Yellow triangle on ink level for COLOR

[Ricksster]

This seems obvious but I can't find anything in the manual or the web that says what to do.  My uncle died and I got his printer with no one to explain things. 

It's an Officejet 4630 and there is a  yellow triangle with exclamation mark on Print Level screen, for Color, and the level bar is blank or at zero (but the black is almost full) .

What to do? Is it as simple as getting another ink cartridge, or is it broken?  I don't want to buy a new cartridge and find out there is a more serious problem.   --------  The Print Quality Diagnostic Report says nothing good or bad, except Ink Zone 2, Status 0, USE 1 none of which it explains.   And the owner's manual says nothing about what these  things mean.     ----- Thanks. 

[Bob_Headrick]

The Printer Status Report has a number of items.  Of importance is USE = 1.  This indicates the cartridge was previously used (in a different printer).  This can happen in the cartridge is from a third party refilled, or if the cartridge was moved from one printer to another.  In either case, the printer cannot determine the true ink levels so it cannot report the ink levels.  The Yellow symbol is just a warning of this.  As long as the print quality is OK you can disregard the warning.  Note that you will not be able to get warnings for low on ink with this cartridge.

Ink Zone = 2 indicates the cartridges are for the US/Canada.

[Ricksster]

Thanks so much for making me think more logically. So I can't trust the Ink Level screen, fine, but I should have said (I should have tried it before just now) that when I print something with colors, only the black parts get printed.  

It was an HP cartridge and I had added ink to all 3 chambers.   Could it be  that the cartridge got empty and now it's too late to add ink to it?      But if I just buy another color cartridge, what are the odds it will work?   I won't be mad if you're wrong  🙂

[Bob_Headrick · Accepted solution]

Refilling can be problematic, especially if air is ingested into the printhead.  You might be able to resolve this as follows:  get a teacup and put 1" of very hot (but not boiling) water in it.  Take the color cartridge and put it nozzles down (in the same orientation they would be in the printer) in the water.  Let it soak for ten or fifteen minutes, then remove the cartridge and carefully dry the electrical contacts with a lint-free wipe.  Put the cartridge back in the printer and try step three in the document here.

I would expect a new HP color cartridge would resolve the issue.

[Ricksster]

I did some of what you suggest the first time, and I've put in enough effort  🙂     So if there's a decent chance buying a new cartridge will fix me up, that's what I'll do.  I print almost everything in black anyhow, but I would like to be able to do color.  I just didn't want to buy a cartridge if there was no chance it would help.

So thanks a lot.   It's a busy season and I won't be able to get back to you soon to tell you if it worked -- it probably will -- and the way I'm doing now, I'm  too disorganized to be able to find this all later.   So again, thanks a lot.