bang, bang printer! you're dead? (ideas?)

lowstandards

Distinguished
Feb 10, 2004
90
0
18,630
Ok I've had this PC I put together myself in late January and all is just perfect with it. Everything's new including the HP 3550 printer.

Last night I brought home a new black ink cartride and installed, calibrated, and printed a test page....all peachy. I've used HP in the past and love their printers. However, come time to print my 7 page Word document, the printers ink cradle moved only about ONCE EVERY 2 MINUTES!! At that rate the report I was working on would take forever to print. Ok my first problem with new computer. Relax and reboot. Did so and got the same problem and it no longer prints test pages either. Then I turn the printer on again and it makes all kinds of funny sounds and the ink cradle STARTS FLYING BACK AND FORTH POUNDING THE INSIDE OF THE PRINTER. The force was so hard the printer was MOVING!! I then decided to uninstall everything HP related and uninstall the printer itself.

Upon trying to reinstall the printer, my computer won't recognize the printer as being attached at all regardless of what USB port it is attached to.

Is this 2 month old printer dead? I found it perciliar that this started happening after the new cartridge was put in place but it printed the test page flawlessly! There is no paper jam either. So what the heck? Anyone? (Thanks so much for putting up with such a long post and thanks in advance for any ideas)
 

M39shadow

Distinguished
Apr 7, 2003
62
0
18,630
Sounds like maybe a cartridge problem. When you turned off the printer, did you turn it off by the button or did you turn it off AND pull the power cord. Most printers aren't truly turned off when you turn them off with the button. There is still power to the electronics. What you might try is this:
1. Open the printer with the power on so the print cartridges come to access point.
2. Remove both print cartridges
3. Pull the power cord, wait five seconds or so then plug it back in.
4. Wipe the electrical contacts of the print cartridges with a soft towel to remove the shipping grease.
5. Reinsert the cartridges.

If that all fails you may wanna cal HP. The number is toll free 24 hrs. If nothing else they'll replace/repair the printer.
 

lowstandards

Distinguished
Feb 10, 2004
90
0
18,630
I will try your suggestion. Get this: i finally decided to replace the USB cable and did so and the printer worked perfectly!!!!!!!!!.........for 2 days. Then my girlfriend goes to print her report this morning and same damn problem, not as bad, but instead of 14ppm, it does 1-2ppm in fast-draft mode!! WTF? I will call HP. Thanks for the suggestions.