dell printer 720 print problems

Question

Hi, i have a 2 year old printer, which has recently lost its print quality, i have run basic maintenance, to no avail. When i print photos, the colours are wrong and speckly. i have changed print quality and paper settings, but am unable to get good printout. Could it be a bad cartridge or something else. I have not had too much of problem before and changed cartridges about a month ago.   Any advise would be appreciated.   Thanks   sammy

william_the_sco · Answer

When you don't use your ink carts for a while, when you get new ink carts that have been stored in warehouses for a number of months, or when you have refilled a slightly too dry ink cart, the print head nozzles on the bottom of the ink carts get clogged inside with dried ink. The printer head cleaner menu will NOT dissolve the dried ink inside of the nozzles. Water will. Try this. Soak the bottom of the clogged ink cart in 1/2 inch of hot water for 15 minutes. Blot dry with clean paper towel. Also wipe the electrical contacts on the back of the ink cart. Retry.

sammy37 · Answer

Ok that has improved things, thanks, now i am getting a red saturation on the prints. Faces have red areas. Colours just don't seem to be blending properly, and a pine wooden table has red and blue grain to it!   Any ideas   sammy

william_the_sco · Answer

Color accuracy varies from ink cart to ink cart. Ocasionaly an ink cart may be way off. The more you use it the better the ink will flow equally in all the nozzles. Also when printing color photos or charts, glossy photo paper works much better than regular paper. You can correct colors by putting the photo in a photoshop type program.

sammy37 · Answer

Ok thanks for your help.   sammy

ilsa lund · Answer

Even though my ink levels show that I have approximately 90-95% left for both cartridges (the color cartridge is the original that came with it and the b/w is a year old), my printer is not printing with any ink.   I cleaned inside the printer and the cartridges as instructed but my test page didn't look like the sample.   I say the ink levels are incorrect and I need new cartridges but I'd like to get some confirmation from other users before I buy them.   Thanks. :)

william_the_sco · Answer

ilsa, Clean your ink carts by soaking as described above. Message Edited by william_the_scot on 01-08-200708:17 AM

ilsa lund · Answer

Ahhh, then I guess it's time to get a new color cart.   Thanks again. :)

william_the_sco · Answer

The 3 colors go empty at 3 different times.

ilsa lund · Answer

Hi William,   Did that and it helped but I'm not getting any blue ink from my test pages.  Must all the colors from a color cart be empty at once or can one or two at a time?   Thanks.

william_the_sco · Answer

Keep your empty color cart until after you use your new color cart. It comes in handy for testing some printer error messages from the printer even when empty.

PrinterAL · Answer

I am wondering if this will fix my problem.  When I print in black and white no matter the preference (quick, better, best) the text is blurry and then every couple of lines the text is perferct.  I have installed new ink  and run the system troubleshooting.  Am I having a dry ink problem or could it be my driver?

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