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Thread ID: 43759	2004-03-25 12:16:00	Printer Problems	zqwerty (97)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
225164	2004-03-25 12:16:00	Hello All, My brother just presented me with an HP DeskJet 540 printer. It has been used at his office for a number of years and they have just upgraded. The story was that it works perfectly and just needs a new cartridge. I tried it with the old one and it seemed to print but showed the obvious signs of running out of ink. So I got a new cartridge today and put it in. I asked to print a test page and it did, 'If you can read this information, you have correctly installed your HP DeskJet 540............etc'. However there is a problem, it is only printing in black and white. I have tried a lot of things and I cannot get it to print in colour. I have had another one of these printers working on the system before and it worked perfectly. Does anyone have any ideas about what could be wrong? Regards Rob.	zqwerty (97)
225165	2004-03-25 12:36:00	> just needs a new cartridge > So I got a new cartridge today and put it in Was this the black cartridge or the colour cartridge? Has the colour one run out? You talk in the singular for the cartridge but the printer has two.	godfather (25)
225166	2004-03-25 13:05:00	Hmmmmmmmmm, When I took the old cartridge out, it put green ink on my hand, the guy that I talked to at the re-filling shop said that the yellow had run out and in his opinion it would be better to get a new cartridge, so I did. There is only room for this one cartridge and no room for another one. The replacement I got is a generic one but I was assured there would not be problems and if there was just get in touch with them. I have printed the test page a number of times on other printers and also on this same model before and the Microsoft flag (which should be in colour) is in black and white, all else is printed as I would expect (in B+W). I have tried printing colour pics and they are also only printing in B+W. Rob.	zqwerty (97)
225167	2004-03-25 21:42:00	Confusing... Its actually a monochrome (black and white) printer that can use a colour only cartridge...as an option. This would not be the best way to use it as a black and white printer though. Its fairly old technology now. I wonder if its got the color cartridge but not the "optional HP color kit" - whatever that is? The HP DeskJet 540 and DeskWriter 540 are black/grayscale, drop-on-demand thermal inkjet printers. They both also have color capability with the optional HP color kit and Color Print Cartridge. The HP color kit provides up to 16.7 million colors, for rich, bright and beautfiul color printing. Naturally, you will get the sharpest of blacks from the black cartridge too. With three choices of print quality (Best Mode, Normal Mode, and Economode), you can print to suit your needs— from a quick draft to presentation quality documents, on plain or glossy paper, transpariencies, special papers, transparencies, and a variety of media in U.S. and international sizes. Best quality blacks are printed up to 600x300 dpi, and presentation colors at 300x300 dpi.	godfather (25)
225168	2004-03-25 22:34:00	I have this printer and it uses two different cartridges but only one at a time - one for black and one for colour . By that I mean when you want a plain black printout you put the black cartridge in and when you want colour you remove the black cartridge and put the colour cartridge in it . With the colour cartridge you do not get a "true" black as it is mixing the three colours to produce black . It is not like my other HP Deskjet 670 which uses two cartridges at the same time so that I get "true" black when printing out colour prints . Conclusion: If you want colour, put the colour cartridge in . :-)	Susan B (19)
225169	2004-03-26 01:52:00	I definitely do have a color cartridge in but it is just printing slightly toned B+W. I will look into this further when I get home in an hour or two. I looked at the problem of the color add-on at the HP site, they say that Win2K comes with a complete set of drivers for this printer. So maybe the new cartridge I got is faulty. I only want this printer to make copies of color images that we have created using Fractal Explorer so it is a bit annoying that it is not working properly but typical of believing that anything is going to be easy and will work first time when one is getting equipment from all over the place as I have done with my computer due to lack of money. Rob	zqwerty (97)
225170	2004-03-26 02:05:00	If the new cartridge was faulty, how would that show (you should be asking yourself ?) If its printing ~ black now, thats all the 3 inks mixed so they must be working now, surely. More likely a driver setting to tell it to print in colour, since its not the primary function of the printer to do so.	godfather (25)
225171	2004-03-26 02:22:00	Godfather is right - if you are getting black printouts (which are a mix of the three colours) then it must be a setting in your computer somewhere . Go to your printer's Properties in Control Panel > Printers and make sure that colour is selected as sometimes that setting will override what you have chosen in an application .	Susan B (19)
225172	2004-03-26 06:20:00	The mystery, such as it was, is solved. I went back to the shop and they said I should try another cartridge, but before I took it they would try it out on their printer. I waited for about ten minutes and the guy came back saying this one too was faulty, so would I like to buy the official HP one for an extra $20 which would be cost price. I now have $5.00 to last until Wednesday of next week! The printer is working perfectly in full colour however. Earlier in the day I went to the HP site and looked at the info on Win2K drivers for the HP540 and it was saying that Win2K comes fully equipped with all drivers for this printer so no download was necessary or available. That made me think that it was in fact a faulty cartridge as has proven to be the case. So thanks to all for your help. Just to add insult to injury today on the way back home I got a puncture in my bike tire and had to walk about two miles to get home, but I still feel as if the gods are smiling on me because the printer is now working. I finished my exam today on PhotoDraw2000 V2 and I am certain I passed. YAY. CU Rob.	zqwerty (97)
225173	2004-03-26 07:17:00	Run a 540 since 1995, if you go to http://refill.co.nz they have refill kits for the colour cartridge 20ml of each colour for $35 plus kit for black cartridge 80ml of ink for $30	FrankS (257)
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