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The black ink on my HP 450c prints with white streaks and gaps. I've cleaned and primed the cartridge on two different black cartriges. The pre-defined print quality print continues to have white streaks, although it did improve somewhat.
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First off, if you touched the metal contacts on the printer or cartridge, you could damage or leave a film on the contact surface. Take it out of the printer, with a qtip dip in rubbing alcohol, squeeze out access, rub surfaces, air dry, and reinsert again. If still no ink, turn the print end up under the very hot water tap and run for 2 minutes. Dry and replace. It may do the trick.
If an inkjet printer gives white streaks where it should be black, it means the ink is very low, or there is dirt under the nozzles preventing it from printing properly, or, in the case of non original cartridges, ink might be leaking which prevents the bubbles of ink to squirt onto the page.
If the streaks are black where it should be white, is sounds like some dust or fluff below the cartridge leaves ink smears on the page.
Print in grayscale (black area streaking only)
If the streaks are in a black area of a black and white printout, change to grayscale printing.
NOTE:
This step does not apply to color printouts.
In the application you are printing from, click File
, and then click Print
.
Make sure the printer is selected and click Properties
.
Click the Color
tab, and select Print Grayscale
and High Quality
.
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.
Are you sure this is a Designjet 450 (large format printer) and not a Deskjet 450 (portable printer)? The following assumes you have wispy black streaking on the printed side of the paper. If the streaking is on the back side then post more details of the printer model and the issue.
In either case the most likely cause is a buildup of fibers on the underside of the printheads or carriage, causing wisps of black ink to be dragged on the paper when the carriage reverses direction. You can clean the printer as shown at the following (though the details will be somewhat different for the Designjet or Deskjet....).
Cartriges have a shelf life. It's printing in blue either because it has dried up or is out. Different cartriges have different timelines but if you haven't been using the printer often, it could have dried up or is simply out of ink. I would suggest first to try cleaning the head of the cartrige where the ink comes out with alcohol and a Q-tip and then if that doesn't work, buying a new black cartrige.
First with a clean soft cloth and a very small amt of alcohol clean off the underside of the printer carridge (the holder for the print heads) also where the print heads cleaning station is clean out any large masses of congealed link. Then remove the ink cartridge in question and with a pencileraser gently rub the contacts and both the cartridge and the carridge replace the cartridge. Using the software tools for the printer clean and align the printheads ( if there is an option to do so). If this dosn't fix the problem try a different ink cartridge.
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