HP ink cartridge is dry: restoring operation and refilling the cartridge. HP ink cartridge has dried up: restoring operation and refilling the cartridge Refilling hp 3050 cartridges at home

MFP j610a ch376c

The procedure for updating the model range is sometimes very conditional. A striking example of this is computer peripherals. Manufacturers of printing equipment often refresh their model ranges by adding a few small touches to the design of existing devices. The result is the same devices, but they are sold at a higher price.

In such cases, the production of outdated models is stopped (seemingly as unnecessary). In this regard, the remaining copies of excellent devices on sale, prematurely relegated to the category of old people, become the object of active hunting by buyers. For example, the professional photo printer Epson Stylus Photo R2400, which in the printing sense is not particularly inferior to its successors, still excites the minds of professional photographers. And although the manufacturer has long stopped producing this model, after a good search, you can still find it and buy it, saving thousands of rubles.

The hero of our review, alas and ah, did not become a cult device. Nevertheless, this budget MFP is relevant even after HP stopped producing it. It is inferior to its successor, the Deskjet 3050A, only in small details. Which, moreover, are very few. The new product was equipped with a new control panel and a feed tray without decorative corrugation on the inside. In addition, it supports ePrint technology, which, remember, allows you to send photos and documents for printing by email. As you can see, the differences between the 3050 and 3050A are not that significant.

What is this greeting from the recent past? Naturally, nothing outstanding (like almost all printers and MFPs of the Deskjet series). At least in the printed sense, since this device is assembled on the basis of a pair of HP 122 cartridges (black and three-color). However, such devices (that is, designed for the mass buyer) do not need to print perfectly - for this audience it is much more important that the unit is inexpensive and prints tolerably, and, if possible, looks nice and is equipped with additional functionality.

By the way, about the cost. Those wishing to purchase this budget MFP will have to shell out 2,550 rubles - this is the average price on Yandex.Market. While the fresh stuff - Deskjet 3050A - costs one and a half hundred more.

Competition analysis: cheaper, more expensive, right on target!

MFP control panel

Our hero’s main competitor is, of course, the HP Deskjet 3050A. In the previous section, we already said that the new product has not escaped far from its predecessor: the capabilities are practically the same, and the difference in price is minimal. So neither one nor the other has any weighty arguments in their favor. Although those who are actively interested in the opportunity to send documents for printing via e-mail can, without hesitation, take another 150 rubles out of their pocket and inform the seller of their firm intention to buy “this one, the one with the letter “A”. The additional payment, you will agree, is insignificant.

If you do not necessarily strive to become the owner of an MFP equipped with a wireless communication module, then why not save a few hundred by choosing the HP Deskjet 2050A or HP Deskjet 1050A? By the way, contrary to logic, the second one costs more than the first: 2000 rubles versus 1900. And since the technical characteristics of these models are identical, the only reasonable explanation for this is that the eternal desire of Russian businessmen to earn more money was unevenly distributed between these devices.

If you plan to print mainly photographs, then you should pay attention to the HP Deskjet 3070A (2,750 rubles) or the HP Photosmart B110b (4,150 rubles). The main reason for the higher prices is the four-cartridge printing system (HP 178).

Epson cannot take it and present it as a direct competitor. And of those devices that are located next to this segment, it is worth mentioning only the Epson Stylus SX125 or Epson Stylus SX130 (to be honest, there is no difference). For the money (about 2,000 rubles) these are quite good devices, by the way, equipped with separate cartridges. But they cannot boast of any additional useful features (LCD display, Wi-Fi). However, there is a more significant drawback: budget devices produced by Epson are obscenely slow.

But devices from Epson equipped with additional functionality cost much more: the relatively inexpensive Epson Stylus SX420W, Epson Stylus SX425W, Epson Stylus SX430W, Epson Stylus SX435W and the company will cost the buyer around 3,500 rubles each. The difference with their American “colleagues” is unreasonably large.

So, our hero has one direct competitor - his closest relative 3050A. And for almost the same money you can buy a good photographic MFP 3070A. Other competitors do not fit into this niche: different opportunities, different prices.

Design: simplicity, but not primitiveness

Central view

The concept of the HP 3050 is very interesting: it combines the status of a budget device and an almost senior model (formally, the photographic 3070A is considered the senior of this brethren). They combine very well, and the stylish design is a clear confirmation of this. An inexpensive device, oddly enough, does not look cheap. However, the designers achieved this effect in the simplest (and therefore partly cheap) way: along with matte surfaces, they did not spare gloss. As a result, the scanner cover, which was remarkably practical on the younger MFP series, has become a real problem for those who love cleanliness: you will have to wipe fingerprints off it very often. And there’s nothing to say about minor scratches.

