Tech help with my printer

[Larry_OHF]

The problem is that the pictures I am trying to print out are not coming out in their correct color. They are hazed over in what I might call overexposure to greenish tint, by about 30 percent. I ran a test on the print alignment section and instead of yellow, I got green in the yellow jet test column. However, I can print webpages with yellow with no trouble and Word Docs in yellow as well. Only when I try to print photos does this happen.

I tried printing pics that had come out clean before, but they no longer do.
I tried changing the color scheme, selecting something other than default.
I tried reinstalling drivers, which included unplugging the printer.
I tried different settings to produce different results, and the funny thing is that the drafts on plain paper came out closer to correct than the high-quality printing.

I tried calling Tech Support, but they want $10.00 to answer me.


What have I not tried?

[Bungleau]

First questions first... have you turned the machine off (for about a minute) and then back on? Sometimes that can do amazing things.

Second question... have you cleaned the printer lately?

Third... are the cartridges in the right places? Green in the yellow means some blue is sneaking in.

Fourth... have you tried the reset function on the printer?

Fifth... have you wandered around the tech support web site looking for ideas?

Sixth... have you tried new print cartridges?


Seventh... have you wandered around the printer properties looking for suspicious stuff? On my HP OJ7410, there's a setting for who controls color management -- ColorSmart, Adobe, or the application. That third one could be a bugaboo... mine is set to ColorSmart right now.

What's the make and model of the printer?

[ZFR]

could it be simply your cartridges running low? (i assume it is not a laser printer?)

[Larry_OHF]

Thanks for the reply, Bungleau. All those things you suggested I had already worked on before asking for help. I had two people on MSN chat walking me through ideas that I could not think of.

This is a Canon, S520. Had it now for a couple years.

[Larry_OHF]

Originally posted by ZFR: could it be simply your cartridges running low? (i assume it is not a laser printer?)

I am starting to wonder if its "BAD INK", because the cartriges are full and I replaced the yellow in the middle of all the trouble, so its not yellow.

It was suggested to me that it sounded like the blue was firing whenever yellow was being called for, and that was causing the green hue, especially in the test page...I am supposed to have sample columns of each of the colors in their true tone and I got green in place of yellow.

[Zebodog]

Have you tried printing the photo's on regular paper, or different photo paper?

Sometimes old photo paper causes issues and and occasionally you run accross paper and printer that just will not provide decent results, but both perform will when not together.

[Larry_OHF]

Printer paper can go bad? Well...actually, it does look better in the background colors on regular paper than it does on the photo paper I have been trying to use...and I have had it for a few years now. Lemme try using some new photo paper once I get my nerve back to trying it again.

[shamrock_uk]

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: Printer paper can go bad?

Absolutely. Storing it in damp conditions for example will ruin it and storing it in a room which undergoes temperature changes (eg hot in day and cold at night) can curl the edges which plays havoc with the paper feed.

[Zebodog]

An interesting article you may want to check out Larry.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/50663-1/article.html