# HP Photosmart 3210 not printing Magenta



## GeekStyle59 (Jul 23, 2009)

First time poster here so hope I get this right. 

My printer was working just fine. Then I ordered and installed a brand new set of the refillable HP 02 cartridges. I'm trying to calibrate only to discover that magenta is not printing magenta ink. Contact HP. They had me do 2 days of worthless stuff ending with sending them the results of the 10 tap test. 

I just want my printer working again! Any ideas? :4-dontkno

HP is now taking their sweet time getting back to me. I emptied the magenta cart and filled it with print head cleaner with no results. I went out and bought an OEM magenta. No results -- so it must be hardware related since I seem to have done everything possible in the software department under HP's guidance.


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## GeekStyle59 (Jul 23, 2009)

HP has indeed decided it is a hardware issue and needs servicing. Is this something I could possibly do myself? I'm not afraid to tinker, but I don't want to break it, either.


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## masterjed (Jul 25, 2009)

Refilled carts can cause a damage on the printer sometimes as well as voiding the printer warranty. May I know what are the steps that Hp told you to do?


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## GeekStyle59 (Jul 23, 2009)

Hi Masterjed,

There were other steps they started with, but then they interrupted themselves even and had me do this:

1. Disk Clean
2 Change screen res to 800 x 600
3. Download/install latest Flashplayer (even though I already had it, I uninstalled and reinstalled it)
4. Remove the HP Software using Windows Cleanup Utility (which gave me an error so I did it manually), then reboot
5. Delete files in the files in Digital Imaging Folder (not all would go, but they said that was OK)
6. Remove all HP Printers from Printers/Fax Folder
7. Upgrade to HP Cue 13 software, but not to connect the USB cable during that setup.
8. Install Cue 7 software and connect USB cable at the prompt.

Magenta still wouldn't print so they asked for a 10 tap test and the results from 11, 16, 53, 56, 63, and 66 ( 11=10; 16=8; 53=OK across the board; 56=RX:03,050,0000 RC:1692; 63=0; 66=15). What DID print in the magenta square was a pale lavender with a few streaks of apparent LT. Magenta.

They had me do other stuff like print with more magenta in advanced settings (which only threw the color chart way off).

At the end they asked for another 10 tap test to be faxed to them. That's when they got back, after checking with the next level of support, to say it was hardware problem and in need of repair. Among the their listed repair contacts, only RadioShack is local. They ask for a $20 deposit, they ship it to New York and get back to me with the cost. All of that takes 1-3 weeks from start to finish I was told.


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## GeekStyle59 (Jul 23, 2009)

Oh, yeah. I have no warranty to worry about. Are you saying that even these brand new refillables will damage the printer? I really can't afford OEMs on a regular basis.


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## GeekStyle59 (Jul 23, 2009)

Not having a warranty can be a good thing sometimes -- when you're not afraid to research and to tinker. I went to as many printer help forums as I could find that had anything at all like my problem and finally decided that the problem had to do with some kind of clog between the cartridge and the printhead (since printhead cleaning accomplished so little). 

First I empty the ink out of all the refillable cartridges. Then filled them with print head cleaner and was running as many different color charts and made up a basic color block page in Photoshop. I ran hours worth of cleaner and paper as I continued searching other forums. 

Then I read that you shouldn't flush the system with printhead cleaner but with a solution of distilled water and household clear ammonia. So I emptied the carts again, rinsed them and made the hottish warm solution and inserted it into the carts. While the printhead cleaner did very noticeable things right away, the ammonia solution worked like a charm. I ran a few more hours worth of solution and paper. Now my magenta purge file prints marvelously -- no banding and full color. Well, as full color as the diluted ink allowed. Now I am gooing to let the printer sit overnnight and start to build up the density of the ink to normal sometime tomorrow.

Just thought that someone looking around here might be interested in trying this out of warranty solution.


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## masterjed (Jul 25, 2009)

Refilled carts are sometimes good, but if they refilled it in a wrong procedure, nozzles of the cartridges will be damaged causing the inks to clog inside the carts. Try removing the magenta cartridge, shake is slowly 3 times and put it in an air tight sealed bag, put in on a table lying upside down with the nozzles (where the inks comes out) facing up for 30 mins. Let me know ASAP.


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## soniaj (Mar 13, 2010)

I got these rhinoteck ink catridges to replace the old ones in my hp printer,first few times it worked fine with color printing but now suddenly started printing only in magenta.Any solution for this?


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