Your printer cartridge is only a few weeks old and yet your printer only ejects a white sheet of paper or a sheet of paper with incomplete print?
Then the assumption is that you have not used your inkjet printer for a long period of time due to vacation, illness or other reasons. The result: the print head of the printer cartridge has dried up and the printouts remain white or have gaps. This phenomenon is very common in inkjet printers. Depending on the model, some printers will dry out sooner and other printers later if the printer is not used. Many people f you don’t know how to connect printer to the laptop and face many difficulties so that you can read this post.
This article gives you tips on what to do when your ink cartridge has dried up and also presents some tricks you can use to prevent your ink cartridge from drying up in the future.
Printer cartridge dried up – what now?
Like most owners of inkjet printers, you are certainly familiar with the problem: you only use your printer seldom, but when you want to print out something important quickly, the printout shows horizontal, white stripes or the paper even remains completely white.
You can probably already guess what that means: The print head of the printer cartridge has dried up again. This is especially annoying if you just bought your cartridges and they are almost full. But you don’t have to throw away your printer cartridge right away. Instead, try the following tips first, with which you have a good chance of saving your printer cartridge.
Automatic cleaning by the printer
Most inkjet printers come with their own printer software that allows you to service the device. Call up the program on your PC and look for keywords such as nozzle cleaning or print head cleaning. This is offered by almost all printer programs. If you own a printer for which there is no special software, you can carry out maintenance via the system control of your computer. Find your printer in the list of installed devices and open the Maintenance menu item. Here you have the option of carrying out a normal cleaning or an intensive cleaning.
Before you carry out a manual cleaning, you should definitely exhaust all automatic cleaning programs. If, after cleaning, you find that the quality of the printout has already improved, it makes sense to carry out certain cleaning steps several times. Please note, however, that such cleaning programs consume a lot of ink. The automatic process is only worthwhile if your printer cartridge still contains enough ink. After all, it would be annoying if the cleaning was successful and you could then only print a few pages until the printer cartridge is empty. If you are unsuccessful with the automatic cleaning of your printer, then you only have to clean the printer cartridge manually.
Clean the dried-up printer cartridge manually with a cloth
The first step in manual cleaning is to clean the dried printer cartridge with a damp cloth or cotton swab. To do this, remove the printer cartridge from your device, moisten a lint-free cloth or cotton swab and very carefully clean the underside of the cartridge where the nozzles are located. Always use warm water and avoid detergents. Then reinstall the printer cartridge and print a test page.
The printout is still wrong? Then you’ll have to bring out the heavier artillery. Buy rubbing alcohol at the pharmacy and soak a kitchen towel liberally in it. Then place the cloth in a shallow dish. Then remove your printer cartridge again and place it on the kitchen towel overnight so that the nozzles are in direct contact with the damp cloth. You can put the cartridge back in the next morning. Now run an Auto Nozzle Cleaning and print a test image to find out if your alcohol cleaning was successful.
Manual cleaning with a warm water bath
Is your printer still printing blank pages because the printer cartridge has dried up? Then you can clean in a warm water bath.
You have two options for this:
version 1
- First, you should pack your printer cartridge in a waterproof plastic bag (such as a ziplock bag). Then let a water bath with about 60 degrees hot water in the sink and put the packed printer cartridge in completely. Wait about five minutes, remove the cartridge and test if this method was successful.
If this is not the case, it is time for the second variant:
Variant 2
- Fill a flat bowl with water at about 60 degrees again and this time place the cartridge with the underside where the nozzles are located directly in the water bath. After about half a minute, the dried ink of the print head of the dried printer cartridge should have come loose. After that, you need to gently wipe the printer cartridge with a clean, lint-free cloth dry. Perform a test print again and check whether there are still streaks on the printout.
Tricks to prevent printer cartridges from drying out
To prevent printer cartridges from drying out, simply consider the following tips:
In general, you should always allow the printer to return to its idle position when it is switched off. You can achieve this by switching off the printer directly at the device instead of simply unplugging it. This moves the printer cartridges into a resting position, which prevents them from drying out.
Especially if you do not use the printer for a long time, you should print out a test page once every two to three weeks so that the nozzles are used and drying is prevented. Are you afraid you might forget that? Then simply set a reminder on your PC or smartphone.
If you are away for a longer period of time on vacation, on a business trip or for other reasons and are therefore unable to regularly print out a test page, you can still protect your printer cartridge from drying out.
Simply remove your cartridge, wrap it in cling film and store the wrapped cartridge in a protected, cool place.
If you don’t have cling film handy, you can also protect your printer cartridge by carefully covering the nozzles with adhesive tape. Even then you should choose a cool, sun-protected place to store the printer cartridge.
Alternatively, you can also find out whether there are special storage boxes for your printer cartridge type. Such boxes are also well suited to storing the removed cartridges and protecting them from drying out. Please note, however, that such cleaning programs consume a lot of ink. The automatic process is only worthwhile if your printer cartridge still contains enough ink. After all, it would be annoying if the cleaning was successful and you could then only print a few pages until the printer cartridge is empty.
If you are unsuccessful with the automatic cleaning of your printer, then you only have to clean the printer cartridge manually. Then remove your printer cartridge again and place it on the kitchen towel overnight so that the nozzles are in direct contact with the damp cloth. You can put the cartridge back in the next morning. Now run an Auto Nozzle Cleaning and print a test image to find out if your alcohol cleaning was successful.
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