I'd consider getting a new printer due to the age of yours and the ridiculous cost of cartridges , there mechanical devices and prone to failure especially as they age.

Most printers, ink cartdriges have a reset tiny hole use a paper clip and this should get you more ink, many folks do not know this

the big problem is the space I have for it. The new ones are configured differently and won't work. Can't have paper tray sticking up. I don't need an all in one either. Just a printer. I have a high quality photo scanner and a fax machine already.

This cartridge has plenty of ink when I blot it on paper. I think the machine's brain has fried. All lights lit up and blinked right before it stopped printing. It was working fine. I printed something and noticed streaks on the page so grabbed a new cartridge and put it in.

"I'd consider getting a new printer due to the age of yours and the ridiculous cost of cartridges"

Solid advice. +1

With regular use, anything over 5 years is a bonus. Printers are so cheap, there's no reason to struggle to use an ancient one that doesn't work normally.

I'm having trouble finding one that will physically fit in the space on my desk....I know I got more than my money's worth out of this printer.

So, I looked on Craig's List and found a newer but similar printer for only $15 was in pristine shape. Spotlessly clean. Went and bought it and also some HP ink still in the boxes. Came home and hooked it up and it is giving me the exact same problem. Flashing ink level light and won't print. I can blot two different black ink cartridges and get black ink in two straight lines but my color cartridge seems to be dried up. Haven't printed in color in years. Can it be the only problem here is the color cartridge???

Would there be any help at this link....

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/bpa00299

Yes, but I did all that on my printer but I was ignoring the color cartridge because I have printer set to black and it was the black one I had replaced when the light started blinking.....I didn't even think about the color cartridge being the problem. I do not have any diagnostic errors popping up on my computer telling me which cartridge is the problem. Just the blinking light. Thank you.

Uninstall the printer software and the printer driver. Then reboot your computer. It should reinstall the driver and you may be able to print again.

Hmm, kudzu. Your thought about there being a driver issue could right too but I wonder if that might be a second thing? It's usually the PC that says it can't see the peripheral, not the other way around. I can disconnect my (laser) printer from the PC, keep it turned on, and no lights come on. But the PC will tell me nothing is connected. But maybe this model works differently?

As for advice, I'm done. There can often be an easy way and a hard way to solve a problem, I stick with the first kind. If you value your own time, buyorsell, you've already spent more on getting nowhere than a new printer would have cost you.

I had done a hard reboot of the printer and 'puter, uninstalled and reinstalled driver, cleaned contacts on cartridges and inside printer, cleaned out the "service station" inside the printer, cleaned the belts and metal bar the cartridge slides on. The one thing I didn't do was consider the color ink. I had printer set to black and hadn't printed in color in years. Since it was a black cartridge I changed when the light came on, I assumed that was the problem.......The gentleman that I bought the second printer from had HP color cartridges still sealed in packages so I met him again yesterday and bought a couple and as soon as I installed one, the printer I bought from him worked. I assume my printer will too. though.

It was never about the money. It was the fact that I have a small shelf
for the printer, can't be a flatbed or have paper tray sticking up,
don't need an all in one, am running XP that kept me from just buying a
new one immediately. I definitely did this the hard way though, that is for sure.

If any of you shop at Costco, have them fill your ink cartridges for about $10 per cartridge. Disregard HP's claim they damage your printer. It's NOT true.

4 thumbs, why are you opening up all these year old posts?

I note that many still reply to even older posts mainly because many of the same problems keep popping up all the time. Just wanted to remind those who have inkjets that Costco will fill most ink cartridges for a fraction of the cost. I read on the web that HP's claim that using refilled cartridges will damage their printers has proven to be untrue.

I'm still surprised at how many Costco shoppers have never tried refilling as long as their cartridges are not completely dried out. So if I'm replying to old posts it's just an effort to help others save money on expensive inks, many of which end up in time costing more than the printer itself.

And to answer one other person's question above, one website suggested soaking the bottom of cartridges in water for awhile to loosen up any blockage that may cause the ink to stop flowing. I've done this for a printer I hadn't used in a long time and it worked.

And in going through many of the older posts, I also found some very useful hints from people who kept adding solutions to common problems.

4thumbs-

I agree that it's OK and can be useful to selectively reply to old posts. The only times it drives me crazy are when someone had an issue that needed speedy resolution 5-10 years ago and people are still responding, or someone has a new issue that sort of relates to an old thread and they piggyback on the old one rather than start a new one.

The $15 craig's list printer still works great : ) and I didn't need to buy a new computer desk.....

Your printer problem might be the ink cartridge. You are using refills. HP ink cartridges have an expiration date and that date is encoded in the cartridge. The printer checks that date and refuses to use an outdated cartridge irregardless of how much ink is in the cartridge. If the re-filler did not reset this date, one can run into this with a refill.

On a new cartridge, the expiration date on the cartridge will have the form, year month, for example, 2018 01, for 2018 Jan.

If the problem is not the ink cartridge, then it can be the printer or its print head. After 11,000 sheets of paper had been run through my HP printer, I replaced the print head due to a few clogged jets after an extended shut-down period. However, I do not recommend print head replacement for every problem. Your best bet is to replace the printer. Most ink jet printers are sold at cost; The profit is in replacement ink cartridges.