Not printing too well

Most printers have 4 inks: Magenta, Cyan, Yellow, and Black. Red requires the printer to print both Yellow and Magenta. If your Magenta isn't printing, red will show up yellow. When you say, "I am not out of ink", you may actually BE out of Magenta, or your magenta ink nozzles may be clogged. I don't know what brand of printer or model you have, so I can't give you exact directions to clean the nozzles. The printer driver may have that ability.

The ink you replaced costs as much as a new printer that comes with ink. Get a new one.

Either the ink you are using is not going to give the color you want, or you have print heads that are blocked.

Make sure that printer ask for ink cartridges.It can ask for yellow and magenta print heads!!!Check this again and if need replace the print heads.

Did yellow and magenta print OK before the previous cartridges ran out? If so, it looks like your new cartridges are not working properly. Try another yellow and magenta cartridge - you can re-use the previous cartridges if they turn out not to be faulty. If new cartridges don't solve the problem, you can try soaking the print head, in case you have nozzles blocked with dried ink for some reason.

Turn the printer on, and as soon as the print head moves out of its parking position, pull the power cord out of the back, or turn the printer off at the mains. You may now carefully move the print head by hand over to the left hand side out of the way. Look inside the print head parking area on the right and you will see a small rubber cup that comes up to cover the print nozzles when the head is parked (to stop it drying out). Use a syringe or dropper to fill this cup with head cleaning fluid or distilled water. DO NOT USE TAP WATER. Carefully push the print head by hand fully into its parking position so that the cup full of fluid comes up over the print head. Do not turn the printer on at any stage in this process. Leave this for at least 24 hours, then turn the printer on and try a head clean/nozzle check again. If you get any magenta/yellow ink on the nozzle check, then there is hope! Repeat the head clean/nozzle check process 2 or 3 times, but not more. Leave for 24 hours for any air bubbles to disperse. If nothing, repeat the soak process once more. If still nothing, post a new comment detailing what you have done and the results.

The printer colour cartridges are magenta, cyan and yellow. The printer prints "red" by mixing magenta and yellow ink. So, if you only get yellow when you print red, it means you aren't getting any magenta ink on the paper.

Have you tried a cleaning cycle? If not, try one (right click the little printer icon in the bottom right corner of the screen and select head clean). Now run a nozzle check (right click the little printer icon in the bottom right corner of the screen and select nozzle check). Is there any sign of magenta ink on the paper. Try up to three cleaning cycles. If ink is now flowing, but not yet perfectly, don't carry out any more cleaning cycles. Just leave the printer for 24 hours (to allow any air in the print head to disperse). Then repeat the cleaning cycle/wait process. It may take a while to restore a perfect nozzle check print.

If you have already done lots of head cleans with no result, are you sure you have a good magenta ink cartridge? To eliminate the possibility of a faulty cartridge, buy a new set of compatibles on E-Bay - they're very cheap. You can always re-use the old one later if it turns out it is OK.

If none of the above works, then you may have blocked magenta print head nozzles. You can try soaking the print heads for 24 hours (or more), as follows. Turn the printer on, and as soon as the print head moves out of its parking position, pull the power cord out of the back, or turn the printer off at the mains. You may now carefully move the print head by hand over to the left hand side out of the way. Look inside the print head parking area on the right and you will see a small rubber cup that comes up to cover the print nozzles when the head is parked (to stop it drying out). Use a syringe or dropper to fill this cup with head cleaning fluid or distilled water. DO NOT USE TAP WATER. Carefully push the print head by hand fully into its parking position so that the cup full of fluid
comes up over the print head. Do not turn the printer on at any stage in this process. Leave this for at least 24 hours, then turn the printer on and try a head clean/nozzle check again. If you get any magenta ink on the nozzle check, then there is hope! Repeat the process until you get a full magenta nozzle check. If nothing, repeat the process once more.

If still nothing, post a new comment detailing what you have done and the results.

Hi there. The reason for your problem is that the colour cartridge contains cyan, magenta and yellow ink, plus a black cartridge of course. All the other myriad colours are produced by mixing these four basic colours. So, if you print red, it requires ink from both the magenta and yellow cartridges. Thus if your red produces a yellow print, it means your magenta is not printing. This can be due to a number of reasons, mainly an empty or faulty magenta cartridge or blocked magenta print nozzles.

If you wish me to help you with sorting out the lack of magenta, please post a new comment to this effect.

I have an Epson 4000 which I started using new in Sept 2004 and my magenta is clogged too. I've gone through 2 maintenance tanks trying to clear it, (and LOTS of ink), but the magenta is still blocked. I even tried this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NR8g4qUAJc trick but it didn't seem to work. I hope you have better luck.

I am going back to Epson

What error does the machine show up?
Plz give some more info in detail!!!!!