HP Officejet 4500:Print cartridge problem: (tri-color) Refer to device documentation to troubleshoot

[Bob_Headrick]

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Strino78 wrote:[ snip]

I ASK YOU HP...  WHAT ARE THE ODDS THAT I'D ENCOUNTER TWO BAD CARTRIDGES IN LESS THAN ONE YEAR, ON TWO SEPARATE OCCASSIONS, FROM TWO SEPARATE VENDORS?  Seems pretty far fetched to me.

Your software/firmware is bugged.. and denying users the right to use ANY compatible cartridge they want -- particularly OE equivalent refills.   [snip]

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Please be aware that this forum is a peer to peer support forum, it is not a direct link to HP support.  If you want to address HP you will need to Contact HP.

As for your question, my experience is that having two bad refill cartridges in a row is not that big an anomaly, I offer two data points:

• A few years ago I donated an HP all-in-one printer to my son's high school.  Some time later I was talking to the teacher and he mentioned he was having problems with it.  I took a look and it was not printing the colors correctly, the yellow had mixed to green.  (It was a commercial refill.)  He got a new (also refill) cartridge, and the second one had a color missing completely.  The third refill had some issues but was OK after manually cleaning the contacts.  I asked why they used the refills, he said they were cheaper.  I asked if they were less than 1/3rd the price....
• HP commissioned a study with a third party test lab.  They bought hundreds of supplies from HP and also major refillers/remanufacturers and tested them to end of life.  See here for the results, the bottom line was the HP cartridges were pretty reliable [ 0 failures of 60 cartridges] while the refills had widely variable but generally dismal results [69 failures of 208 cartridges tested].

It is hardly reasonable to blame HP for quality issues from third party vendors.

I do not work for HP or speak for them in any way.

[Bob_Headrick]

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@yomse wrote:

I repeated what you did, removed the color cartridge and it is printing black and white. I insert the color, it gives same error - tricolor, refer to to documentation to troubleshoot.

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See the troubleshooting steps in this page.

[rphilips2112]

I get a message telling me that there is a cartridge error and that I should remove check and reinstall my tricolor cartridge. I did that and even purchased a new one and still have the same issue. So is this printer just ready for the trash heap, shouldn't be, or is there a fix for this issue?

[Alicelim]

HP replaced my Tri-Color cartridge but the Tri-Color error still exist but not that frequent so far. Reported to HP ([Personal Information Removed]) since July 5, 2012, still no feedback yet. Bought a new black ink cartridge as the representative suggested to monitor the "Printer Status Report".

[Traceymacedo]

Amazingly, I just tried that and it seems to have worked. Haven't tried to print anything yet but the annoying error message is gone. 

[Traceymacedo]

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@lorrainereid wrote:
Someone suggested blowing on the cartridge copper area, I light spit on my (very lightyly) and it worked. Had to spit 2x. Light! Sounds gross but worked.

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Amazingly, I just tried that and it seems to have worked. Haven't tried to print anything yet but the annoying error message is gone. 

[shekhar_k]

my printer showing this problam this new cartridge

[tbear640]

Try deleting all of HPs software and reinstalling, then DO NOT allow any updates to be installed. You can sometimes do a restore to a time it worked or just try to delete all of their updates but if the I found that if the cartridge will not work that the local refiller will usually exchange it and see if that solves the problem. You are right HP is tweaking their software to force people to purchase and install their more expensive product. 

[Bob_Headrick]

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@tbear640 wrote:

Try deleting all of HPs software and reinstalling, then DO NOT allow any updates to be installed. You can sometimes do a restore to a time it worked or just try to delete all of their updates but if the I found that if the cartridge will not work that the local refiller will usually exchange it and see if that solves the problem. You are right HP is tweaking their software to force people to purchase and install their more expensive product. 

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This is very unlikely to have any effect (other than taking a few hours).  HP does not "tweak their software to force people to purchase...", that is simply incorrect.

The printer does do an electrical check of the cartridge to prevent damage to the printer from an incorrect or electrically failed cartridge.  Cleaning the cartridge electrical contacts as shown in step three in this document may help.

[I do not work for HP or speak for them.  The opinions here are my own.]

[bbrixon]

Forgot to update this.  somehow it got fixed.  I used to shut it down after I'm not using it, but now I just leave it on, and turn it off when i turn off my power strip. 

Seems to have fixed any errors so far.  I'm going to try and put the old Tri-color back in, and see if it acts up.

Thank you for all your replies, 

-Brian