PSC 1210 Printing very slowly

[MiamiSpy]

Printer prints very very slowly.
Self test page took 96 seconds.
Test print from HP PS Dr took 5:34.
I have tried everything recommended on the support site.

Also, with regular docs (Word or PDF) it will print the 1st page fine,

then slow waaaaay down.

The next page will take over 10 minutes and come out very light.

I am convinced it is not an ink issue as I have just replaced both cartridges.

Thanks for any advice you have.

[Bob_Headrick · Accepted solution]

Does the printer make a swath of the printhead, then pause for 15 seconds or so before the next swath?  This is likely caused by the failure of one of your cartridges. I do not recall if the PSC 1210 supports printing with a single cartrdige, but try the following:   remove the black cartridge and print a test page.  Does the printer print at normal speed?  Is so the black cartridge was the issue and should be replaced.  If not then put the black cartridge back in and remove the color cartridge and print test page.  If the printer now prints normal speed the color cartridge was at fault and needs to be replaced.

[MiamiSpy]

Bob,

You're a genius!

That was exactly it.

I took out the color cartridge and it printed fine.

And I even know how the color one got messed up too.

I replaced it recently and it was about a month before I realized that I had forgotten to take off the tape covering the jets.

I know... what a doofus.

Speaking of which... is there anything I can do now to take the bad cartridge back to normal?

And I just replaced the black one too, though I'm sure the old one was not empty. I wonder if I can save it. Hmmm....

[Bob_Headrick]

Do not feel too bad - I have left tape on at least once, and I used to work on cartridges :-).

If the tape was left on for an extended period installed in the printer it is possible there is some tape residue on the electrical contacts.  Cleaning the cartridge and printer contacts as shown in the document here may help resolve the cartrdige issue.  (The document there is for a different cartridge series but the same principle applies.)

BTW, once the tape on the color cartrdige has been removed it should not be replaced.  If you need to store an opened cartridge for an extended period you can put it in a small  container as shown in the document here.  Make sure nothing touches the nozzles as ink will wick between the colors and ruin the cartridges.

[MiamiSpy]

Thanks again Bob,

Here's the update...

I tried to clean the cartridge connectors as in the article above.

And it is working much better now, but still not ideal.

The color one gets tired after a page, and starts to slow down.

So, it looks like I will need to buy another cartridge soon.

Lesson learned... never leave the tape on again.

I also stored the old black cartridge in a tupperware like described in the other article.

Hope that works.

[HFGuy]

This posting is a general thanks to all the hundreds of heros who answer these sorts of questions for all of us. I wish each and everyone appreciated the time, effort and anquish they have saved the world.

I went to the manual. Went to the HP site. Reloaded drivers. Checked and directly connected cables. Checked cartridges. Then replacing the black ink cartridge on my PSC 1350 did the trick - no more printing at 10 minutes per page. It seems like it is back to normal.

I was about the write off the 1 year old printer as a loss. More junk in the landfills. Thank you Support Forum.

(Now there is another issue about the designers - hardward and software - that permit bad user guidance/feedback to exist in a released product. "Fix it in support?")