Meaningless characters print, Ink is smearing – HP Business Inkjet 1000 Printer User Manual

Page 55

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Maintaining and troubleshooting

52

See the next sections for more specific problems:

Meaningless characters print

Ink is smearing

Ink is not filling the text or graphics completely

Output is faded or dull colored

Colors are printing as black and white

Wrong colors are printing

Printout shows bleeding colors

Colors do not line up properly

Lines or dots are missing from text or graphics

Meaningless characters print

Check the cable connection

A common cause for meaningless characters is a poor cable connection between the printer and
computer. Make sure that the cable connection at both ends is good and that the cable is securely
fastened.

If you are using a USB cable and the problem persists after you have checked the connection, turn off
the printer and disconnect the cable from the printer. Turn the printer back on without the connection in
place. When the Power light is on and not flashing, reconnect the cable.

Check the document file

Occasionally, a document file is damaged. If you can print other documents from the same
application, try to print using a backup copy of your document, if available.

Cancel the job

After an interruption has occurred to a job that is printing, the printer might not recognize the rest of
the job. Cancel the current job and wait for the printer to return to the Ready state. If the printer does
not return to the Ready state, cancel all job processes and wait again. When the printer returns to the
Ready state, resend the job. If prompted at the computer to retry the job, click Cancel.

Ink is smearing

Check the print mode

When you print documents that use a lot of ink, you must allow the document more time to dry before
handling it. This is especially true for transparencies. Select Best mode in the printer driver, and
increase the ink drying time from Advanced Features

in the printer driver. Under Advanced Features is

an

Ink Volume slider that you can use in conjunction with drying time to decrease ink saturation.

However, note that decreasing ink saturation might give printouts a “washed-out” quality.

Color documents that have rich, blended colors can wrinkle or smear when printed using Best mode.
Try using the Normal, Fast Normal, or

Draft mode to reduce ink, or use HP Premium Paper designed

for printing vivid color documents.

Check the media type

Some types of media do not accept ink well, which causes the ink to dry more slowly and results in
smearing. See

Selecting print media

.

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