I bought a used hewlett packard deskjet 610cl i bought new ink both color and black and new hp paper. And i stil get a message that says inkjet cartridges are not loaded correctly. And it won't print or pull the paper through the printer. Thank you for your help. Don
Re: hewlett packard deskjet 610cl by roger (3/11/03 11:49 AM) reply
DON, YOU MAY WANT TO TRY THIS PROCEDURE FIRST. YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO ELIMINATE PROBLEM AREAS AND THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST COMMON PROBLEMS...With your printer turned on, open the top cover. The "print cartridge holder assy" will unlock and move over to the approx center area...TECH NOTE: This movement is not always to the same [center] area on all HP DeskJet Printers, but the assy will unlock and move over...Now reach behind the printer, or on the side of the printer and UNPLUG the power cord. The printers power will now be off and you can easily move the "print cartridge holder assy" from side to side...Now get some Q-Tips, an old rag and a cup with a small amount of "Distilled Water" in it...TECH NOTE: "Distilled Water" has less chemicals and minerals in it, than tap water... You will be dipping the ends of the Q-Tips into the water and removing the excess water from the Q-Tips with the rag. You want the Q-Tips to be damp, but not with the water able to drip off of them. Remove one cartridge and use one damp Q-Tip to carefully wipe off the "electrical contacts" on the metal strips on the back side of the cartridge. If your cartridge is NEW, there probably won't be much, if any ink on these surfaces. If your cartridge is older, there may, or may not be ink on these surfaces. The contacts are gold or copper looking and are actually little raised bumps on the metal strip. The metal strips/contacts can be damaged, so wipe/clean gently and don't use fore. Don't wipe off the end of the metal strip that has ink on it, YET. Once you clean off the electrical contacts, look at the Q-Tip you used. If it has ink on it, use a clean, damp Q-Tip to reclean the contacts. Keep [carefully] wiping/cleaning off the contacts until no more ink can be seen on the Q-Tip...TECH NOTE: This ink that was possibly on your cartridges electrical contacts, can act like ELECTRICAL TAPE and sometimes stop/block/distort the electrical signals, causing varied problems...You can now use damp Q-Tips to wipe off the printhead end of the cartridge. Be carefull to not use to much force on the printhead surface because it can be easily damaged. Also be sure not to get ink on previously cleaned electrical contact areas. Once the cartridge is clean, use a DRY Q-Tip to litely dry off the electrical contacts... REMEMBER: Water and electricity don't mix and even though the contacts probably air dried already, its better to be SAFE, than SORRY...NOW PERFORM THE SAME CLEANING PROCEDURE AND DRYING, TO THE OTHER CARTRIDGE...TECH NOTE: If you don't do this procedure fairly quickly, you might want to cover the ends of both cartridges with scotch tape. This way there's no chance that the air will cause the ink on the exposed printheads to dry out. Especially if you leave, or get side tracked before your completely finished...ONCE BOTH CARTRIDGES ARE CLEAN, DRY AND POSSIBLY TAPED, YOUR READY FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THIS CLEANING PROCEDURE...Look inside the holder, where you removed your cartridges from. There are "electrical contacts" [same metal type strips and same gold/copper color] inside this assy. These contacts line up perfectly with the contacts on your ink cartridges...TECH NOTE: Thats why a different numbered ink cartridge won't always work correctly, even though it is the same size [contacts don't line up/touch correctly]...NOW clean and dry the inner electrical contacts just like you did on the contacts on your ink cartridges. Still be carefull and don't use force, so less chance of damage. Look at the Q-tip you used to clean off those inner contacts with. If there was ink on these contacts, that could have been causing you problems...REMEMBER: EVEN IF THE CARTRIDGES WERE BRAND NEW, BUT THE INNER ELECTRICAL CONTACTS WERE DIRTY, YOUR PRINTER MAY HAVE LOST ELECTRICAL CONTACT, CAUSING THE SAME PROBLEMS...TECH NOTE: YOU WANT TO BE SURE THIS INNER ELECTRICAL AREA IS VERY DRY, BEFORE REINSTALLING YOUR NOW CLEANED CARTRIDGES. ALSO CHECK REAL CLOSE [USE A FLASHLIGHT] TO BE SURE THAT NO PIECES OF THE COTTON TYPE FIBERS FROM THE Q-TIPS, GOT STUCK/CAME OFF ON THE RAISED BUMPS ON THE ELECTRICAL CONTACTS. ANYTHING THAT GETS BETWEEN THE CONTACTS ON THE CARTRIDGE AND THE CONTACTS INSIDE THE HOLDER ASSY, MAY CAUSE PROBLEMS...I hope this helps, but if it does not change your problem, let me know thru this printer repair site. I can give you more information on common problems, but most of my help is IN-DEPTH and STEP BY STEP. I post this information as if the person that receives it, is not skilled in printer servicing and cleaning...Good Luck! Denny Conway
Re: hewlett packard deskjet 610cl by don (3/11/03 9:50 PM) reply
denny, i tried you advice it still didn't work any other ideas. thank you for your time. roger, i also tried your idea it didn't help thank you for your help. don
ANONYMOUS: On most HP Printers you normally should open your CONTROL PANEL UTILITY first. Then open the ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS. Then under INSTALL/UNINSTALL, highlight and REMOVE any old printers first. After removing your old printers and drivers, go to the HP WEB SITE and download the latest drivers for your printer and system...You can use this link to get you to the HP SUPPORT & DRIVERS WEB SITE: http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/eng/support.html ... Good Luck! Denny Conway
Re: hewlett packard deskjet 610cl by Bob (4/26/03 5:16 AM) reply
