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Curt Harms
03-11-2007, 8:30 PM
Hi All

I have a lexmark Z55 inkjet printer. I apparently haven't printed color with it for a while. It would print black-separate cartridge-fine. It would print cyan & yellow okay. It wouldn't print magenta at all. I cleaned the print heads, same result. I had a refill kit. I had refilled the black cartridge previously and that worked fine. I hadn't refilled the color cartridge. I figured the magenta was out of ink and now was as good a time as any to try the refill kit. I did the refill routine and reinstalled the color cartridge, same result, no magenta. I'll retry it again in the morning. If still no luck, do you think a new color cartridge(about $35) will fix my problem or is it likely a printer problem? I hate to buy a new cartridge if that doesn't fix the problem, a new cartridge is a significant portion of the cost of a new printer.

Thanks for any input.


Curt

J.D.Redwine
03-11-2007, 9:05 PM
We have a Z515 and it acts similar to yours. A new cartridge should work. We buy refills at cartridge world and they suggested we print something every couple of days or so and that has worked out well.

Jack Dickey
03-11-2007, 9:11 PM
I had a lexmark inkjet , and I had that problem a lot .. Seems if you dont print ever so often they clog up .. I finally canned it and got a black laser printer which is fine for me , as all I do is documents .. Spent a fortune on inkjet cartridges ..

Curt Harms
03-11-2007, 10:11 PM
It sounds like a new cartridge is worth a shot. It's been weeks or perhaps months since I've printed anything in color. I may work on this cartridge a little before pitching it.

Jack, like You I use a networked Multi Function laser as my primary printer. I guess I'll have to print a little bit in color just to make sure the thing continues to work.

Thanks

Curt

Brett Baldwin
03-12-2007, 1:30 AM
I had a big problem with inkjets here in super arid Phoenix. I didn't print enough to keep the heads freeflowing. One thing I found that worked sometimes was to take a Qtip dampened with water and clean the heads directly with it. Rub it on them and let them soak a bit, then try the head cleaning setting in the print manager. It only saved them about half the time but that was still a few cartirdges I didn't have to buy. You do need to print something with all the colors once in a while just to keep it from drying shut.

Curt Harms
03-12-2007, 4:24 AM
I had a big problem with inkjets here in super arid Phoenix. I didn't print enough to keep the heads freeflowing. One thing I found that worked sometimes was to take a Qtip dampened with water and clean the heads directly with it. Rub it on them and let them soak a bit, then try the head cleaning setting in the print manager. It only saved them about half the time but that was still a few cartirdges I didn't have to buy. You do need to print something with all the colors once in a while just to keep it from drying shut.

Hi Brett

Yes, it's dry in Phoenix; it's also dry in a house in a cold climate without a humidifier;) . I did what You suggested with cleaning the head except I used Windex instead of water. That did bring the color cartridge back to life. The lesson here is to print something in color weekly. At least the nozzles on this printer are accessible.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

Curt