# HP Photosmart C4250 print cartridge missing or not detected



## dascher (Sep 2, 2010)

I have two cartridges in my HP Photosmart C4250 that still have plenty of ink in them (the black (75) is an XL) and they have been working fine in the printer. Today, I'm getting an error message that print cartridges are missing or not detected. I've cleaned the connections with rubbing alcohol, but that doesn't seem to affect anything. I've also tried new cartridges and I get the same error. There is no tape on the cartridges. Please advise.


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## mnaugustwest (Mar 19, 2011)

There is another thread with the title, "Hp C4280 printer says print cartridges not detected or missing," that contains a lot of suggestions. I have included them down below. They didn't work for me, but they might be worth a try for you.
　
I tried the suggestions listed below by Masterjed and Wyzzy, and they didn't work. I also tried cleaning the sponge with a q-tip with some urbbing alcohol on it. I let it it sit with the door open for quite a while, like 30 minutes. I also tried cleaning the color cartridge where the ink comes out with the q-tip with a little rubbing alcohol on it. There was some dried ink there that I cleaned off. 

A curious piece of information. At one point I had the color cartridge out and the black cartridge in, and it started working. It finished printing a job that had been queued on the printer for months. This is the 4th printer in the house, and we only tried to make it work recently after moving into this house a few months ago. A couple of times I got a message that there was a problem with the Color cartridge in HP's All-in-One software package. 

These are new cartridges that we just bought. It previously had cartridges from Cartridge World, that used to work. When I try to put these back in, I get a message that they are "Incompatible cartridges". For the time being I am going to just leave the black cartridge in, and use it as a black and white printer. As I write this, now that is not even working. 

I might be able to a more thorough job cleaning, and that might fix the issue, but I am probably going to just give up since we have the other printers in the house and we bought this printer for such a cheap price.

Thanks for all the suggestions. 

Take care,
mnaugustwest
　
Masterjed wrote: 
Please press and hold the Power button and the Cancel button simultaneously for 2 to 3 secs. If asked for a special key combo, please press Blue, Green and Gray. Navigate the menu using Blue (arrow UP), Gray (arrow down), Green (Ok button). Look for reset menu using the color button above and under reset menu, look for semi-full reset and press OK. 
__________________

*Wyzzy wrote: 
　
Re: Hp C4280 printer says print cartridges not detected or missing* 
　
I had this problem, thats how I found this site. I managed to fix it!!!
I registered to let you know.
1 - Hold the power and cancel button down (X) 
2 - When it say enter special key combo press Blue, Green then Grey.
3 - Press BLUE again, now it says information menu.
4 - Press GREEN then GREY, now it says "checksum for relock data"
5 - Press GREEN again!!!
6 - Kiss my face  
　
*　
Masterjed wrote: 
Re: Hp C4280 printer says print cartridges not detected or missing* 
　
1 - Hold the power and cancel button down (X) 
2 - When it say enter special key combo press Blue, Green then Grey.
3 - Press BLUE again twice, now it says resets menu.
4 - Press the OK button and press blue twice to get to semi-full reset
5 - Press OK for semi-full reset, printer should shutdown. Wait for 30 secs before turning it back on using the power button and follow the prompts to set the language and the country. If this won't work, then you need to replace cartridges. 
__________________


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## saltchuck (Apr 27, 2011)

The reset procedure did not work for me. I had spare cartridges, so tried replacing them one at a time. Replacing the color cartridge did not help. Replacing the B&W cartridge solved the problem. Both of my cartridges were genuine HP cartridges, and both were "XL" cartridges (74XL and 75XL).


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## patticake2 (May 3, 2011)

the reset procedure did not work for me either. i had a spare empty 74 and 75 cartridges,i replaced the 74XL leaky one that I bought re manufactured with the empty cartridge,with the colored re manufactured one still in place.
It did not say HP photo smart C4250 print cartridge missing or not detected any more ! IT SAID I NEEDED TO DO A ALINEMENT'S PAGE DUE TO PUTTING A NEW CARTRIDGE IN PLACE. so I tried the alinement's page even though I had no black ink. IT WORKED ! ALL COLOR BUT IT WORKED !
I am very happy this sight is here ,it gave me ideas and let me possibly help someone else out !


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## Navitavi (May 15, 2011)

The problem is that maybe your other cartridge is low or empty.

My color one is empty. 

Anyways, I figured out what to do, you have to go into the system and view your cartridge levels. Once you do that, it will print for you, but you might have to do it EVERY time before you print until you fix the other cartridge. Or it may just keep working for you. I have to keep doing it right now until I buy a new color one. I don't know what will happen if I buy a new color one, but it still does it. I just did this:

Wojnicki-Tech: HP Photosmart C4280 Cartridge Problems

And it worked so that I could print.

Basically:


Power and Cancel simultaneously,
Blue, Green, Gray, in turn,
Blue
Green
11 times Blue (or press gray button 5 times)
Green
3 times cancel.


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