HP 950 PSC Color Problems

[Boris]

I'm trouble shooting an HP 950 PSC for my dad. I was at his house over
the weekend, but am now at home, so I can't offer much in details other
than what I saw while there.

The printer was originally connected to a Windows ME machine as
recently as January of this year. It worked fine. He got a new
Windows XP Home machine in March. At that time, I set up the machine,
and simply plugged in the printer, and it found and used the XP
supplied drivers. I never installed the drivers that came on CD with
the printer, as the most recent drivers on that CD were for Windows ME,
and I remember that installing them on the old machine was quite a
chore and buggy.

All had been been working fine with the XP supplied default drivers for
the printer. A few days ago, when we print pictures that are on the
pc, the output looks sort of like a negative. It's very hard to
describe. It's not that colors are missing, because there are some or
partial colors, but the print out is 'ghost like'. Yes, there are
blues and reds and yellows, but they must not be in the right
proportion. If I remember correctly, it may be that yellow is missing,
and this affects the other colors, but I don't know.

However, if we use the copy function and copy a page of a magazine, for
example, everything is perfect.

There is a full color cartridge in the machine.

My plan is to get the HP/XP drivers from the HP site, but I wonder if
this will help, and why was it printing fine just the generic XP
provided drivers, and now it's not.

 

[Bob Headrick]

I'm trouble shooting an HP 950 PSC for my dad. I was at his house
over
the weekend, but am now at home, so I can't offer much in details
other
than what I saw while there.

The printer was originally connected to a Windows ME machine as
recently as January of this year. It worked fine. He got a new
Windows XP Home machine in March. At that time, I set up the machine,
and simply plugged in the printer, and it found and used the XP
supplied drivers. I never installed the drivers that came on CD with
the printer, as the most recent drivers on that CD were for Windows
ME,
and I remember that installing them on the old machine was quite a
chore and buggy.

All had been been working fine with the XP supplied default drivers
for
the printer. A few days ago, when we print pictures that are on the
pc, the output looks sort of like a negative. It's very hard to
describe. It's not that colors are missing, because there are some or
partial colors, but the print out is 'ghost like'. Yes, there are
blues and reds and yellows, but they must not be in the right
proportion. If I remember correctly, it may be that yellow is
missing,
and this affects the other colors, but I don't know.

However, if we use the copy function and copy a page of a magazine,
for
example, everything is perfect.

My plan is to get the HP/XP drivers from the HP site, but I wonder if
this will help, and why was it printing fine just the generic XP
provided drivers, and now it's not.

If the copy function is OK then the driver is probably the problem. I
would certainly remove the Microsoft driver and install the correct HP
driver. Make sure you disconnect the 950 and do not reattach it until
the driver installation instructs you to do so.

In the short term check to make sure that the driver has not been set to
fast draft or that an incorrect paper type has been selected.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[Boris]

If the copy function is OK then the driver is probably the problem. I
would certainly remove the Microsoft driver and install the correct HP
driver. Make sure you disconnect the 950 and do not reattach it until
the driver installation instructs you to do so.

In the short term check to make sure that the driver has not been set to
fast draft or that an incorrect paper type has been selected.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging

Thanks, Bob,

I plan to disconnect the usb cab from the printer/pc, delete the
printer from the system, download the XP/HP drivers from HP, install,
reconnect the printer to the pc, and cross my fingers and hope it works
for my dad.

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

Thanks, Bob,

I plan to disconnect the usb cab from the printer/pc, delete the
printer from the system, download the XP/HP drivers from HP, install,
reconnect the printer to the pc, and cross my fingers and hope it works
for my dad.

You didn't, by any chance, install Service Pack 2 before the problem
started, did you? I've seen it cause several older HP models to stop
working properly. If installing the new drivers doesn't work, you
might want to try uninstalling SP2.

---

http://www.FenrirOnline.com

Computer services, custom metal etching,
arts, crafts, and much more.

 

[Boris]

You didn't, by any chance, install Service Pack 2 before the problem
started, did you? I've seen it cause several older HP models to stop
working properly. If installing the new drivers doesn't work, you
might want to try uninstalling SP2.

---

http://www.FenrirOnline.com

Computer services, custom metal etching,
arts, crafts, and much more.

Nope, the machine is a Dell Dimension bought in March, and came with
XPHome, SP2 already installed. It all worked fine from March until
early May.

 

[Mike R.]

If the copy function is OK then the driver is probably the problem. I
would certainly remove the Microsoft driver and install the correct HP
driver. Make sure you disconnect the 950 and do not reattach it until
the driver installation instructs you to do so.

In the short term check to make sure that the driver has not been set to
fast draft or that an incorrect paper type has been selected.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging

Dad's neighbor came by and installed the driver from the HP site.
The install went fine. But, the problem now is that the HP printer copies
fine, but anything printed from the pc comes out in very light grey, except
for blue underlined links in emails. Web pages are also very light grey.
A printed test page was grey.

I spent two hours on the phone checking settings and driver versions, and
all seems correct.

Could the printer be bad?

Thanks

 

[Bob Headrick]

Dad's neighbor came by and installed the driver from the HP site.
The install went fine. But, the problem now is that the HP printer
copies
fine, but anything printed from the pc comes out in very light grey,
except
for blue underlined links in emails. Web pages are also very light
grey.
A printed test page was grey.

OK, a few more things to check. It sounds like the black cartridge
could be empty or clogged. A copy may use the color cartridge to print
black depending on the type of document, while the print function would
use black for text. Try printing a diagnostic page: press the "setup"
button, then press 1, then 5. This will print a diagnostic page that
should look like the one shown at:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...me=bpu00734&product=60259&dlc=en&lang=en#N780.
If the black swath is light gray or missing you probably need a new
black cartridge. If the nozzle diagnostic area (following the "Black
Cartridge Test Patterns:") is missing nozzles in a regular pattern then
try cleaning the cartridge contacts as shown at:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=bpa02060

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...n&product=60259&docname=bpu02176#bpu02176_doc
may also help.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging