The Printer Ink Warehouse

If you are having problems with your new cartridge, try the following if...

The cartridge isn't accepted by the machine:

• Make sure that the plastic clip and the thin protective tape strip on the cartridge printhead (usually a thin transparent blue, if present) is entirely removed.  Sometimes, people forget to remove these items, and in some cases the strip doesn't get removed entirely.
• Make sure the electronic strip is clean.  Using isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, wipe off the electronic strip (or chip) on the cartridge to make sure it is clean.  Even the oil from our skin can stop a proper connection from being made between the cartridge and the machine.

The cartridge prints poorly, or does not print at all:    

        The cartridge may need a little help to get going after getting bounced around during the shipment:

• Take a warm/hot, damp paper towel and hold it against the printhead for 5-10 seconds.
• Gently swipe the damp paper towel on the printhead a couple of times.
• Dry the printhead with a dry paper towel by swiping it across the printhead a couple of times.
• When you swipe the dry paper towel across the printhead you should get the three color lines (yellow, blue, and red) for a color cartridge, or a black line for a black cartridge, on the paper towel.
• Once you have the three color lines, or a black line, showing up on the paper towel the cartridge should work fine.
• You will want to repeat this activity a few times to open up all of the jets on the printhead.
• NOTE: If the above has not fully corrected the problem, you can also take a dry piece of paper towel and rub it quickly on the printhead to warm the printhead. Often times this will free up the jets in the printhead and allow the ink to flow through them properly.

        Some cartridges have a vent hole at the top of the cartridge:

• Make sure any air vents/holes that are present on top of the cartridge are not blocked by anything (tape; etc).  These cartridges need the air to disperse the ink for printing.  If they are blocked then the inks can not be dispersed properly and you will either get none of the inks to print, they will print for a short bit then stop, or they will print the pages in incomplete words or pictures sporadically.