hp f4280 won't print in color

**djheadley** · 2 Weeks Ago

I have an HP F4280 All In One that I have managed to get going (it set for about 5 years). It prints in B&W but not color. The print cartridges are newly opened. I have HPLIP installed and have tried to print a photo in GIMP and in LibreOffice. I am using Ubuntu 24.04.4 on a NLxxPU laptop.

I have checked everything I can think of, software wise. What else can I check?

**Autodave** · 2 Weeks Ago

Is it printing everything in black and white or are there blank spot where something of color should be?

**djheadley** · 1 Week Ago

There are "washed out" spots near the middle of the photo.

**Autodave** · 1 Week Ago

I still don't understand......is there any color printing at all, or is everything printed in B&W? Where there is supposed to be color, is it B&W or nothing at all? It would be great if you could post a pic of what you printed.

**djheadley** · 1 Week Ago

No color at all, just washed-out grayscale with lighter grayscale in the center of the picture. B&W (text) prints just fine.

I haven't tried the scanner yet.

I also haven't had to use a printer in several years so don't remember what to try next and, at that time this printer came out, HP didn't acknowledge that Linux existed.

**Autodave** · 1 Week Ago

On your screen on the printer, you should have a place to click and print a test page. Try that and see if it prints correctly.

**djheadley** · 1 Week Ago

Using HPLIP;

Test page, black only
clean heads, 1st pass black only - 2nd pass black only

is there a way to "wake up" the color cartridge (encourage ink flow)?

**Autodave** · 1 Week Ago

Yes....but be careful!!!!!!!!!!!! Remove the cartridge and turn it upside down. Wet a paper towel with warm water and squeeze excess water out. Carefully, place the paper towel on the cartridge and lightly press on it several times. Now, turn the cartridge right side up and gently place the wet paper towel on the the bottom of the cartridge. Only do this for a second. Remove the paper towel and observe what, if any, ink is on it. Have all 3 colors nice and bright? Good! Put back in printer and try printing test page. If color on paper towel is light, or if 1 or 2 colors are way lighter than the others, repeat the process one more time. If it doesn't work after the second attempt, you will probably not save that cartridge.

**djheadley** · 1 Week Ago

Cartridge is toast, will have to order a new one. In the future, I will be printing a lot of text pages (maybe a doz or 2 a month) and very little color. Should I get the pack with 1 color and 2 b&w?