Maintaining and troubleshooting52
See the next sections for more specific problems:
• Meaningless characters print
• Ink is smearing
• Ink is not filling the text or graphics completely
• Output is faded or dull colored
• Colors are printing as black and white
• Wrong colors are printing
• Printout shows bleeding colors
• Colors do not line up properly
• Lines or dots are missing from text or graphics
Meaningless characters print
Check the cable connection
• A common cause for meaningless characters is a poor cable connection between the printer and
computer. Make sure that the cable connection at both ends is good and that the cable is securely
fastened.
• If you are using a USB cable and the problem persists after you have checked the connection, turn off
the printer and disconnect the cable from the printer. Turn the printer back on without the connection in
place. When the Power light is on and not flashing, reconnect the cable.
Check the document file
• Occasionally, a document file is damaged. If you can print other documents from the same
application, try to print using a backup copy of your document, if available.
Cancel the job
• After an interruption has occurred to a job that is printing, the printer might not recognize the rest of
the job. Cancel the current job and wait for the printer to return to the Ready state. If the printer does
not return to the Ready state, cancel all job processes and wait again. When the printer returns to the
Ready state, resend the job. If prompted at the computer to retry the job, click Cancel.
Ink is smearing
Check the print mode
• When you print documents that use a lot of ink, you must allow the document more time to dry before
handling it. This is especially true for transparencies. Select Best mode in the printer driver, and
increase the ink drying time from Advanced Features in the printer driver. Under Advanced Features is
an Ink Volume slider that you can use in conjunction with drying time to decrease ink saturation.
However, note that decreasing ink saturation might give printouts a “washed-out” quality.
• Color documents that have rich, blended colors can wrinkle or smear when printed using Best mode.
Try using the Normal, Fast Normal, or Draft mode to reduce ink, or use HP Premium Paper designed
for printing vivid color documents.
Check the media type
• Some types of media do not accept ink well, which causes the ink to dry more slowly and results in
smearing. See Selecting print media.
