photosmart 8450

[acetoolguy]

My printer quit in the middle of a print job with the following message, "photo cartridge failed, replace it or remove it to print using ink printing backup mode."

Is the photo cart. one of the colors? or something else? I tried reseating all 3 ink Cart. but that did not solve the issue.

[Ciara_B]

Hi

Have you tried cleaning the cartridge contacts? See link for details

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00254646&tmp_task=solveCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc...

Ciara

[jerry-va]

We are stuck here with a good machine, a second, new genuine HP cartridge, and cleaned contacts on both machine and cartridge.  Cartridge contact **is** important, and I recommend following the HP procedure (flashlight and cotton swab)

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00254646&tmp_task=solveCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&la...

as well as treating the contacts with Stabilant http://stabilant.com/ -- expensive, but highly respected. 

"Color cartridge failed" cannot be shaken.  I need a hard reset, NVRAM and all, for this machine, and one dollar gets you five we'll have a clean boot and print fine as if nothing had happened.

[jerry-va]

Me again.  I bought a 2nd HP Photosmart 8450 ("HP2"), and now confirm that the machine I wrote about above ("HP1") has a firmware error.  A virgin HP cartridge prompts the same old stuck-on-stupid error in HP1:

"Color cartridge failed, replace it or . . . remove it to print using ink- backup printing mode."

 This cartridge is accepted fine and prints OK in HP2.  HP2 recognizes a novel cartridge, asks for a cartridge alignment, then prints.

I conclude that HP1 has a firmware error.  If you tell me how to do a hard reset, $1 gets you five it will boot and work fine -- nothing wrong in the hardware.

My wife has approved the Xerox 8570 solid ink printer.  I'd rather have reliable mediocrity than endless frustration with HP.   9 inks, 3 diff shades of gray for b/w photography --- we all tried, didn't we?

--jerry

[Ciara_B]

Hi jerry-va

You can check for the latest driver at the link below

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?product=402150&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=402150...

Hope this helps

Ciara

[BarbaraDavy]

Printer stopped printing.  It says "Photo Cartridge failed replace it or remove it to use ink backup printing mode"

Does this refer to cartridge ink.  What should I do?