My printer will randomly print weird symbols

[jaredlindow13]

My printer will sometimes randomly print pages of weird symbols and trash. This wouldn't bother me too much but it counts against my Instant Ink page count. It says I printed 16 pages the other day when I only printed 2. Is there a way to get those useless pages refunded or purged from the count?

[Jeet_singh]

@jaredlindow13,

Welcome to the HP Forums 🙂 I would like to take a moment and thank you for using this forum, it is a great place to find answers. For you to have the best experience on the HP forum, you could also visit our HP Forums Guide for First Time Here? Learn How to Post and More. I see from your post that you are having issues with the printer prints weird symbols. Don't worry we'll work together to help you find a solution.

To provide you with an accurate solution, I'll need a few more details:

Have you recently made any changes on the printer before the issue started?

Is this happening while printing from one specific program or from all the programs?

Have you tried to print from other programs?

Did you try to update the printer firmware?

In the meantime, let's try these steps here: 

Perform a Hard reset on the printer and make sure that the printer is connected directly to the wall outlet and not to the surge protector.

With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer and also unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.

Remove USB cable, if present.

Wait for 2-3 minutes, press and hold the power button on your printer for about 30 seconds to remove any additional charge.

Now plug back the power cable straight to a wall outlet without any surge protector or an extension cord and then plug back the power cord to the printer.

Turn on the printer and wait till warm-up period finishes and the printer is idle.

I would suggest here is to update the printer firmware, now you can try to do that either from the printer control panel or you can download the printer firmware from our HP support website, using this link. Once done, restart the printer.

For more details, please follow this link: HP Printers - Updating or Upgrading Printer Firmware

Alternatively, I would suggest here is to follow the steps suggested in the support document for - HP Printers - Unexpected Text Prints (Windows)

Next thing, regarding the Instant Ink account, don't worry I'll do my best to help you.

Since the instant ink account details are confidential, please send me the required information via private message.

I am sending you a private message with the information required. Please check the mailbox icon at the top-right corner of this screen.

Please check your Private message icon on the upper right corner of your HP Forums profile,

Next, to your profile Name, you should see a little blue envelope, please click on it.

I hope this helps resolve this issue completely,

Regards,