The hard wire is a good idea, and I'll try it. (It'll involve some relocating so I might not get to it for a few days.) But if the printer won't print well from a smart card put directly in the printer would it help to connect it to the computer with a hard wire?

What do you mean by a "smart card??

Did it work properly for the prior owner?

By "smart card" I mean the card that is in a digital camera. There's a slot on the printer that you can plug it directly into. And yes, the printer worked fine for them, except that it would not print black. I cleaned the head and put in new ink and now it prints black just fine! (I need to talk to them about that- they might be able to shed some light on the issue.)

I really appreciate your interest. Thanks for taking the time.

Sure.

Okay, you're describing a memory card. The most common format is SD (Secure Digital) cards, a rectangle with a notch taken off one corner. Or Micro SD cards, same thing in smaller size. They're dumb, just memory.

I'd connect it with a cord to a PC and try it. If that doesn't work, maybe I would look to see if there's a firmware update that can be loaded on it.

Yes! A memory card is what I should have said. So not "smart" at all, just like a USB stick. Thanks again.

You mention firmware updates- any different from the drivers I already downloaded from HP? I should mention that my computer is a fairly recent, inexpensive HP, and I keep up with all of Windows 10s updates.

I'll bring the printer in (it's in a detached garage because I'm out of room in the house) and plug it in.

Yes, they're different.

"Firmware" on an electronic device or gizmo (to use the technical term) is the software inside that makes it do what it does. It's not unusual for firmware for PC peripherals to be updated a time or two after release. Think of it as like a Windows update, firmware updates are for the software that runs the hardware. If there are firmware downloads, you get that and instructions and software to load it from the manufacturer's support site for the specific product model. The device is usually required to be connected to the PC if it's a PC peripheral. The internal copy of firmware sometimes can get corrupted (just as can happen with app or data files on a PC) and sometimes reloading it can help.

"Drivers" are something else. Drivers are the software that reside on a PC to help it communicate and interact with a different specific pieces of hardware. Think of it this way - the printer speaks Norwegian, the PC speaks French, the driver is the interpreter that allows them to speak to each other. A different printer speaks Czech and it has its own drivers.

Another kind of firmware you may be familiar with is the firmware for your home router. Some update automatically, sometimes the firmware update needs to be triggered. It's a good thing to keep current because updates tend to cover fixes for security purposes and to eliminate bugs.

I’d be more inclined to think it’s a driver issue, given that the printer prints just fine from a memory card. How did you install the drivers? Just let Windows do its thing or download them from HP’s website?

I did download from HP. Haven't had a chance to do anything with it for a couple of days, so I don't have any more to add on it. I do want to try the hard wire option, but I'm not sure when I'll make time for it right now.

But this may be a clue: Trying to figure this all out, I went back and tried to directly copy a color image as a photo, using 4x6 HP photo paper, which the printer messed up. But when I copied the same image as a conventional copy using the 8 1/2 x 11 paper all was well. Is that helpful?

Thanks again all!

Finally figured this one out. I had brought a couple of the weird prints in to show my wife, and she thought they were neat and wanted to keep them (she's an artist, among other things). But the ink was still smudgy so they got set away to dry. That was a month ago. Last week she picked one up and it was still smudgy, and when I looked closely at it I noticed that I had been putting the photo paper in upside down ...

Thanks to everybody who offered suggestions and help. And if you ever run into it again, remember, never discount good old operator error!