This glossy disgrace is summed up by the brown stripe that encircles the body of the device. It separates the glossy black lid from the dark gray matte “everything else.” Now about the advantages. The case is assembled conscientiously, there are no gaps observed. In addition, the plastic is thick, and also environmentally friendly, which the manufacturer (or at least the author of the official press release on the HP website) is incredibly proud of.

Trays are yet another proof that being on a budget does not always mean being poor. The creators equipped the device with separate trays (while the younger models of the Officejet and Photosmart series have to be content with combined ones). They are organized quite traditionally: the feed tray is vertical (located on the back wall of the device), and the receiving tray is horizontal (located at the bottom of the front wall). Their capacity by the standards of home MFPs is quite decent: the media tray is designed for 60 sheets, and for prints - 25.

The control panel is quite modest: no flirting with touch sensitivity, buttons and a small monochrome display rule the roost. There are only eight buttons: turning the device on/off, scanning, canceling the current job, Quick form (printing templates without a PC), turning Wi-Fi on/off, and three more buttons with variable functions for working with the display. The size of the latter, of course, leaves much to be desired, but it is enough to perform basic functions.

Traditionally, there are two connectors on the back of the device: power and USB. However, the presence of the latter did not prompt the manufacturer to add a USB cable to the package. However, you can connect the MFP to a computer without any wires - that is, there is a wireless communication module.

Brief summary. We confidently give the designers who worked on the appearance of the HP 3050 MFP a well-deserved four. Stylish and quite convenient to use, the device may appeal to many people. One problem is the abundance of easily soiled gloss.

Technical features: budget is in the soul

MFP scanner

As already mentioned, the hardware of the HP Deskjet 3050 is not fancy: it is built on the basis of two HP 122 cartridges with built-in print heads. One of them is black, and the second is tri-color (cyan, magenta and yellow). That is, our hero has at his disposal a traditional CMYK printing set. As for the print resolution, it is also standard for inexpensive HP solutions: 4800x1200 dpi for color printing and only 600 dpi for black and white.

Don't expect excellent print quality. Primarily due to the volume of the ink drop. The black cartridge, for example, provides a very impressive volume of drops - 13.5 pl. With a color ink tank, however, things are much better: from 8.5 pl when printing in draft mode to 2.3 pl with the best quality settings, which is more than decent for a budget MFP. By the way, the device uses pigment black and water-soluble color inks - this combination is not so rare in units produced by HP. The manufacturer does not say what kind of ink the MFP uses. At the same time, HP did not fail to boast that photos and documents printed on the Deskjet 3050 do not fade for decades.

However, color fastness is wonderful, but the average user is much more interested in another issue - selfishness. For our hero, the manufacturer offers two types of cartridges: regular and high capacity. The volume of these inkwells is not listed anywhere, but their characteristics indicate the resource.

So, a black cartridge of regular capacity is designed for 120 text pages in A4 format, and costs about 300 rubles. The resource of a black XL cartridge is 480 pages, and such an ink tank will cost the owner of an MFP 950 rubles. Thus, the cost of one monochrome page in the first case is 2.5 rubles, and in the second - 2. Color printing will hit your pocket even harder. The power reserve of a regular cartridge is only 100 pages, and of a high-capacity cartridge is 330. With a shorter resource, color ink tanks cost the same as black ones - 330 and 950 rubles, respectively. As a result of simple arithmetic calculations, we get 3.5 rubles per page when using regular cartridges and 2.8 when printing with XL cartridges.

This rosy picture is complemented by the fact that the color cartridge will have to be replaced every time the ink of at least one color runs out. So there is no need to dream of economical printing using original consumables, and the purchase of a PZK or CISS will require some initial investment.

According to the technical specifications, the HP 3050 is quite fast. With draft quality settings, it can print 20 monochrome A4 pages or 16 color pages in a minute. The best (laser) quality reduces the speed to 5.5 and 4 pages respectively. As for photo printing, the manufacturer is modestly silent about its speed.

Since we need to end this section on an optimistic note, we left the scanner for dessert. We have encountered such CIS modules several times. For budget HP devices, this is a fairly popular solution (for example, younger Photosmarts are armed with just such scanners). With a maximum optical resolution of 1200 dpi, they provide quite decent quality by the standards of home MFPs. At the same time, they work quite quickly.

