Hp Envy 7858 Printing Very Faint

[mmsarno]

HP Envy 7858 printing unreadably faint. There is ink in the cartridges and they should not be dry. I have a scheduled process the prints a BW /Color test page weekly. Last weekend it printed perfectly- this weekend unreadably faint. 

[Bob_Headrick]

The troubleshooting steps in the document here may help resolve faint printing on your Envy 7858 printer.  If the first four steps do not resolve the issue I would suggest the following:  get one or two coffee cups, one for each suspect cartridge (black, color or both).  Put 1" of very hot, but not boiling, water in each.  Place the cartridge(s) nozzles down (in the same orientation they would be in the printer) in the water.  Let the cartridge soak for fifteen minutes, then remove the cartridge and dry the electrical contacts with a lint-free wipe.  A clean coffee filter works well for this.  Replace the cartridge(s) in the printer and run the print quality report from step 2.

If the above does not resolve the issue please scan (or take a picture) of the print quality diagnostic report and post it here.

[mmsarno]

Thank you for taking the time to try to help me. 

I discovered that the cartridges were simply out of ink despite the printer showing plenty of ink in them. I replaced both and the printer now works fine. 

i am going to try to find a page to print weekly that takes less ink but keeps both cartridges from drying out. 

Thanks again . . . Mike

[Bob_Headrick · Accepted solution]

It should not be necessary to print a page weekly to keep the printer's cartridges from drying out, as long as the printer is always kept plugged into a live outlet.  You can leave the printer turned on, it will automatically switch to a very low power standby state a few minutes after printing.  I have had my Photosmart 7855 (virtually identical printer as yours) sit for a month at a time without printing and had the first page out print without any intervention required.

Note that if the printer is turned off from an external switch (an outlet or power strip switch) the printhead may be left out in the air, causing the printhead to dry out.  This should be avoided.  The printer should always be connected to a live outlet and if the printer is to be turned off only use the printer's power switch.