Photosmart C7180C prints red

[snovack]

I have used Photoshop Elements 2.0 with Windows XP to print my photos forever with wonderful quality. I recently changed the Magenta cartridge and while I was sending photos to the printer, it began printing in red. A tech told me that I may need to reinstall the drivers. (I honestly believe the ink cartridge leaked since when I moved the printer there was red on the desk.)

I had to replace the ink cartridge since it drained it without me realizing it was printing in total magenta with slight maybe black and on occassion you could see other colors.

I disconnected the printer, turned it off, turned off the computer and restarted everything. DID NOT HELP!

Logged on as administrator:

I did not uninstall the drivers but downloaded drivers from HP site and installed ... when that didn't work, I put the original CD in and reinstalled the drivers again. To HP Product Solution Center and updated software.

I printed and it seemed a little better since I could see some color on occassion. However, we are back to printing red again.

I opened the printer, cleaned the excess red from the bat inside and removed the magenta cartridge using cotton squares and toothpicks cleaned with alcohol and we are still printing RED.

In Microsoft Word, with typing in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, it prints out a light orange, green, and black. YuK!

Back to HP Solution Center, I cleaned the printheads several times, aligned the cartridges, and finally printed a Diagnostics Page. The colors in the Print Quality Pattern section is solid and ink saturated. Black is black, Yellow is a dark orange, Lt. Cyan is a a shade lighter than the magenta, Cyan is a navy blue, Lt. Magenta is magenta, and Magenta has a few stripes at the top of the box and is light pink. Colors are definitely not correct.

I am out of ideas!

[stix4]

Hello,

Thanks for the post.  With this one, I believe you are correct, this is a cartridge issue.  At this point, I might recommend that we start with the basics.  The first link describes printing a diagnostic page, this will give us some cartridge information.  If you determine there are several cartridges out of ink or low on ink, this will affect color output.  The second link goes a little more in depth as to causes.  The third is more general information regarding blurred or muddy print.  I hope this helps, good luck!

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00720326&tmp_task=solveCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&la...

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00720626&tmp_task=solveCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&la...

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00720696&tmp_task=solveCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&la...