HP Deskjet Refill not working

I have a HP deskjet 840C printer, a couple of months ago my ink ran out in the colour cartridge (HP 6625A).

A mate has already refilled some cartridges with a kit he bought from a superstore (not HP, as these cartridges are supposedly not refillable). There is no hardware needed for the refill to work (some printers require a flashing unit to refresh the chip on the cartridge).

He has refilled many HP printers such as mine, including his own a few times (HP Deskjet 845C) and there has never been a problem.

But for some reason, only the red ink is working on mine, but sometimes, if I shake the cartridge for ages, then the blue and yellow might work for a bit.

A strange thing though, is, after I formatted my pc not so long back, I printed a test page after I installed the printer, and this printed perfectly. (This page is of an Asian woman, some flowers etc.)

Immediatley after that, it stopped working again.

Help Please.

Dig.

 

refill cartridge

i too have the same problem with my lexmark 1100. we refilled it once and worked fine. but the 2nd time, it's not working. i cleaned the cartridge and the area where it goes with alchol and lint free rag and qtip, it prints but now it acts like it is running out of ink, the color is very faded. green worked good for a while but that is the only color that we could tell what color it was. i was told to buy a new cartridge, but around here it's as cheap to buy a new printer. if you find out what the deal is, post it. i am having the problem as we type.

 

As I understand it some print cart's have the print head built-in to it (HP carts do). Also some carts rely on BACKPRESSURE to function properly (again, HP carts do)...so...if the factory seal is broken (punctured when refilling with ink) this pressure is now lost and the cart will not function properly. There is also the danger of a refilled cart leaking into the printer body and ruining the printer. On the otherhand SOME printer manufacturer carts are actually designed to be successfully refilled (HP is NOT one of these companies). I bought my HP DeskJet 952C BECAUSE its' carts were much cheaper than Epson (which I had before). Still, with the Epson after buying 4 carts I would have paid for a whole new printer, and with my HP it will take 8 carts. They have us all by the short hairs on this printer cartdrige business I'm afraid.

 

There certainly is a need to counter the high prices of new cartridges. I have an hp printer that appears to be an ink hog. Checking out the prices of replacement, there is a new hp printer (inc. cart.) for sale that is about $20.00 higher than new cartidges. Indicates to me hp makes more money on carts than a new printer .

 

We had that problem with are hp inkjet
cartridge after a refill also. I found a link
(can't find it now though) that recommended to run just the head under
hot water for 10 seconds because the head may have dried out. It didn't work
Next step was to put just the head into
simmering water for about 30 minutes
I set up something on top of the stove
to enable just the head to be immersed
into the water. I had my doubts about
this but low and behold I actually started
to see all 3 colors coming out of the ink cartridge in about 15 minutes. Just to be on the safe side I let it go for the whole
30 though. Let it dry, put it back into the printer ran a couple of test pages, realigned the cartridge and everything worked fine after that.
This was my solution, it may help

P.S. Always shut down the printer with
the printers power button.

 

Drying out may be a problem, but it is my understanding if cartridges are properly docked there should be no problem!?

may be the prevention. Any idea how many ~pages (full text) can be printed with just black ink?

 

refill cartridge problems

okay, i give, what do you mean by always shut down the printer with the button? and what does properly docked? i tried soaking in water and i am now getting some pink coloring. my husband is ready for another printer. but i won't give up. thanks for all the suggestions.

 

I can't speak for indmusic, but I assume he/she means don't cut the power to the printer other than the button on the printer.

To dock would be the normal, inactive state of the print cartridges. An improper shut down (may) leave the cartridges in a position other than the normal, inactive position. Thus providing less exposure of the jets that may help prevent any drying out. That would be my understanding.

I haven't tried the hot water application to free jets, but it does sound reasonable.