HP Deskjet 3545 showing incompatible cartridge message

[stranger333]

Hi

I have an HP Deskjet 3545 which is out of warranty. However it has been printing fine and I recently replaced the black cartridge (HP 678) with a genuine one bought from HP supplies. After printing about 25-30 pages, I suddenly got "incompatible cartridge" one fine morning and it has been like that since then. I went through lost of posts on this forum and did re-sitting of the cartridge, cleaning of the head with mildly wet clean cloth and other troubleshooting but am unable to resolve this issue.

Please help me understand what could be the problem and how to fix? If I would have received this message immediately after inserting new cartridge I would have understood that cartridge doesn't fit my printer but I fail to understand how the cartridge became incompatible suddenly after printing 25-30 pages over the course of few weeks.

[Jay_G24]

 Hi @stranger333,

I'd like to help!

Try the below suggestions-

Reset the product

• With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer.
• Unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.
• Wait at least 60 seconds.
• Plug the power cord back into the wall outlet.
• Reconnect the power cord to the printer.
• Turn the printer on. HP recommends plugging the printer directly into a wall outlet.

Clean the electrical contacts

Remove the cartridge indicated by the error message, clean the electrical contacts, and then reinsert the cartridge in its color-coded slot.

1. Turn the printer on.
2. Open the door to access the cartridges.
3. Wait until the carriage stops moving before you continue.
4. Remove the cartridge indicated in the error message from its slot, holding it by its side.
      CAUTION: Do not touch the copper-colored contacts or the ink nozzles. Touching these parts can result in clogs, ink failure, and bad electrical connections.
5. Remove any protective tape that still might be on the contacts.
      CAUTION: Do not touch or try to remove the copper electrical strip
6. Lightly dampen a lint-free cloth with distilled water, and then clean only the copper-colored contacts on the cartridge.
7. Lightly dampen a lint-free cloth with distilled water, and then clean the electrical contacts in the carriage, located inside the printer.
8. Wait 10 minutes for the contacts to dry.
9. Reinsert the cartridge.
   • Insert the black cartridge into the right slot.
   • Insert the tri-color cartridge into the left slot.
10. Repeat these steps for the other cartridge, if necessary.
11. Close the cartridge access door.
12. If the error persists, repeat the previous steps to clean the cartridge and carriage contacts a second time.
13. Check for the error message.

single cartridge mode 

The printer you own can work in single-cartridge mode, wherein the printer will be able to print with one cartridge in the printer.which will help us identify if its a cartridge issue or a printhead issue 

To try single-cartridge mode follow the below steps:

remove the black ink from the printer, leave the color in and try printing 

then remove the color ink and, insert the black  in and try printing 

If the issue persists, I'd suggest you Contact HP in your region regarding the service options for your printer

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

And, Welcome to the HP Support Community. 

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