Printing problem

[CSULB71]

This one has me baffled: I have Win XP and a HP Deskjet 930C that prints great color photos and black text just fine. Last week I printed a black & white photo, and it came out dark green & white! The black ink cartridge is new (refilled), but I can't see that as the problem because when I print a color photo with blacks in it (car tires, shadows, etc.) or text, they come out great. Any ideas? Thanks.

[Number Six]

Was the B&W photo scanned as a color image? This will give you the green, because it is a composite black - rescan the photo in as a B&W or MONOCHROME image - this will give you true Black.

[nic2k4]

Did you set the printer to print grayscale or try different settings. Update the driver and if it's up to date then re-install it. Try printing through a different program like Picasa or Xnview.

[guns1inger]

What was it refilled with ? My mother bought cheap refilled cartridges off eBay a while back, and the colours of every cartridge were off, including a distinctly green tinge to the blacks. Some of the refill kits and services are decidedly dodgy.

[CSULB71]

Yes, it was a scanned color photo. I converted it to "black & white" in Adobe PhotoDeluxe as a test print because I printed a downloaded DVD cover that was mostly black, with some color sections, and was surprised to see the black parts come out in shades of dark green. Setting the printer to print the photo as "grayscale" made no difference -- still dark green. Another mystery: I e-mailed the b&w JPEG photo to my son to print on his PC/HP930C printer (same as mine), and he said it came out as black & white! I had him send the file back to me, thinking the transmission as an e-mail attachment had done something to the embedded color info. (maybe deleted it?), but it printed dark green again on my printer. I've tried printing the photo via several different app's (XP's wizard, ACDSee, HP's PhotoSmart), but it prints dark green with them all.

[Number Six]

Then, I would go with guns1inger's assessment of the cartridge.

[CSULB71]

What was it refilled with?

It was refilled at Walgreen's drug store. But as I said in my original post, when I print a color photo with blacks in it (car tires, shadows, etc.) or text, they come out great; i.e. the blacks come out black. Apparently, it's only printing dark green when it's a "b&w" or predominately black color image.

[Number Six]

Try taking out the color cartridge and print it as grayscale with only the black cartridge.

[CSULB71]

The printer won't print with a cartridge removed.

[Number Six]

Well, I don't know where to go with this other than installing a NEW original black cartridge. Good luck.

[CSULB71]

Yes, I guess that buying a new HP black ink cartridge is the only way to know for sure. They cost ~$35 now -- that's why I tried a refilled one.

[sambat]

There's some pretty smart printer types on the forums at this site.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/index.php

[JohnnyMalaria]

Print the HP test page (hold the form feed button in while powering up or something like that - see the manual). It will print color and b/w - you'll be able to tell which print head is at fault.

[MJA]

Yes, I guess that buying a new HP black ink cartridge is the only way to know for sure. They cost ~$35 now -- that's why I tried a refilled one.

that's why I will never buy a damn chipped printer. Brother is the only one left I think

what's inside those damn thing that cost $35???I know off topic thing,but i feel i wanna release some steam

[Number Six]

what's inside those damn thing that cost $35???

BORG Nanoprobes - very expensive to manufacture

But seriously, I think the head assy is a series of heating elements that boil the ink droplets and force it out of the cartridge - amazing that it even works at all, but with today's technology, they should not be that expensive . I gave up on inkjet printers because of the cost, and because the cartridge heads will dry out if not used frequently. I only use a laser printer for any convenience printing that I need - a cartridge lasts me years, and I have no need to print color.

[JohnnyMalaria]

You'd be surprised. There was a fascinating How It's Made recently about, well, how they're made. Very similar to IC production. Ultra cleanrooms, testing/visual inspection of every hole on every atomization head. Then add the complex formulation of the inks. Periodic testing using high speed, ultra video microscopes to monitor droplet formation etc. It was like a combination of CPU manufacture and pharmaceutical product testing - including accelerated stress testing for QC etc.

Re laser printers - definitely a better option, though. 15,000 pages for $100 cartridge (brand) is amazing. Ours has done 35,403 pages in three years (don't ask) and has gotten through one drum.

[MJA]

15,000 pages for $100 cartridge for a commercial,or home printer?

[JohnnyMalaria]

At home. Brother MFC-8860DN. Very fast and robust.

[CSULB71]

Print the HP test page... It will print color and b/w - you'll be able to tell which print head is at fault.

I printed a test page, and it looks fine. Black looks black and I got a green check mark (passed the test) next to each of the test lines.

I know HP's inkjet cartridges are very sophisticated in the way they work, but the #45 black cartridge cost only ~$20 a few years ago when I bought my last new one.

[Nelson37]

It would appear that the problem seems connected to ONE particular photograph, and does not happen with test pages or other images. I would focus on the image rather than the printer at this point.

Make a copy of the image, and use a paint program to place an area of pure black in the middle of the "greenish-black" area. If this prints correctly, then it's the image.

Why and how is a whole nother issue. I would try converting to B&W, from the original, with a different program.

As for lasers, definitely a better long-haul solution. I have serviced several HP printers that have gone well over a million pages and still cranking.

