Inkjet printer: why are my photos yellowy green?

[PepeLePew]

I've got an old-ish Epson inkjet. It's done nothing apart from print the odd black and white boarding pass for years, and I've just found some cartridges in the cupboard, so swapped them all over and printed some photos. The detail is fine, but the colour is awful - the dcs look jaundiced! Is it just what happens with cheap inkjet printers or are the cartridges just too old? I don't think I've ever used the printer for photos before...

Are all the colours printing? May be worth printing a simple text document with text in different colours, to test red, blue, yellow.

Is there a cleaning mode? May be worth running that to Coleen the nozzles of the print head.

Good idea on the test sheet. I printed a colour map of France (low res, on ordinary paper) and it looked ok. Do cartridges have a use by date? There was a label saying "Nov 2011" on it - I don't think that's when I bought them so it could well be a best before date I guess.
Will also try cleaning - doubt that has ever been done!
Thanks v much

Are they official Epson cartridges? I really screwed up an old printer by using cheap 3rd party ink. Never again....!

They do dry out if opened but not used.

It sounds like your magenta is 'out'.
Deffo run a proper test page to check ink levels per cartridge.