Let's sum up the intermediate results. Budget, which was in no way visible in the appearance of the device, showed itself in all its glory when we got acquainted with the filling of the HP Deskjet 3050 MFP. Therefore, we have no illusions about testing, especially since it would be a sin to demand outstanding results from an inexpensive home device. But let’s reproach the device for being uneconomical even before testing begins: even the resource declared by the manufacturer (it is possible that it is overestimated) of not cheap cartridges looks undignified.

Testing

HP 3050 mfp loading tray

Let us remind you that for testing we use two templates. “Alternative Supplies Center” (this phrase is typed in different sizes of Times New Roman font) is intended to evaluate the speed and quality of office printing. The “Photo” template is a potpourri of black and white and color photographs, presented in size 10x15 cm and A4 format. It is intended, as you might guess, to evaluate the speed and quality of photographic printing.

The hero of the review copes with document printing without problems. All characters are clear and rich, even on draft-quality prints. And there can be no complaints at all about laser. However, during the photographic testing stage, the MFP apparently remembered that it belonged to the budget segment and limped away. Only prints obtained with maximum settings can be called high-quality. And even then only by the standards of home devices. In other modes, not only does graininess make itself felt, but color rendition is also distorted (shades are too saturated).

Office printing speed is modest, but still decent. In a minute in draft mode, the HP 3050 is capable of printing 10 A4 pages of monochrome text or 8 pages of text mixed with color business graphics. That is, the manufacturer doubled the figures. The actual speed in laser quality mode differs from the promised one not so strikingly: 5 monochrome or 3.5 color pages per minute versus 5.5 and 4 declared. Yes, the performance is not outstanding, but in the budget segment many devices cannot reach such speeds.

As it turned out, the manufacturer had no reason to hide the photo printing speed - it is quite decent. To print a 10x15 cm photograph, the reviewer will need 82 seconds, and an A4 photograph will have to wait almost 2.5 minutes. This is in standard quality mode. With the best quality presets, the process speed is reduced: 135 seconds for a 10x15 cm photo and almost 5 minutes for an A4. For a home non-photographic MFP, these are also good indicators.

The scanner module, which is well known to us, demonstrated quite decent quality combined with good speed. So for home use, an optical resolution of 1200 dpi is quite enough.

Let's summarize. The HP Deskjet 3050 MFP did not demonstrate stratospheric heights. However, no one promised this. Its task is to provide more or less decent printing and scanning quality, which it copes with quite successfully. To demand more from him would simply be indecent.

Conclusion

Rear view j610a ch376c

So, the HP 3050 is a pretty nice device, interesting both for its elegant shape and harmonious color scheme. Under the hood, everything is also in order: it prints documents well, manages photographs (although this work is difficult for it), scans well, and can also boast useful additional features (for example, Wi-Fi). But the most important thing is that it is inexpensive.

• acceptable quality of document printing;
• decent printing speed;
• good scanning quality;
• stylish design;
• low price.

• high price and low resource of original cartridges.

Brief technical specifications of the HP Deskjet 3050 MFP

Side view of HP 3050 MFP

HP 3050 multifunction output tray

Side view of HP 3050 MFP

Side view of HP 3050 MFP

/ / . You can extend the life of the cartridges: black hp 122 can withstand up to eight refills, and color – about five.

Don't miss the moment. The nozzle plate of the print head heats up during operation, and the ink cools it. When the refill runs out, there is not enough coolant and the nozzles quickly become clogged with overheated ink. Sometimes such a cartridge cannot be restored in any way and can only be thrown away. If white stripes appear or the printing is simply fuzzy - stop working and don’t put off refilling.

The situation is quite likely: the ink has run out, and you urgently need to print more than one page. And the workshop where they can help is located on the other side of the city. You can solve this problem yourself if you know exactly how to refill an hp 122 cartridge.

Preparation

HP OCP Ink - (Click to Enlarge)

Take care in advance of purchasing suitable ink (the label must have hp 122); it is better not to buy universal ones. If the paint is packaged in bottles, you will have to run to the pharmacy for regular medical syringes.

Important: Even a full cartridge can dry out if it has not been used for a long time. To prevent this problem, print one or two pages every week.

It is necessary to prepare the workplace: remove all important papers and cover the table with newspaper. To refill, take ink, four syringes, toilet or other soft paper, and put on rubber gloves. A black cartridge can hold up to 10 ml of ink, a color cartridge can hold a maximum of 3 ml. You need to fill the syringes very carefully so that there is no air or foam. It’s more convenient to prepare all four at once. You can use one, but rinse it with distilled water and be sure to dry it before using it again.

To clear the refill holes, peel off the labels. The pictures below indicate where to add ink.

