On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 8:32 PM, Fred James <[email protected]>wrote:

> nathan w wrote:
> > the hplip site says that this printer is supported in versions 0.95 or
> > newer, and the current version of hplip is 3.11.5. ubuntu already has
> > the 3.11 branch... it'd be a very outdated distro indeed that did not
> > support this printer with the hplip package already in the repo.
> >
> > i vote for hardware issues, but ianape.
> >
> >
> Still ... almost any Live CD distro should be able to recognize and
> print to the printer ... which could therefore be a quick and cheap way
> to rule out the computer software and thereby more or less confirm the
> notion that the problem is in the printer (whether sw or hw).  I am a
> Mandriva user myself, but for Live CD I have liked Knoppix ... your
> mileage may vary.
> Regards
> Fred James
>
> Thanks  for all the replies.  The printer is sitting not connected to any
computer.  It goes through the alignment test, where the carriage moves
across the paper and a light shines down.  I assume that this is locating
the paper edge.  It then goes back and forth a couple of times, then
abruptly changes to self-test.  After 10 or 20 more seconds it changes
to Initializing, ejects the paper, then goes back to the alignment test with
a request for loading paper.  No ink appears on the paper.  This endless
loop gives me no opportunity to try anything other than power-off.  This
leads me to discount computer drivers, etc. as the issue.

I lightly pressed each cartridge onto a wet cloth, indicating three
colors/black.  This leads me to think that they are not plugged.  (Anybody
here have a printer that uses #94 and #95 cartridges willing to try these?)
 The seller told me that the thing sat around unused for a couple of years,
so bad cartridges is not out of the question.

I paid $20, so I will not feel too bad if it remains broken.  Spending $40+
for new cartridges will bring me to near 1/2 the cost of a new printer of
some type with no guarantee that it will work.  Not a reasonable risk in my
mind.  I may end of taking this thing apart far enough to see if there are
puffy electrolytics around.

Still of an open mind...

-Denis
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