Smudged and/or partially missing letters - random, but mostly around edges

[Judydoodle]

I have a barely used printer, purchased new on Amazon in October 2017, that recently started having smudged and faded letters or partial letters, in random areas. I use this printer in my home very seldom (in fact,  I've printed less than 125 pages in the last 8 months according to my instant ink records), usually to print knitting patterns. I also just found out that my printer was actually made in June, so even though I haven't owned it a year, HP will not warranty it.

I am disgusted that the quality of this printer is so poor. It is kept in an enclosed cabinet, so it can't be dirty. If anyone can help I would appreciate it. Otherwise, I'm done with HP and going back to Canon. Thank you!

[Copier-Pro · Accepted solution]

Hi I would like to assist to the best of my ability to solve your problem.I hope the information i supply will be of help.Just for information some technical information is protected by HP and is not allowed to be answered.This is unfortunate and you will have to contact a HP repair shop for the help in this case.It could be that being used so little that the ink is just giving a problem.Do a nozzle clean on the printer and i think that will solve the problem.Hope this will help.

[Judydoodle]

Thanks for the information! I had never cleaned a printer before, but found a link online that walked me through the steps. (And I didn't actually physically touch the computer myeself, it was all done internally.) Basically the printer went through two sets of "cleaning" and then printed Print Quality Diagnostic pages each time. And each time the print was better - the individual color squares themselves were fine, but the black "square" was faded, just along the left border. So I ran the cleaning program two more times as suggested. The black never totally filled in on the left side, but it is improved from the first time, so I'll count that as fixed.

Hopefully my next few print jobs will be better. Thanks so much for leting me know how to fix it!

Sincerely,

Judy