HP Photosmart says "cartridge(s) in wrong slot"

[markdamerell]

After working for several months, our printer (C4380) has suddenly
started giving that error message.
Please does anybody know what this means? I did not find anything
relevant either in Google or HP's
own website, which lists several errors but not that one.

Please does this Group have a FAQ file? I could not find it.

 

[Al]

After working for several months, our printer (C4380) has suddenly
started giving that error message.
Please does anybody know what this means? I did not find anything
relevant either in Google or HP's
own website, which lists several errors but not that one.

Please does this Group have a FAQ file? I could not find it.

All I can say is HP is notorious for giving bogus messages when the
printer senses a bad cart. This could be a non OEM cart, a low ink
cart, or one with burned electronics inside. Your problem might be as
simple as cleaning the contacts on the back of the cart and on the
printer side. Some ink or oxidation may have built up so the printer
is receiving erroneous information.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Hmmm. maybe the cartridges had a party late at night and forgot where
they lived?

More seriously, you might try removing the cartridge and cleaning the
contact surfaces with care with a bit of isopropyl alcohol. Clean both
surfaces the one on the cartridge and in the printer, but do so very
gently and without a lot of alcohol.

Then reinstall them making sure they are properly positioned, both in
location and that they are fitted fully in place.

Art


If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/

 

[markdamerell]

I tried cleaning contacts, no joy. Eventually I got new carts, which
seems to have
solved my problem at least for now. THis leaves me pissed-off with HP
because
they seem to have programmed their carts to fail after about 6 months;
and the
printer gives false & undocumented error reports and they provide no
way to find
out which cart (if any) is bad.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I suggest contacting them about it.

Under some situations they will refund or provide a new cartridge to
deal with these situations (or at least they have in the past).

Art

If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/