"Clean ink stains from printer" F4400

[operabuff]

I put in a refilled HP60 black cartridge (which I'll never do again!), and got a "Clean ink stains from printer" message. It is a standard F4400 printer.    Help!     Operabuff

[Shirlzz1]

Did you mean that you have a F4440 Deskjet printer? I would clean and reseat the cartridges. Here is a link to a document that will show you how to do the basic troubleshooting steps to address cartridge rejection errors for your model of printer. I know the error message is different from the one that you are getting, but this document does a good job at outlining the steps that ones needs to take to clean and reset the cartridges.  If you find that after completing that document that you are still having an issue with the printer I would do a hard reset to attempt to restore the printer to a known working condition and clear that error message.  Below are the steps to do a hard reset to the printer. 

1.        With the printer plugged directly into a wall outlet, and turned on, unplug the cord from the rear of the printer.

2.        Then unplug the cord from the wall socket.

3.        Wait at least 30-60 seconds

4.        Plug the power cord back into the wall socket first. If the cord has a module in it, make sure that the light on the module is lit up and then plug cord back into the rear of the printer

5.        The printer should power back on by itself, but if not use the power button on front panel to turn machine back on. 

[DrMattB]

The OP was asking about the message, "Clean ink stains from printer."  What should someone do about that with an HP F4400?