Aargh want to scream - anyone techy out there?

[minxthemanx]

Have spent most of the afternoon trying to print out insurance claim form - my naffing printer is driving me nuts! First printout was pale grey, so ran out, bought new cartridge, installed it etc etc - next printout pale grey. Reinstalled it, read instruction book, checked it was clicked in each time.......still pale grey. Even the 'alignment' page is pale grey. Have turned it off for half an hour, gone back, tried again - nada. Even the colour parts of the form are printing out pale grey - new colour cartridge too. Why won't the bloody thing work?? New cartridge, clicked in.......should be simple, no?

Any help gratefully received before I throw printer out window.

It's a HP PSC 1410 - never, ever had a problem with it before, been as good as gold.

Does the printer test page come out pale grey?

Clean the print heads?

Print a word document to make sure that it is the printer not the document that is the problem.

Then if word document is grey clean the print heads

If word document is OK, it is something to do the document you are printing (is it a pdf?) or the print settings for that document

When you go to the bit where you click 'print', go on to Properties and make sure it's set to Black & White, and Document.

Have you got it set to print in greyscale somewhere?

Sorry read that as 'tetchy'.

Ooh thank you for the reponses - I'll have a look at properties. I did try printing a word document but it didnt' seem happy with that either. I'll be back if going into properties doesn't help.

Ok checked in properties, not in gray scale. The icon for cartridge on printer keeps flashing. Clean the printer heads? How do I do that? Sorry, not my strong point.

I checked the instructions for cleaning print heads - still bloody light flashing. Willl have to ring HP support tomorrow - grrr, waste of afternoon. Thanks for your help.

It's not set in draft mode is it?

Are you trying to print it off a web site?

Put the link on here so we have a look.

Well I'm beginning to wonder if it's a dodgy cartridge - looked at the new one and the date on it says 24/9/2007. The 'old' one I've just taken out is 21/1/2012. Admittedly they are Sainsburys own remanufactured ones, so don't know whether the date makes a difference, but I've never had a problem with them before. Will take it back today and try a different one.

And the moral of the story is.........you get what you pay for. Cheap, remanufactured cartridge from Sainsburys, non. Expensive HP cartridge, oui. Working perfectly. Thanks for all the help.

Please ask for your money back from Sainsburys.

And now you have the joy of dealing with an insurance form!

Well done, anyway.

Ha yes Sainsburys refunded straight away, and I can now get the sodding vet insurance claim off for the stupid lovely cat's abscess from fighting. [hsmile]