Incompatible cartidge

[MaXiu]

Hi, my Deskjet 3630 has suddenly stopped printing mid-page.  Orange light is flashing and HP Smart says "incompatible cartridge" (indicates colour cartridge).  Very strange, because the cartridge is a bona fide HP302 and has been working OK for the last few weeks, since it was installed.

I've tried removing the cartridge and re-inserting it.  Also tried removing it completely.  And I've completely powered down the printer, then turned it back on. All no good, and while there's this problem I can't even print B/W.

Please tell me what to do...

Matthew

[Jeet_singh]

Hi @MaXiu,

Thank you for visiting the HP Forums! A great place where you can find solutions for your issues with help from the community! I came across your post and wanted to assist you. I understand you are getting 'Incompatible cartridge error' on your HP DeskJet printer. Don't worry as I have a few suggestions which should help you resolve this issue.

To provide you with an accurate solution, I'll need a few more details:

Have you recently made any changes on the printer before the issue started?

Did you try to clean the cartridge contacts?

In the meantime, let's try these steps here: 

Perform a Hard reset on the printer and make sure that the printer is connected directly to the wall outlet and not to the surge protector.

With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer and also unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.

Remove USB cable, if present.

Wait for 2-3 minutes, press and hold the power button on your printer for about 30 seconds to remove any additional charge.

Now plug back the power cable straight to a wall outlet without any surge protector or an extension cord and then plug back the power cord to the printer.

Turn on the printer and wait till warm-up period finishes and the printer is idle.

Now insert the ink cartridges and then try to print a test page and check if it works.

If the cartridge contacts are dirty, a cartridge error message might display. Cleaning the contacts might help.

Collect the following items before cleaning the contacts:

• Clean, distilled water. Use bottled or filtered water if distilled water is not available. Tap water can contain contaminants that are damaging to the cartridge.

• Clean cotton swabs, or any soft, lint-free material that does not stick to the cartridges (coffee filters work well).

• Sheets of paper or a paper towel to place the cartridges on during cleaning.

For more assistance, please try the steps suggested in the support document for - HP DeskJet 3630, 4720 Printers - Ink Cartridge Errors

Workaround: Print in ink backup mode

If you do not have a replacement cartridge, you can still print in ink backup mode. Simply remove the problem cartridge, and print with the remaining cartridge.

• If you remove the tri-color cartridge, printouts will be in grayscale.

• If you remove the black or photo cartridge, the product prints slowly and the colors in the printouts might differ.

If you have followed all the steps suggested and still having the issue. I would personally suggest this could be a printer hardware. I would recommend you contact our HP phone support for further assistance.

HP Technical Support can be reached by clicking on the following link: http://h22207.www2.hp.com/us-en/?openCLC=true

(1) Once the support page opens please select the country in which you're located. Next, enter your HP model number on the right.

(2) Next, choose the 'Contact Support' tab at the top and scroll down to the bottom of the 'HP Support- Contact' page to fill out the form provided with your contact information.

(3) Once completed click the 'Show Options' icon on the bottom right.

(4) Lastly, scroll down to the bottom of the page and select 'Get the phone number.' A case number and phone number will now populate for you.

If you have any troubles, let me know and I will do my best to help!

Hope this helps, for any further queries reply to the post and feel free to join us again

Feel free to post your query for any other assistance as well,

It's been a pleasure interacting with you and I hope you have a good day ahead.

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts, mark my post as Accepted Solution.

And click on the Purple Thumbs up icon at the bottom of my comment.

Regards,

[MaXiu]

Hi Jeet,

Thanks for the helpful reply.  I cleaned the colour cartidge contacts and fully powered down the printer.  After powering up again I re-inseted that cartridge but still get the same error message.  Printed a test page and the blue is not printing at all, though pink and yellow are OK.

Single cartridge B/W printing works fine.

I guess it may just be that the colour cartridge has run out of blue ink, but would that give me an "incompatible cartridge" error?  I don't really want to buy a new one if the old one can still be used.

To answer your other question - no changes were made to the printer before this problem happened. It occured very suddenly, mid print-job. 

Do you think might might be a hardware problem then?

Matthew

[Jeet_singh · Accepted solution]

Hi @MaXiu,

Thank you for replying,

As I understand you have diagnosed the issue by using single cartridge and found that B/W works fine, however having issues with the color cartridge. I would personally suggest if you have an old set of color cartridge, you can insert and check if that works. If the old cartridge works, then it's definitely an issue with the cartridge. 

If you don't have one or if the old color cartridge does not work, then it's definitely an issue with the printer. I would recommend you contact our HP phone support for further available service related options.

HP Technical Support can be reached by clicking on the following link: http://h22207.www2.hp.com/us-en/?openCLC=true

(1) Once the support page opens please select the country in which you're located. Next, enter your HP model number on the right.

(2) Next, choose the 'Contact Support' tab at the top and scroll down to the bottom of the 'HP Support- Contact' page to fill out the form provided with your contact information.

(3) Once completed click the 'Show Options' icon on the bottom right.

(4) Lastly, scroll down to the bottom of the page and select 'Get the phone number.' A case number and phone number will now populate for you.

If you have any troubles, let me know and I will do my best to help!

Hope this helps, for any further queries reply to the post and feel free to join us again

Feel free to post your query for any other assistance as well,

It's been a pleasure interacting with you and I hope you have a good day ahead.

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts, mark my post as Accepted Solution.

And click on the Purple Thumbs up icon at the bottom of my comment.

Regards,