# Printer Problems



## ModelAFan (Jun 24, 2012)

Hello. I have a HP Officejet 6000 Wireless printer that keeps running out of ink. I changed the ink cartridge less than 5 months ago and it is already running out of ink. I turn it off after I get done printing what I want to print, but I'm sick of it running out of ink less than 5 months ago and I hardly print anything. But when I need to print something it is out of ink. Please help.


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## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

Is it actually getting hard and not functioning on full cartridge or is it running out of ink. That printer appears to use four separate cartridges. Do all of them run out or just one? If it is out of ink because you are using it up then there is not much to do except buy a new cartridge.


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## ModelAFan (Jun 24, 2012)

joed said:


> Is it actually getting hard and not functioning on full cartridge or is it running out of ink. That printer appears to use four separate cartridges. Do all of them run out or just one? If it is out of ink because you are using it up then there is not much to do except buy a new cartridge.


It is running out of ink, because I printed something out and it has pink lines all over it. Like I said, I don't think I've used up all of my ink. Most of the ink cartridges report low on my computer.

My question is: I haven't printed anything out for about a month. The printer has been off that entire time. I was told to leave it off or the ink will dry up. But before I stopped using it I had to print off a few brochures.

BTW, thanks for the quick response!

~GF​


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## GBrackins (Apr 26, 2012)

sounds like you'd got clogged print head(s). this happens often when you go long time between printing. There is always residual ink that dries over time. I normally use some water and a Q-tip and some gentle wiping, but then I've had my HP printers almost 15 years and researched how to clean them. In case you're not sure the copper looking thing is the printhead.

Check HP for detail instructions for your printer, don't want to damage anything, check your manual you may have a clean print head setting.

Good luck!


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## djlandkpl (Jan 29, 2013)

Switch to a laser printer. Costs a bit more upfront but you won't be wasting money on dried up ink cartridges.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

djlandkpl said:


> Switch to a laser printer. Costs a bit more upfront but you won't be wasting money on dried up ink cartridges.


Not always. With cheap Laserjets, come cheap cartridges. I buy on the HP Officejet line for all of my printers, and never have had any issues with HP OEM ink cartridges. It is always the refurbs that seem to either stop working, run out of ink due to clogging, etc..

I just end up spending a little more on the OEM cart's, than the others and have never had any issues.

For the OP, the printer they have is a pretty pricey printer, not cheap by any factor. I am going with refurb cart's as their issue.

ModelAFan, try cleaning paper
http://www.cyberguys.com/product-details/?productid=30398 Also you can clean the unit where the heads are with 90% Isopropal Alcohol. Also see http://www.printerhacks.com/how-to-really-clean-an-inkjet-printer-in-5-simple-steps/


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## ModelAFan (Jun 24, 2012)

Thanks, everyone! Here is some photos of what it is doing.

I noticed that when I printed the GIF image of a tree I painted in Microsoft Paint, the background came out orange, the color it is supposed to be. The brown also came out nice. :thumbup: But the green came out gray.

When I turn on the printer, a dialog box pops up on my computer.

Here is a photo of my printer.








Here is a photo of the lights that light up on my printer.








Here is a photo of the dialog box that pops up on my computer when I turn the printer on.








Here is a photo of the printed image.








This is what the image printed out is supposed to look like.









Thanks for everyone's help. I've tried cleaning my print head's via HP Printer Control Panel on my computer, but it doesn't make stuff better.

I understand that the ink is "low", but why is it low when I didn't print much. Yes, I know a few months ago I printed about 10 to 15 full-color brochures that are about 5 pages each, but I don't think that should run my ink down that much. Plus, I was told to turn the printer off after using it to avoid the ink from drying up (which I do.)


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## AllanJ (Nov 24, 2007)

Occasional printing of one or two pages at a time tends to use much more ink compared with lots of printed pages in a short time.

Between print jobs, ink starts to congeal in the nozzles.

Each time the printer is turned on after being off for days, the cleaning cycle which consumes ink is invoked.


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## RWolff (Jan 27, 2013)

Oh I totally HATE inkjet prints- HAAAATTEEE the stupid things AND their way overpriced "ink" that looks like cheap thinned out food coloring, I don't remember how many of the stupid things I've thrown away because they stop functioning right. The lousy 4 or 5 "tanks" of ink costs as much as the whole printer.
I finally had it about a year ago and bought a Samsung ML-2540 lazer printer, and it came with a very generous supply of toner, I still haven't replaced the toner on it and it's been working perfectly.
No color but I don't care, the consumer grade of ink jets are just total krap that they sell cheap and jack the price of the ink up to make it back.
They keep coming out with new "chips" and sensors to thwart refilling, and the tanks either never fully empty as a result, or you have to dink around trying to "reset" the chips, and if just one tank runs empty, even if its a color you dont need, you can't print even plain black text untill you replace the color ink.


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## RWolff (Jan 27, 2013)

ModelAFan said:


> Thanks, everyone! Here is some photos of what it is doing.
> 
> I noticed that when I printed the GIF image of a tree I painted in Microsoft Paint, the background came out orange, the color it is supposed to be. The brown also came out nice. :thumbup: But the green came out gray.
> 
> ...



If you are printing out "wall to wall" color stuff like THAT, it's no wonder your ink is going so fast! Those little tanks of ink only hold a few tablespoons each and that's nothing when you are printing solid colors like that above.
The specs they give on how many pages can be printed are for plain text, and not even the full sheet as most letters and documents dont have text over 100% of the sheets.

You might do seriously better having those brochures etc printed instead of trying to print on an inkjet, you'd get better paper, perm inks and better quality for less than they would cost to do yourself.

By the way, I looked that up on Amazon, and consistantly half of the reviews on it are very low, lots of reviews like this:

*Okay printer for the price*
This printer is very pretty and the cartridges for it are really cheap, but it doesn't get very many pages per cartridge and when I tried to install it on my Windows 7 machine, following the instructions that came with the printer didn't work

This china made printer does not manage color ink properly. Constantly says paper jam and needs ink when you just put ink in a week ago. 

...had high hopes, but out of the box, the first test print was unreadable, cleaned print heads with utility, etc, never did work. returned it

1.0 out of 5 stars *printer was a disappointment and disgrace*,
The color ink worked for a couple of weeks and then despite buying new cartridges and reloading all software, the color function never worked again

*Do NOT buy this piece of junk!*, 
I've had my HP Officejet 6000 E609a printer for only 3 or 4 months and I'm already replacing it. Less than half a year and it epically failed after the first attempt to replace the ink cartridges! I first replaced 2 of the colors and then when I did, it said another color needed replacing, when it hadn't before. So, I replaced all 3 of the colors, except for black. A week later, the blue and magenta cartridges, which were replaced only a week earlier, the software said the cartridges were already empty, and I hadn't printed anything other than test pages to test the cartridge! At the exact same time, yellow simply stopped printing at all! The software said yellow was full, but would not print out yellow at all. After a while, yellow started printing again, but would not print solid yellow shapes, only yellow bars filling in the space. Cleaning the heads didn't work because the software or printer thinks that magenta and blue are empty, when the cartridges had only been replaced a week earlier!


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## ModelAFan (Jun 24, 2012)

I'd like to someday upgrade to a laser printer, but that will not happen anytime soon.

This HP printer comes with very thin ink cartridges. I'll take a photo inside it later today.

This printer has never had any major problems except for the ink running out quickly. Other than that, this printer works like a dream. I used to have a high-quality photo printer with touchscreen, but we don't have it any more. That thing was a beast, and it printed really good but seemed to have the ink problems.

HP has always had this ink problem I guess. But their toner is pretty good I heard.


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