HP envy 5660 can't print properly with refilled cartridge

[dakini]

Printer: HP Envy 5660

Cartrige: HP 62 (tricolor and black) – that I refilled

Hi,

Lately I decided to refill my ink cartridges instead of buying new ones for financial and environemental reasons.

The issue: even if the cartridge is refilled, the printer shows ink level low or empty and it prints documents with fade colors, grey instead of black or even missing colors.

I refilled cartridges when they were almost empty and others when they were half empty (but it did not work either). None of them are damaged or broken.

There is no error message, just an alert saying ink level is low or empty.

I made a few tests:

1) I launched the print of a page from my computer before turning on the printer. As soon as I turned on the printer, the page is printed and looked perfect with all colors and black.

2) I printed again the same page (the printer was on for a few seconds/minutes), the page looked fade again.

3) I repeated 1) and page looked ok again.

It seems it takes a few seconds for the printer to "recognize" the cartridge as used and then, as it is considered with low ink level, the printing fails.

I would like to know if there is a way to reset the printer (for example, delete cartrige history from its memory...) or reset the cartridge itself.

Thanks for your help,

Dakini

[MarcelusWallace]

Welcome to the HP community @dakini,

I understand you are getting a low ink message on your HP Envy 5660 after inserting refilled cartridges. I will be happy to help.

I found this document on the HP's website that has some helpful information.

HP All-in-One and Fax Products - Low Ink Warning Message Appears after Installing a New Ink Cartridg...

Refilled print cartridges

Low ink warnings will always display with refilled print cartridges. The HP product does not know that the print cartridge has been refilled so the ink drop counters never get reset. The ink counters cannot be reset manually. This is one of the problems encountered when refilling print cartridges.

I hope this helps.

[dakini]

Hi MarcelusWallace,

Thanks for taking time to reply.

I had already tried the steps described in the document you sent but it did not work.

The printer seems to prevent any document printing as soon as it recognized the cartridge as used and almost empty. It print document with fade colors.

However, if I launch a page printing before to turn on the printer, it seems the printer doesn't have time to "initialize" (or whatever is the word) and the page looks ok with all colors and black.

It seems to me the printer can print properly, it just blocks ink from refilled cartrige with ID already in the printer memory.

Dakini

[MarcelusWallace]

Hi Dakini,

At this point all I can recommend is that you contact HP for further support.

Contact HP:

Step 1. Open link: http://h22207.www2.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp/

Step 2. Enter Product number or select to auto detect

Step 3. Scroll down to "Still need help? Complete the form to select your contact options"

Step 4. Scroll down and click on: HP contact options - click on Get phone number

Case number and phone number appear

I hope this helps.

[wingtwister]

Hello daikini

i've recently bought hp envy 5660, and after refilling cartridge i'm facing the exactly same problem you mentioned. Have you got some solution to the problem? pl let me know i'm stuck with HP...

[dakini]

Hi  Wingtwister,

Unfortunately I still have the same issue. Once the printer labels a cartridge as "empty", you can't use that cartridge again. Even if you refill it, the printer will still considered it as empty based on the cartridge ID and the amount of ink you already used from it. There is no way to clean the printer memory/history. HP still blocks consumers from trying cheaper solutions. I think they got sued years ago for similar problems but they found other ways. The only thing you can do is going to a store that sells recycled cartridges (their number ID won't be in your printer memory and price will be cheaper than HPs). Personnaly, I won't buy HP anymore. Good luck!

[wingtwister]

Thanks Dakini for the response.
Conclusion is that now I've to pay for my wrong decision of buying HP.

[Photoray002]

---

@dakini wrote:

Unfortunately I still have the same issue. Once the printer labels a cartridge as "empty", you can't use that cartridge again. Even if you refill it,

---

Yes, once a cartridge is empty, it does not take well to refilling.

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@dakini wrote:

 HP still blocks consumers from trying cheaper solutions.

---

Not true. I have a couple HP Printers that I refill myself and they work. There will be a cartridge that wont take to the refill for whatever reason, but 90% of the time I have no problem.

The biggest mistake I see happen is that people don't block the refill hole properly afterward and will cover or block the vent holes under the sticker on top, or they don't clean the head and contacts.

Cartridge's can only be refilled a few times before they fail.

Its that way for any brand and I've used all the other major brand printers when I worked in the printing business.

Don't let the cartridge go completely empty. I refill after only half way down.

If HP wanted to completely block refills, then third party cartridge's would not work either.

There was a security firmware update that blocked third party inks but only on select models of the Deskjet series.

There has been an update released since then that fixes that issue, so refills will continue to work.

Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

Good luck.

[wingtwister]

Photoray, thanks for the detailed reply.
Sir my question remains as how a printer can only print first page of the day perfect and later, either 1, 2 or sometimes all for inks stop printing. After 4-5 hrs, first print again becomes flawless and from next page onwards, same erratic behavior.
All precautions you mentioned were catered during refilling, but the problem persists.
As Envy 5660 is e-All-in-one printer and is relatively a newer model with e-connectivity, my concern is with this 'e' factor. I've doubts if HP can play with other 'e' models, I have a strong gut feeling that there is similar restriction on Envy 5660 eAIO as well.

[Photoray002]

Hmm, I don't think the e-connectivity has anything to do with that.

Seems I had that happen before once. The only thing I could figure was the tri color cartridge was overfilled. Ink made its way to the tiny vent journals and clogged them. It could get air enough to print for a while, then run out until it sat overnight.

This may be what yours is doing. If so, its toast now. I don't know if you overdid it, but next time, measure carefully and go slow with the syringe pushing the ink in. Dont let it overflow back up over the sticker.

That is one nice thing about having the print head in the cartridge. The printers with the separate print head are way more maintenance and eat a lot more ink in my opinion.