Printed documents come out streaky.....?

Question

My inkjet has been working just fine and dandy for more than a year. Now its printing horizontal streaks through the entire document. I just changed both cartridges (black and CMYK) so the problem isn't lack of ink. Suggestions?

The print heads are part of the cartridges, which I just changed. In checking the help files for my computer, "cleaning" the heads literally means taking the cartridges out and rubbing them with a cloth.

A ha! I also found the option to clean and align the cartridges...unfortunately, it didn't help. The problem is obvious in the magenta, which is very strange to me since my cyan, magenta and yellow all come from the same cartridge.

Dubya,
thanks for the suggestions, but the problem appears to be not enough ink, not too much of it.

Answer 1

As you say, the problem is not a lack of ink, rather too much ink in the wrong place, so cleaning your print heads will only add to the problem.

If you've run a cleaning cycle (usually done automatically when you first start the printer or change cartridges), if the black cartridge is leaking or the docking pad (where the print carriage parks when the printer is not being used) becomes saturated, it'll contaminate the print head and/or cartridge carriage.

As the paper feeds through, the carriage glides back and forth while printing, depositing ink all over the page. This would account for the horizontal streaks.

The waste ink is supposed to drain into a waste ink pad or tank but the feeder tube sometimes become blocked. If this problem simply won't resolve itself, you might consider taking the printer in to a repair depot for a good cleaning.

You can attempt to clean the carriage with a Qtip and Windex but your best bet might simply be to wait for the ink to dry and let the problem resolve itself before you try printing again.

You'll want to be very careful not to knock any sensitive parts out of whack!

Answer 2

Easy fix if I could only see your printer from my house but the tree is in the way, what kind of a printer do you have again ? ink or laser ? if ink take the cartridges out of the printer, boil some water, get a container one large enough to set the cartridge in, put a quarter of an inch of boiled water in the container, set the black cartridge in the water for a 5 minutes, in the mean time get a paper towel, fold it in half, get a couple of q tips and some 99% isopropyl alcohol, take the cartridge out, squeeze the sides of the cartridge with you fingers 5- 6 times to get the bleeding going, now dab it on the paper towel to see if you get a good solid line on it, just do not dab it in the same spot you want to be able to see as the cartridge improves on the bleeding, do the same with the color but you don't have to squeeze that one, and before you put the cartridges back into the printer now take the isopropyl alcohol and dip the q tip into it, turn the q tip sideways and gently rub the contact board or the small electronic board on the bach or side of the cartridge, if it's a laser it could be toner cartridge ? toner on the paper path or rollers, drums etc that you will need a laser tech to help you with that, just do not try the laser yourself unless you know what chemicals we use to do the job and how to use them, good luck, I hope I was some help.

Answer 3

You need to clean your print heads.
Click on your Printer icon on your desktop and select clean print heads. This should clear your problem.
After cleaning them select the option to adjust the heads, the select the option to realign the heads.

This should resolve your streaking problems.

Answer 4

The problem isn't from lack of ink, but the toner of the printer might be bad.