new office jet pro 6960 wont print color and is streaked

[Lou442]

New HP OfficeJey Pro 6960 will not print in color and is streaked in initial power up.

[MKazi · Accepted solution]

@Lou442

Thank you for posting on HP Forums, MKazi is at your service. 

I understand that you have an HP OfficeJet Pro 6960 All-in-One Printer and are facing print quality issues and the printer does not print in color. Not to worry, I'll do my best to assist you with this case. 

To provide an accurate resolution, I need a few more details: 

• Are you using original HP ink cartridges or refilled ink?
• Is the printer able to make a photocopy? If yes then it indicates that the printer and ink cartridges are fine.
• Did any hardware changes take place on the printer recently (paper jam, cartridge replacement, etc)?
• Are the ink levels good? On the printer control panel, swipe down from the top of the screen to open the Dashboard, and then touch the Ink Level Indicator icon .

  The control panel displays estimated ink levels. The amount of color shown within a column represents how much ink remains in the ink cartridge of that color.

While you respond to that, I recommend you to perform the following steps to isolate the issue and arrive at a fix: 

• Disconnect the power cable from the printer while the printer is still ON.
• Disconnect any other cables if connected the printer.
• Press and hold the printer’s power button for 15 seconds.
• The printer should be directly connected to the wall outlet and not to a surge protector.
• Reconnect the power cable to print and the printer should power ON by itself. If the printer doesn’t power ON then please manually power it ON.

Please perform "Step 7" to "Step 16" from this HP document: http://hp.care/2tMoWlt

These steps help in fixing various print quality related issues. 

I sincerely hope this fixes the issue. Feel free to let me know the results. I'll be glad to assist you further.

Good luck! 🙂

[Lou442]

Thanks for the help. It is a new printer out of the box. Never used the original from the factory tape still in place. Used the ink that came with it. Initially when I went to print a page the display was just a black and white picture of the page to be printed. After becoming a member of the HP Forum I followed a suggestion to get a driver. HP sent me a make shift driver so now I can print in color. Apparently there is not a full up driver set for my mac/10.13.3 and this printer. The print page now shows the expect picture in color. But the driver will not let me look at ink levels from my computer. I have directly hooked the printer to my computer since I could not connect my older mac to the printer thru the router. Plus I also have to play with the display screen to wake the printer up to print a page. When I now try and read ink levels the computer says the cartarges are all missing.

[MKazi]

@Lou442

You're welcome and thanks for your reply.

I read that now try and read ink levels the computer says the cartridges are all missing. 

Secondly, wit this error message, does it allow you to print or make a photocopy? If not then please attempt the following steps from this HP document: http://hp.care/2HGw2eC

• Step 2: Make sure the ink cartridges are inserted correctly.
• Step 3: Clean the ink cartridge and printhead contacts.
• Step 4: Clean the ink cartridge contacts again.

I genuinely hope the issue gets resolved without hassles and the unit works great. Keep me posted.

All the best! 🙂

[Lou442]

Thank you I went back and looked and it is displaying the ink level in a color bar graph. I even printed this comment and the unit woke up and printed as it should. I will assume I can live with it now. Thanks for yourhelp. Lou442

[MKazi]

@Lou442

You're welcome. 🙂

I'm glad that the issue is fixed and truly appreciate your efforts and patience.

Happy printing!