Ink streaks and blurry spots

[kvthrne]

I don't use my printer often, but about up to a month ago, I noticed that there were many streaks and smudged on pages. There would also be areas of the paper where nothing would be printed at all (like empty spots). I did the troubleshooting methods of aligning the cartridges and paper, cleaning them, and also physically cleaning them with water and a q-tip. Basically, I did every troubleshooting method the printer could do and cleaned the ink cartridges myself. The problem still didn't stop, so I let the printer be for a week. I tried to see if it could have fixed itself somehow (magic?), but I'm still seeing smudges and smears. Should I just buy completely new ink? Despite the cartridges still being full. What can I do besides to avoid buying an entirely new printer? 

- Broke college student who's tired of paying for printing at school.

[Valsimot]

The main reason for your print quality problem is described in your first sentence.

If you don't use your inkjet printer regularly the ink inside ink cartridge gets dried and you have an example of how the print looks with the dried ink cartridge.

If you replace your black cartridge with the new one, your print quality will improve, but if you still won't use your printer often at least every 3-4 days you will have the same problem again and again.

Try soaking an ink cartridge ( bottom printhead part) in hot water, that sometimes helps to dissolve dried ink.