Officejet J4680 Ink Cartridge Error Message

[carlitafajita]

I have an HP Officejet J4680 All-in-One, and it is showing the message:

"Print cartridge problem: [Tri-color]. Refer to device documentation to troubleshoot."

I have gone through the manual, tried replacing the cartridge, tried restarting the machine, unplugging it and I have read through the forums. Someone help!

I cant press any buttons on the control panel, and as soon as I turn it on it shows the message.

Thanks.

[Ciara_B]

Hi, you could try cleaning the cartridge, as per steps here

Does this solve the problem or are you still seeing the error message?

[Sundance77]

I have an HP Officejet J4680 All-in-one.  My tri-color cartridge was running low, so I replaced it.  Now I am getting the error mesage "Printer cartridge Problem:  Tri-Color.  Refer to device documentation to troubleshoot".  I have already tried replacing the color cartridge, cleaning both cartridges, along with cleaning the printer, unplugged the printer and plugged it back in, and still get the same message.  Does anyone know how to fix this?  Thank you.

[lmhjcr]

Hi There!

I was just wondering if you ever figured out how to fix your error message?  I too have an Officejet J4680 and am getting an error message when installing the black cartridges.  I did try some steps (my post is at http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Ink-Cartridge-and-Printhead/alignment-problems-with-the-Officejet-J4680... )  perhaps some of those steps will help you - although they were of no help for me and I never did get any help for it either.

Thanks

[ironboot]

I am having the same problem, and have tried all suggestions.  Has anyone been able to get their problem solved?  I found out that punching the keypad repeatedly does not solve the issue.  The question mark error light will not stop blinking.

[lmhjcr]

Well, at least I know that I am not the only one having this issue ---- but it doesn't look like there seems to be a way to resolve it (or at the very least nobody that has figured out how to resolve it has seen our posts).

If I could simply afford to trash this printer and purchase another one and would (but it would be a Kodak instead).  Unfortunately, finances do not allow me to buy an new or used printer to replace this one.  

I'm sure we would all love to know if anyone has any suggestions on how we can fix this issue.

[ironboot]

I just purchased and changed the black cartridge that was giving me the message and as soon as I turned it on and it printed what was on the qeue and did its alignment, I got the same message for the color cartridge.  Maybe HP needs some extra money and has planted this bug through its updates.

[lmhjcr]

You may be right about that ironboot.  Only it really doesn't make one want to go out and purchase another HP printer since they can't seem to give us any suggestions on how to fix this bug.  I know even though I do have an older HP desktop that really hasn't given me any problems and I recently purchased a new HP monitor I will not be considering another HP printer.

[fabulique]

I know I've had my printer for a couple of years, but have rarely used it.  I was using my Brother printer for the lion's share of work, but just gave it away to a friend.  I have a home office and printed my first real job to my HP and Bam..error message.  I can print black ink only, but I just bought the super pack of cartridges for this printer to last me a while and I need to print in color.  

Of course, my warranty has expired.  I agree with the person that said the warranty should cover these products to be able to ask HP questions at least for as long as you own the product.  I get it about about replacing parts and stuff, but to ask questions???  C'mon Man!!!  As much as I paid for this piece of crap printer as I bought it when they were still Overly Priced... you mean I can't talk to you about it now.  

Extremely Poor Consumer Relations!!! I use to advocate nothing but HP.... I won't be buying any thing else from them ... ever!!!

[Comanche624]

  One day my J4680 started claiming cartridge error on an almost new tri-color cart, I had another on hand and swapped them out, it did the cartridge realignment thing then printed my job OK.  Then the next time I tried to print the message came back again.  I swapped the original cartridge back in, it did the whole realignment thing, and printed the job.   So now this happens frequently (I don't print much).   So whenever I need to print something, once a month or so, I have to go through this cartridge swap/realignment thing and it will print.

I've noticed that if I just reseat the same cartridge, it doesn't help.  I have to put in a different cartridge to get it to do the realignment, then it will print...  So I just keep the extra cartridge on hand and keep swapping them.   If I printed on a more frequent basis I'd get tired of this pretty quick and ditch the thing and get a nice new Canon or something...  With my infrequent use, I guess I'll keep it and just keep doing the firedrill.  Checked for frimware updates, don't see one.