KELLY: My apologies for not having replied to your message sooner and for this general text saved message...My mother, who leaves about 300 miles from me, had a bad stroke on 4/22 and I had to leave work. I did not even return to work until monday 4/28. I will only be at work for a few days and then have to leave again because of many pressing family matters. I will not be able to help much if any on the "printer repair site", for possibly a few weeks or so. If I have any spare time at all before I leave, I will try to address/answer any questions/problems you have already posted. Again my apologies and I hope that someone else may be able to help you further until I can once again help in my spare time...Good Luck! Denny Conway
Kelly: I'm not sure what you actually mean by the START UP PAGE, but if you mean the printers "internal self-test page" then that indicates your printer is usually working ok...Are you getting any strange GRINDING NOISES or RATCHETING NOISES as your printer tries to print? Does your printer print out a print job ran from your PC, but the page has JIBBERISH or strange symbols and characters on it? Are there any FLASHING LIGHTS on your printer when you are trying to do a print job?...My free time is really limited right now, but if you can give me more information to go on, I'll try to help you if I can...Good Luck! Denny Conway
bob, thank you for your reply! i guess i'm an idiot! well at least i can spell idiot and i can spell the word with, unlike you who thinks the word idiot is spelled idot and with is spelled whith. bob you have a great day and thanks again for your reply! don
denny,I guess it was just printing the internal self page,Anyway it did start to print jibberish but now it does nothing. No lights are flashing. When I hit print for a job it does nothing. There are no grinding noises,But it does print the self page when I hit the reset button.Thanks for any help you can give me Kelly b
KELLY: TRY RUNNING YOUR HP PRINTER AS A "STAND ALONE PRINTER", NOT CONNECTED TO A PC: Unhook the "printer cable" from the back of the printer. The power cord would still be plugged in to the wall. With paper loaded normally, turn the printer off for 10 seconds, or so. This is done to clear out any remaining DATA/INFORMATION that may still have been in the printers system, from when the PC was previously connected. Now reach over and turn the printer on as normal. The printer should come on and go to a normal READY CONDITION, with no ERROR LIGHTS on. If you get an ERROR LIGHT on, then you know you have a problem in your printer. If there are no ERROR LIGHTS on, then hold-in on the "Paper/Resume Button" [the button with the picture of a piece of paper next to it] for about 3 to 5 seconds, until the LED/LIGHT next to the button starts flashing. Release the resume/paper button once the light starts flashing. The printer starts to initialize and then it will pull in a piece of paper and print out an "Internal HP Self-Test Copy", on most HP models...TECH NOTE: IT'S POSSIBLE THAT YOUR PRINTER MAY PRINT OUT MORE THAN ONE "SELF-TEST COPY" If YOU HAPPENED TO HOLD IN ON THE "PAPER/RESUME BUTTON" TOO LONG, BUT THATS OK...If everything is working correctly in the printers "PAPER FEED ASSEMBLY" and "CARRIAGE/CARTRIDGE ASSEMBLY", the self-test copy should be printed out and correctly fed thru the printer...AS A GENERAL RULE: If the self-test page prints out correctly, then usually your printer is working normally. This does not mean your printer may not be dirty, or have another service related problem, or even bad cartridges. It just means the printer is basically working normally as far as the internal tests go...You could run this self-test several times [just be sure], but usually if it works once it will do the same again...IF YOUR PRINTER IS WORKING OK, THEN YOUR PROBLEM WOULD NORMALLY BE IN YOUR PC: bad drivers, bad printer cable, bad software, etc...Good Luck! Denny Conway
What do you do if your printer is not working-we have installed it correctly into the computer system, and the computer light is on as the printer is running. But the computer is saying there is no paper-and there is paper in the printer? Lisa
My printer sat unused for 2 months. Now I can not print. The printer acts like it is working fine. (Paper is taken up and the print assembly moves back and forth as though it is printing.) I get no error messages. It can not print out a test sheet. I get one faint line of black dashes in the upper half of the paper. This is the same output that I get when I try to align the printer cartridges thru the HP toolbox. I have cleaned the contacts on both printer cartridges. There is liquid ink visible in each cartridge. When I touch the contacts with the wet cotton swab, ink is expressed. Do you have any suggestions?
Teresa Could the contacts you mention acutally be the nozzles where the ink comes out? The contacts are on the side that faces the back of the printer when the cartridge is installed. You can clean these contacts along with the corresponding contacts on the carriage using a cotton swap moistened with water. If you suspect that the nozzles are clogged, and wiping them has not worked, turn the cartridge with the nozzles up, then put a drop of water on them and gently wipe it off with a cotton swab after a few minutes. DO NOT flood the nozzles with water, one drop at a time is enough. There is also the possibility that your catridges are defective.
Thank you for your reply. You are correct. I was talking about the nozzles. I did as you suggested. I put one drop on each and allowed it to stay there for several minutes, but this did not fix the problem. The cartridges were working fine prior to being packed up for 2 months. Do you have any other suggestions?
If you have cleaned the cartridge and carriage contacts and the printer goes through the motions of printing, my best guess is that you have defective cartridges. I know that it's an expensive experiment to buy new cartridges but that is probably your only recourse unless you know somewhere you can barrow them. If you have to spend money just buy the black cartridge and see if black starts to print. If you have to buy a new printer I suggest the Deskjet 6122, not low cost but cheaper to operate if you do a lot of printing. Stay away from the DJ 3820.
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