may have to buy a new cartridge. Or you could just keep doing the maintenance cycle (which uses ink and may work.) If you really don’t want to give up try a bit of water on the nozzle face (the ink is water based). All done at your own risk etc.

Do a test print from the printer itself. Hold the power button down, press cancel, release both together.

Didn’t know about that. No that doesn’t print reliably so must be the printer!

I’ll keep going with the cleaning cycles then…

Just strikes me as odd that somethings will print fine, and the the things that don’t print consistently wrong!

When you say the wrong colour, is it just missing one of the colours (yellow, megenta or cyan)? May be dirt on the connects that connect the cartridge to the carriage. Could yust remove the cartridges and refit.

Huzzah! I win…

Using the test print thing (and the info on hp’s website as to what that should like) I realised that its the black thats not working. Took it out and cleaned it with a baby wipe. Had a bit of an argument with the printer which decided i hand’t put it back in when I had. Tested again, all is good!

Thanks guys! 🙂

success without

a) bickering

or

b) funny but irrelevant posts

*mixed feelings*

My cats beath smells all fishy in the mornings.

wwaswas does that help restore normality to the thread?

success without

a) bickering

or

b) funny but irrelevant posts

*mixed feelings*
It has to happen every once in a while, no one would ever ask questions on here otherwise 😛

It helps considerably when the original question actually contains some information above and beyond “my printer doesn’t work.”

Model number, relevant history, symptoms, what’s been tried so far. Tremendous. We should sticky this thread as a golden example of how to ask a technical question.

My cats beath smells all fishy in the mornings.

wwaswas does that help restore normality to the thread?

yes, in that it gives me the opportunity to point out that you meant to type ‘breath’ and not ‘beath’ 😉