Officejet J4550 prints blurry/unreadable text

[Hollyeboh]

My printer was working fine one minute and then the next suddenly was printing blurry text. It appears that it is printing each text line four or five times, each immediately below the next. This happens whether printing, copying, or scanning. This results in completely unreadable documents. I will attach a picture. 

I have already tried:

Unplugging and doing a hard reset 

Cleaning ink jet cartridge manually

Doing self- cleaning of cartridges under the Tools menu

Doing cartridge alignment

Please help! I know it's an old printer but it's all we have. 

[Hollyeboh]

 

[Betty0610]

@Hollyeboh

Welcome to the HP Support Community.

If you've another set of cartridges, do try those.

1. Turn on the product.

2. Open the product cover. The carriage moves to the right side of the product.

   Figure : Open the product cover

   

3. Wait until the carriage is idle and silent and then unplug the power cord from the back of the product.

4. Lightly press down on the ink cartridge to release it and then pull it out of the slot.

      CAUTION: 

   Do not remove both ink cartridges at the same time. Remove and clean each ink cartridge separately. Do not leave an ink cartridge outside the product for more than 30 minutes.

5. Place the ink cartridge on a piece of paper with the ink nozzles up.

6. Lightly moisten a clean, foam-rubber swab with distilled water.

7. Clean the face and edges around the ink nozzle area with the swab.

      CAUTION: 

   Do not clean the ink nozzle plate.

   1. Nozzle plate (DO NOT CLEAN)

   2. Face and edges around the ink nozzle area

8. Repeat the cleaning steps if necessary for the other ink cartridge.

9. Clean the contacts in the carriage, inside the product.

10. Either let the cartridge sit for 10 minutes to allow the cleaned area to dry or use a new swab to dry it.

11. Slide the ink cartridge back into the slot. Push the ink cartridge forward until it clicks into place.

12. Gently close the product cover and then plug the power cord into the back of the product.

Follow this document: https://support.hp.com/sg-en/product/hp-officejet-j4500-j4600-all-in-one-printer-series/3645081/docu...

Let me know if this helps.

If the information I've provided was helpful, give us some reinforcement by clicking the "Accept as solution" button, that'll help us and others see that we've got the answers!

Thanks!

Have a great day!

[Hollyeboh]

Thanks For your help. I tried that and it didn't help. Perhaps i need a new cartridge. 

[Betty0610]

Yes, please try a new set of HP ink cartridges.

Let me know if this helps.

If the information I've provided was helpful, give us some reinforcement by clicking the "Accept as solution" button, that'll help us and others see that we've got the answers!

Thanks!

Have a great day!