[CSULB71]

Nelson37: I tried your suggestion, and the black square I put in the middle of the image looks black by comparison to the rest of the print, but really is a very dark green. BTW, it's not just this one image -- the same thing happens with other color images converted to "b&w", done by three different photo editing app's. So I concluded the problem is a crappy quality of refill ink.

BUT, then I did a print with my son's black ink cartridge in my printer (on his printer, the image printed correctly as b&w), and it too came out as dark green!! So now I have to assume that something's wrong with my printer, or possibly with the tri-color cartridge (also a refill), that's causing dark green to be generated instead of black from the black ink cartridge. Which is baffling because I get good results from the test page and regular color images.

I've thoroughly cleaned the circuit strips on the cartridges and the contacts on the printer. The next step is to print the image on my son's printer, with his ink cartridges, hooked up to my computer. I'll see what that produces in a few days.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Dab the black cartridge on a piece of paper and see what color it is.

The ink may be separating into its components (if not a single pigment) so try different paper.

[CSULB71]

The ink looks black when wiped on a piece of paper.

But, as I said above, I did a print with my son's black ink cartridge in my printer (on his printer, the image printed correctly as b&w), and it too came out as dark green on my printer. So, my next test is to use his printer connected to my PC, to see what happens.

[CSULB71]

Quick update: Tried my son's printer, with my ink cartridges, connected to my PC, and same results: dark green print. Tried printing two different "b&w" images -- same thing.

Then tried his color cartridge with my black cartridge, and got a "b&w" print! So, it looks like I have a defective color cartridge that somehow puts out dark green ink when it's not supposed to. Ever hear of such a thing?

I guess the only thing left to do is buy a new color cartridge and see what happens.

[Number Six]

I just read through the complete thread - you never mentioned that the color cartridge was also a refill in the original post. If the printer would have worked without the color cartridge installed, it would have solved the problem - but that is not your fault. When I used inkjet printers, they all worked without the color cartridge, but they were not HPs. I did try refilling a black cartridge once, but it leaked ink all inside the printer , and the pages took 10 minutes to dry . If you really HAVE to use refilled cartridges, then buy the ones they sell in packages in the store - I used to buy the black ones in Office Depot, they were about $10 cheaper, and they worked perfectly. As guns1inger said "Some of the refill kits and services are decidedly dodgy".

Good that you solved it - thanks for the update

[CSULB71]

Yes, hopefully solved.

I didn't mention my color cartridge was a refill (done by a local refilling company) because I never thought that was relevant, as the printer will print "normal" color images just fine. I would never try to refill a color cartridge, or use one refilled from a kit. I thought maybe my black cartridge refilled at Walgreens Drug Store might have been at fault, but it ended up being good quality black ink after all.

I'll post back after I try a new color cartridge.

[Nelson37]

Fascinating defect, wouldn't think the color cartridge would affect a pure black print. Is the green tint possibly misaligned, is it more or less obvious along straight lines in a particular orientation?

Tou could also try the B&W setting in the print driver, if available. This usually gives pure black, though not always.

I have had very good success with refill kits, took a few tries to get the process down but been using refills for several years now. Ink savings is running into the hundreds of dollars. Yes there is some potential mess or even damage to the printer, but if done right they are good as new and a couple refills will pay for a new printer. So it's definitely worth trying. There is some variation in quality of inks available for various printers.

[CSULB71]

"Fascinating" defect? -- that's not what I would call it!

This HP printer uses a tri-color cartridge, so there shouldn't be any mis-alignment of just one color. In fact, I've done several calibrations of the printer and cartridges, and each time everything passes.

If I use XP's printing wizard and select "B&W" instead of color, it prints black & white just fine because, I assume, there are no color "signals" sent to the printer, so the color cartridge is not used. If I pick HP's "gray-scale" setting (it doesn't have a true "B&W" choice), it will print dark green & white just like when selecting the normal color print setting.

Yesterday I went back to the refill place where I got the refilled color cartridge and exchanged it for a nearly-empty virgin HP color cartridge that they were getting ready to refill. Put it in my printer, did another calibration, it passed (test page looked great) and guess what? Dark green & white print! So now I'm down to only two possibilities: bad printer (most likely) or bad drivers (least likely as the printer/HP drivers have been uninstalled and reinstalled several times). I should know the answer tonight because I am having my son use my printer and cartridges on his PC to print the b&w image, and he'll also try my good HP color cartridge in his printer on his PC. That should weed out the culprit.

[CSULB71]

Well, I'm out of ideas now. My printer, with a good HP tri-color cartridge and a good black cartridge, hooked up to my son's PC, prints the "b&w" image as dark green & white, just like on my PC, and just like with his printer on my PC. I guess that is what our same model Deskjet 930C printers do, unless we use XP's print wizard and select "B&W" printing. But that won't do because I want to print a black DVD cover that has about 10% of the image in color, but the black comes out dark green.

[SCDVD]

A lot of inkjet prints don't use any black ink when you print in Photo high resolution mode. In this mode, the print is only CMY and blacks are composite black. No black ink is used. Try text and graphics mode to see if it helps your black saturation.