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Pontius:
Thanks!
Haven't tried it (I work mids, and just got up), but that's the information I was looking for.
The kid left me with a "reference manual", but it doesn't seem to contain this stuff.
(She moved to Columbus about seven years ago, and didn't want to take her 940 - wanted a "better" one, and bought this. The printer, that manual, and the box, all survived, but not any software or other paper. Mono printing isn't too bad, btw, but I think that cartridge is a little flaky too.)
Again, Thanks!
Now if I could fix my old LJIIIp.... (Bought new in the early 90's. Still prints, but the tray feed is possessed. For another time 
....)
Regards,
Stu.
Pontius:
No luck....
Not a real problem, but....
At this point, given the price of cartridges, I'm trying to figure out of the color "system" works at all before springing for a new one.
I got some blue/green ink out of the thing when soaked, and that is (in a more "ordinary" form) what I got when cleaning just the head, but I get no color at all when printing. I'd expect _something_....
You can tell things to print mono, of course, but I'm not sure if the Windows Test Page, or the button dance you suggested (which did work) would honor that setting. Couldn't find it anyway ....
Meantime, I've got the Bible, and a candle, but can't find a bell just yet - gotta exorcise that LJIIIp. Probably something I did....
(I also have an HP/Compaq PC that's possessed. The "park the HD at power down" function likes to park the HD "randomly".... Doesn't seem to hurt, so far, but sounds terrible. I retired it a long time ago, but since it's more or less intact, it gets cranked up occasionally when I want to do something without waiting for the "big desktop".)
Regards,
Stu.
Pontius:
Thanks....
I should try cleaning the contacts.... Seems odd that nothing is coming out at all when trying to use the color (especially since I got a bit of stuff out during cleaning,) but nothing would surprise me. I don't know if the kid put this thing aside without telling me it'd broken (she wouldn't understand some of these issues ) or not, either. She had access to several very high-end printers in Columbus, and now that she's moving to El Paso, has at least two she can use there. (Which, probably, is why the thing hasn't been used much lately, and she didn't take it with her. Or she forgot it .... She's been staying with my baby sister, and is now moving in with my other one.... Although El Paso may be planning on a move to San Diego ....)
I didn't expect much help on the IIIp - off to that section when I get a little time. The upper tray feed is possessed. The cassette seems to work.... Not your problem.... Funny story - when I first installed the thing - early 90's, just when the original LJ4 hit the market, I printed the test page, and my daughter (who'd been pestering as I installed it) grabbed the sheet and ran off with "It's blank!!".... She's a lot older, but still making me crazy....
'Bout the time "Titanic" appeared, she was printing pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio on her earlier DJ and selling them for about a quarter. When I found out (when the color cartridge died) that she was doing that, I told her that they were now a dollar, and I got half.... In about the same time frame, a buddy gave her a case of suckers. He ran a warehouse, and when a case got trashed they were supposed to dispose of them rather than try to return them. She took 'em to school and sold them.... What worries me is what I didn't find out .... (I think she only stayed out of jail 'cause the Assistant Principal's dad was a friend of mine....)
Regards,
Stu.
Hello SMMAssociates,
Haha, all right, sounds like your daughter was quite a handfull... Obviously it has lead to a lot of fun/amusing memories though so it sounds like it was all worth it 
Regarding the cartridge, the reason you might see some ink when cleaning it but not when printing could be either that it's been left either in or out of the printer without being used for a very long time and this can cause the ink to dry up. It could of course also be that there's no (or at least not enough) ink left. The tri-color cartridge has sort of three compartments of ink; one for cyan, one for magenta and one for yellow ink. It then "mixes" these three colors by using different amounts of the colors when printing. You said that you got some blue and green ink out of the cartridge when cleaning it, this indicates that there's cyan and yellow left but most likely not any magenta. It could also be that if you only see green ink but no yellow, some of the cyan ink has leaked into the compartment for the yellow ink. This should pretty much never happen when you use the cartridges in a normal way but could perhaps have happened if the cartridge has been stored outside the printer and in a way where the nozzles (where the ink is coming out of the cartridge) has been resting or been pushed against something.
I think that the best thing to do would be to replace the color cartridge with a new one. If you don't feel like investing in a new one you can still use the printer to print texts and such in just black (at least until the black cartridge runs out of ink). The printer will work with just one cartridge installed.
Pontius:
I haven't tried the contacts yet ....
But you're probably correct. 'Bout time to order some ink for the old 940c, too, and maybe the J4680 and....
HELP....
I knew how the cartridge worked - figured that much leakage indicated that there was something behind the thing that sprays the dots, though, but I'm inclined to think not at this point.
Whatever happened to band and chain/train printers? .... Anything with a ribbon? If I didn't have one here, I had one at the former day job.... And I could fix 'em without the need for the Book of Revelations....
'Course, I once spent $800 for a 30cps dot matrix sort of thing that probably should never have been on the market....
Radio Shack joke - can't think of the Japanese maker, but the pins were behind the paper, and a rotary hammer whacked them, through the ribbon and paper as necessary. Seriously simple design, but the quality was worse than awful. It also had a serious design flaw. It wouldn't hold veritical alignment well, or feed paper from the rear unless the stars were exactly right. Seems they decided to use a piece of fishing line and a solenoid to actuate the line feed function. Would have been OK, but they screwed a _solder lug_ to the center of the solenoid, and then tied the fishing line to it. This put the pulling point off center from the centerline of the solenoid, and it was set up so that the center pin could _rotate_ a bit.... The result is that you didn't always get a full stroke from the thing when it pulled in to do a line feed....
Nearly as much fun as the kid ....
Regards,
Stu.
