# Printer malfunctioning



## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

HP Officejet 4620


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Having previously owned several HP printers I would say your printer has expired.

But trying to be helpful I will ask questions.

How old is the printer?
Were the cartridges recently changed?
What is the expiration date on the cartridges?
Did you clean the printer heads as HP recommends?


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Yeah. I think it’s kaput.

It is several years old. Don’t remember for sure. Eight or ten, maybe.

I changed the cartridges again today.

They aren’t expired. However, the printer isn’t recognizing the new cartridges as HP cartridges.

I found an HP site with a longer protocol for diagnosing the problems. Nothing works completely. The color is better, but the black isn’t printing correctly at all.

I went to Office Max and Best Buy. Neither store has adequate stock or employees. Frustrating.

I looked at Brother printers, too, thinking to upgrade, but the display models don’t match what they have in stock!!


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

For some reason every HP printer we ever had started printing just like that about the 2nd time we changed cartridges. One printer lasted 18 months!

I think our current one is an Epson. Hubby wanted one that takes a toner cartridge because toner doesn't dry out. We haven't changed cartridges but the printer still works very well even though it says the cartridge is expired every time we try to print something.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Hmm. I think the digital goddess, Kim Komando, recommends Epson, too. I didn't know that about toner. The only toner experience I have is when the copier at the library had a toner accident. It wasn't pretty.


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## robin416 (Dec 29, 2019)

HP has obsolescence built into their printers. I was tired of them failing after a few years and took a wild chance and bought a Canon. It's been close to 15 years now and I still have it and it still works.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

I am thinking you are correct. Two of them going out so close together with similar issues, plus the one owned by a fellow shopper in Office Max whose HP is doing the same thing.

I am shopping for another brand now.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Ooops, sorry. I don't have an Epson. I have a Canon, printer, scanner, copier. It does take toner cartridges. Home use cartridges are not as explosive as the older commercial cartridges.

My printer at work ran out of toner. The tech was covered with toner after refilling the cartridge. It was a mess.


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## 50ShadesOfDirt (Nov 11, 2018)

We've had good luck with Brother printers (inkjet and laser), having abandoned HP a long time ago due to the shenanigans.

The printer is basically free (so buy on features that you need), the cartridges are everyone's bread and butter (but 3rd-party cartridges were just too iffy for us ... one shady one, and we risked killing the printer). Nobody repairs them these days ...

I also looked for printers that had "large" reservoir sizes (or extended printing, or some such marketing term) ...

The software is pretty good ... print or perform various functions from your computer(s), or print from a usb stick via the printer menu; monitor everything from your pc. Updates of both software and firmware happen fairly often, implying they _do_ bother to fix things.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

Danaus29 said:


> My printer at work ran out of toner. The tech was covered with toner after refilling the cartridge. It was a mess.


He must've been not very competent, or really unlucky. It's not that hard to change a toner cartridge, or even fill a refillable one, without spilling toner everywhere.

Laser printers are much cheaper per page to run than inkjets, toner never dries out like ink does, and the print doesn't run if it gets a bit of water on it like inkjet print does. But if you buy cheap consumer-grade junk, doesn't really matter what brand it is, it's not necessarily going to last any better than a cheap consumer-grade junk inkjet. If you want a printer that will last, best bet is a used, off-lease commercial-grade printer. HP color laser all-in-ones can be had on Ebay for $200 or less. They're rated for duty cycles of typically 15,000-25,000 pages per month, so most of us won't live long enough to wear them out.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

backwoodsman7 said:


> He must've been not very competent, or really unlucky. It's not that hard to change a toner cartridge, or even fill a refillable one, without spilling toner everywhere.


Both, refilling the toner was not their job but there was no one else to do it. And he had problems with the empty cartridge and the jug of toner.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Alice In TX/MO said:


> Hmm. I think the digital goddess, Kim Komando,


Please don't make me laugh, she's a talking head and by herself knows very little about computers. She has "people" that tell her what to say.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Oh, that makes me sad.


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