It prints ok, but paper is blank (no ink at all)
1. Remove the protective tape from the cartridges:
1. With the printer power on, open the front cover of the printer. The cartridge carrier should move to the middle.
2. Remove the cartridge(s) from the printer.
3. Look on the underside of the cartridge(s). If there is yellow tape and/or transparent blue tape there, remove it.
2. Clean the cartridge nozzles:
1. Go to the Lexmark Control Program or Solution Center and run the Clean print nozzle test.
If a black cartridge is installed, you should see black lines only.
If the color cartridge is installed, you should see yellow, magenta (a reddish purple), and cyan (a dark sky blue) lines.
If a photo cartridge is installed, you may see different colors.
2. Examine 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, you could run the Clean Print Nozzle page a few more times to try and clear it up or try the "wicking" procedure below to conserve ink.
If the page is faded from left to right and the wicking procedure doesn't clear it up, your cartridge is probably out of ink.
3. Clean ("wick") the cartridges:
1. Remove your cartridges following the instructions in your User's Guide.
2. Take a warm, damp paper towel and fold it so that it has about 4- to 6-ply thickness.
3. Set the ink cartridge right side up on the damp paper towel so that the ink nozzles are touching the towel, and hold the cartridge in this position for about 15 seconds. The nozzles are where the ink comes out of the cartridge.
4. Now drag the cartridge lightly across the paper towel in one direction only (left to right) until the bottom of the cartridge looks clean.
5. Turn the cartridge over so that you can see the bar code sticker on the back. Note: Only perform steps 6 and 7 if the contacts look dirty or corroded.
6. Using a clean pencil eraser, clean the contact points on the copper strip (only the little squares just below the bar code). Caution! Do not use the eraser on the nozzles that were cleaned, as this will damage the cartridge.
7. Using a clean part of your dry paper towel, wipe the eraser dust off the contacts; ensure that they are dry, and snap the cartridge back into the printer.
8. Make sure to install the cartridges following the instructions in your User's Guide, selecting Old Cartridge. Failure to do so could reset your ink levels as explained above.
9. Repeat the nozzle cleaning procedure one more time. At this point the diagonal lines should be solid.
10. If they are not and you think the cartridges should have ink in them, contact our technicians by e-mail and let them know the results of this test.
4. Reset the ink levels:
Lexmark printer cartridges do not have ink sensors. The levels of ink are produced by a mathematical calculation of ink drops and page counts. The printer stores this information and then writes it to the win.ini file on your computer.
Ink levels can be reset by telling the printer you have installed a new ink cartridge or by reinstalling the printer drivers and selecting Cartridges Installed. Once ink levels have been reset, there is no way to change them except by printing.
Accordingly, even if your computer says that your ink is full for a particular cartridge, it may be incorrect and the cartridge may need to be replaced. You may want to try a new cartridge to see if that clears up any print quality problems.
