Just changed the cartridge on my printer - it is printing the same text several times (repeating) on the same page and there are a lot of dark patches with the text. Any suggestions?

Did the dark lines start after the change? If so, maybe the drum on one of the cartridges is damaged. (Since you mentioned dark, I'd suspect the black cartridge.) Try replacing cartridges.

If that doesn't fix it, you can send it in for repair if it's under warranty. If it's outside warranty, I'd probably just replace it, unless you want to learn a lot about the innards of a laser printer.

A technique to improve print quality is to try and clean the cartridge nozzles. You may clean the cartridge by following the steps given below:
1. Go to the "Lexmark solution center." This can be done by clicking on "Start," go to "Programs" and Lexmark printer group. Click on the "Lexmark Solution center." Next click on the "Maintenance" Tab.
2. Select "Clean and Fix Horizontal streaks." Click on "Print". This will produce a printed page.
The colors that you should see here are black, yellow, magenta (a reddish purple) and cyan (a dark sky blue). You should notice the diagonal lines above and below the solid horizontal lines. These diagonal lines should be solid from left to right with no gaps.
If there are gaps in the lines or the print diminishes across the page, you should run the "Clean Print Nozzle" page a couple more times to try and clear it up. If you still have gaps at the top and bottom, you should "wick" the cartridges by following the steps given below:
1. Please open the "Solution center" again and go to the "Maintenance" Tab.
2. Select "Install color/black cartridge" and remove the cartridge or cartridges from the printer.
3. Get a damp paper towel.
4. Set the ink cartridge right side up on the damp paper towel so that the ink nozzles are against the towel and hold the cartridge in this position for about 15 seconds.
5. Now wipe the print head (on the bottom where the ink comes out) across in one direction only (left to right) until it looks clean.
6. Next dab the cartridge on the towel to make sure that the ink is flowing.
7. Snap the cartridges back into the printer.
8. On your computer, select "Old Cartridge install."
9. Repeat the "Clean Nozzle Page" one more time. If this fails to address the problem the entire procedure may need repeating.

Good Luck!!!!

Here's the starting point for any print quality issues. The subject starts pretty broad, but if you follow the instructions, you should be able to solve your problem.

My solution
(CAUTION: Never loss balance while tilting printer! You may drop and damage your printer! Hold the printer firmly all the time! Ask someone to help you if needed!)

Here, front of the printer is where you can access the cartridge, back of the printer is where you connect the power cord and USB cable, left is your left, right is your right.

1.Lift the front to keep the printer tilt to its back at about 45 degree
2.Power on printer while it's tilted back, wait untill green light is on
3.Open the front door, red light will be on, then close the door, printer will start up again,wait untill green light is on
4.Repeat step 3 once again, then put the printer back to level position
5.Lift the right to keep the printer tilt to its left at about 45 degree
6.Open the front door, red light will be on, then close the door, printer will start up again, wait untill green light is on
7.Repeat step 6 once again, then put the printer back to level position
8.Print some test page to see if there is any improvement of black print quality.


You may try several times and print several pages each time before you finally cure the problem.

Good luck! And do it safely!

I have a brother MFC 3240C. My Black ink stopped printing(initially printed horizontal faded lines and gradually got worse), the other colors were printing fine. I tried cleaning numerous time( 50 -100 times over 1-2 weeks ). Still no improvement. The way I print now is:
1. I go to Printer Properties
2. Change Media type from "Plain Paper" to "Inkjet Paper".
3. Change Quality to "Photo".

This takes a long time to print 1-2 minutes per page. However, this works for me since this is my Home printer and use it for printing only few pages here are there.

Good Luck
RK

Spend a little time searching the topic on google and even this post. It appears that this has been a well documented problem since at least early 2008. The problem appears to be the imaging unit. According to several posts, Samsung has replaced several of the units. I purchased my CLP-300 in November 2008 and it worked with no problems until about 8 months in. The black text would print very lightly on the left side of the page about 1/4 of the way into the page. There was also a streak that ran down the page vertically that disrupted the text. I could change the font to any color and it would print just fine. After replacing several toner cartridges, I just began to print in a dark color for many months. After discovering all the posts on the internet this week, I contacted Samsung today with my documentation and evidence. They basically blew me off stating that I was outside of the 1 year warranty period and there was nothing they could do. I was even hung up on by a Samsung employee named Michael. Tonight I plan to take a hammer to it to relieve a little frustration. I cannot understand why Samsung chooses to ignore this well documented problem. Good luck.

The problem you are experiencing is caused by the way the text is formatted in most word processing documents. By default envelopes are printed not in black, but a dark gray. This confuses the printer and causes it to use the color cartridge to process gray instead of using the black cartridge. You can fix this problem with one of 2 ways.
Please select the "Black" only option following the steps given below:
1. Click on "Start," "Control Panel" and click on "Printers and Faxes."
2. Right click on the "Lexmark printer icon" and select "Properties."
3. Select "Printing Preferences," click on the "Quality/Copies" tab and choose "Print Color images in Black and White."
4. Select "OK."
You can also change the color of your text to a true black in your word processor. This will require you to resort to the word processor's documentation and help files.
Both of these settings will cause your printer to use the black cartridge instead of the color. If either one of these solutions solves your problem, it means your color cartridge needs to be cleaned or replaced. If you feel that the color cartridge should not be out of ink please try the following:
1. Go to the "Lexmark solution center." This can be done by clicking on "Start," go to "Programs" and Lexmark printer group. Click on the "Lexmark Solution center." Next click on the "Maintenance" Tab.
2. Select "Clean and Fix Horizontal streaks." This will produce a printed page.
The colors that you should see here are black, yellow, magenta (a reddish purple) and cyan (a dark sky blue). You should notice the diagonal lines above and below the solid horizontal lines. These diagonal lines should be solid from left to right with no gaps.
If there are gaps in the lines or the print diminishes across the page, you should run the "Clean Print Nozzle" page a couple more times to try and clear it up. If you still have gaps at the top and bottom, you should "wick" the cartridges by following the steps given below:
1. Please open the "Solution center" again and go to the "Maintenance" Tab.
2. Select "Install color/black cartridge" and remove the cartridge or cartridges from the printer.
3. Get a damp paper towel.
4. Set the ink cartridge right side up on the damp paper towel so that the ink nozzles are against the towel and hold the cartridge in this position for about 15 seconds.
5. Now wipe the print head (on the bottom where the ink comes out) across in one direction only (left to right) until it looks clean.
6. Next dab the cartridge on the towel to make sure that the ink is flowing.
7. Snap the cartridges back into the printer.
8. On your computer, select "Old Cartridge install."
9. Repeat the "Clean Nozzle Page" one more time. If this fails to address the problem the entire procedure may need repeating.

Canon printers do not like non Canon inks. Maybe other printers have similar issues but it seems that Canon is particularly finnicky.

I have a psc 2355 printer which only prints half of text then the next lines are ok then it repeats only printing half text. I removed my ink cartridge and wiped the ink ports with a tissue heavily moisten with water. Repeated this several times and then gently dried with a tissue. The problem was fixed!!

You are using HP's cartridge with the smallest output . So if you are printing 80 pages of text, you will have a problem by the time you reach 95 or 100 pages. If you are printing in color, you only have 1ml/color. Meaning 3 colors. But in order to print a red, it will combine a magenta and yellow to product 1 color. So 3 colors doesn't mean 3 ml worth of colors. Effectively you may only be able to print 10-20 pages of color then your cartridge is empty. The black cartridge has about 4-5ml of ink. So if you print a lot I suggest you get another printer.