After ending the Instant Ink program, my new off brand cartridges don't print color correctly.

[rcan1015]

I ended my Instant Ink membership and purchased Smart Ink cartridges. The new cartridges work OK but colors don't print correctly. I can't print in blues or greens--just yellows, golds, pinks. I've already gone through the standard printer maintenance options--but none of them helped and they are more oriented toward printhead operation--not color adjustment. When trying to print pdfs I've chosen 'print'>'properties'>'printing shortcuts' and noticed that all the options--Factory Defaults, General Everyday Printing, etc are locked. I don't know if that has any bearing because I've never had issues printing colors until the recent cartridge change. I contacted Smart Ink and they sent new cartridges--but I still have the same issue. Any good folks out there know what is happening? I assume it might have to do with how protective HP is and how they try to force you to buy their ink, but I don't know.

[Bob_Headrick]

It appears your Cyan is blocked.  If you go to the web page here and enter HP Officejet 6968 it will suggest the following.  Check the test page after the first cleaning cycle, it will likely show no Cyan and Blue as Magenta and Green as Yellow.  Continue, running three cleaning cycles and see if this improves the test print.  If this does not resolve the issue continue going through the additional steps.  In the "Check for issues with the ink cartridges" section be sure to check the pull tab and any residue in the Cyan cartridge.

The following is from the troubleshooter:

Clean the printhead

The printhead could be clogged, and you might need to clean the printhead several times to restore print quality. Use an automated tool from the printer control panel to clean the printhead.

CAUTION: Never turn off the printer without ink cartridges installed. To avoid issues that require cleaning the printhead or that can damage the ink system, always replace ink cartridges as soon as possible, and always turn off the printer using the Power button.

1. On the printer control panel, open the Setup  menu, and then touch Printer Maintenance or Tools.

2. Touch Clean Printhead, and then touch Continue.

After the cleaning completes, a Test Page prints.

3. Examine the Test Page.

    • If the print quality is unacceptable, touch Clean Again to continue the next level of cleaning. If necessary, repeat these steps for the third cleaning cycle.

Note: If the printhead is badly clogged, it might require another cleaning cycle. If so, wait 30 minutes before you perform all three levels of cleaning again.

    • If the print quality is acceptable, touch Done.

[rcan1015]

Thanks for the quick and thorough response. Unfortunately I have already been down this path. I had gone through level 3 cleaning with no benefit (twice)--no blues or greens. The Smart Ink Co. sent replacement cartridges and I experienced the same issue and went through the same troubleshooting and printhead cleaning steps. I'm pretty sure the issue has to do with the cartridges not being original HP and the anti-counterfeit software HP runs to discourage use of non-HP cartridges. Or, possibly with degrading to an earlier firmware to get the cartridges to work at all. Just hoping somebody has a work around or else it is a software issue and I need to change some setting that I'm not aware of.