Arrangement of colors in the old HP 122 cartridge (Click to enlarge)

Color arrangement in the new HP 122 cartridge (Click to enlarge)

note that There are two types of color cartridge. This means that before refueling you need to determine which option is in your hands. There are several ways to find out. Press the print head against the toilet paper: the middle print is from the ink poured into the top chamber. You can just look into the filling hole. Or dip the tip of a needle there and see what color it turns.

Now you need to wipe the nozzles with flushing liquid or distilled water and you can start refueling.

Refueling

For a color cartridge, the order is strict:

1. yellow;
2. red;
3. blue.

Lower the needle into the desired hole 2–3 cm and inject ink. You need to act slowly, ideally 15 seconds per 1 ml. And watch carefully when ink begins to appear in the filling hole. After all, ink in a color cartridge is not consumed equally and it is impossible to know how much will be needed for a full refill. If you accidentally overfilled it, you can pull the syringe plunger back and take some of the paint back. We do the same with red and blue.

Click to enlarge

Refilling the black HP 122 cartridge has some features. The picture in red shows the place where the additional chamber is located, which also needs to be filled with ink. To do this, you will need to pierce the cleaning filter with a needle. This doesn’t sound very good, but it’s the lesser of two evils; otherwise, when refilling, the filter does not allow ink to pass through and air accumulates in the additional chamber. Which, in turn, leads to printing problems.

If you press too hard while piercing the filter and allow the needle to go deeper than shown, you may damage the print head. This will not happen if you point the syringe at a 45 degree angle.

Returning cartridges to the printer

Refilling is complete, all that remains is to wipe the cartridge with soft paper and return the stickers to their place. Some experts recommend not removing the stickers when refueling, but simply piercing them and not sealing them. This is motivated by the fact that a vacuum is created inside, which reduces the service life.

Before installing cartridges into the printer, wipe the contacts with alcohol or a regular eraser. Even if the paint didn’t get there, it won’t hurt.

The video below will show how you can make a reinforced one from a standard black HP 122 cartridge and refill it. The video is in Portuguese, but I hope everything will be clear.

Have fun typing.

Today, almost every family has a home printer, which allows them to print documents and take photographs without leaving home. But, as you know, any office equipment from time to time needs maintenance and, if necessary, minor repairs. Therefore, in this article we will tell you how to troubleshoot printer malfunctions with your own hands, at home, without much money or loss of time. For example, consider a well-known brand - HP.

How to maintain HP printers at home

As you know, the Hewlett Packard brand is very popular in Russia. Printing devices of this brand can be found both at home and in factories and offices. The high popularity is due to the reasonable price of the printers and the reliability of their operation. But any, even the most unpretentious device sometimes needs maintenance.

First, let's look at typical problems that arise when actively using HP inkjet printers, and methods for solving them.

The first reason for possible malfunctions is internal contamination of the printer, leading to imbalance of moving parts, noise during operation and knocking when the carriage moves.

Even an ordinary user can fix this problem; there is no need to disassemble the printer - just buy a special lubricant sold in electronics stores and treat all moving mechanisms.

To clean the printer from internal contaminants, it is better to use ordinary distilled water; the use of alcohol for these purposes is contraindicated by the manufacturer.

If the text moves to the side when printing or the carriage hits the edges of the body, the cause may be dustiness or breakage of the positioning “ruler”, along which the carriage is oriented in space.

In the first case, you just need to disassemble the back of the printer, get to the shaft and remove the ruler, then wash it in warm water, wipe it with a dry sponge and dry it, then put everything back in the reverse order (remember how the ruler was originally located) Turn on the printer and check its functionality. If the line breaks, it is better to contact a specialized service center.

There is also another malfunction - the carriage does not cling to the gear teeth, the motor runs idle. The reason for the breakdown is simple - poor drive belt tension. The problem can be solved by inspecting and adjusting the tension spring on the belt gear bracket. Perhaps it is poorly secured or simply needs to be replaced.

Next problem - jerky movement of the carriage, causing the printer to tear the paper. This is a serious malfunction associated with the imbalance of the printing mechanism - the printer shaft has lost its initially correct position. To eliminate the defect, it is necessary to disassemble the printer - remove the carriage, ruler, shaft, toothed belt, clean all the mechanisms by rinsing them in warm water, dry them and put everything back to its original state, lubricating all friction points of the carriage and adjusting its free movement.

If your printer does not pick up paper, you should clean the rubber rollers in the bottom tray and also adjust the small spring that presses the paper against the roller.

If the printer produces a streak on the printed sheets, you can safely say that the cartridge will soon run out, and to temporarily fix this problem, simply remove it and shake it from side to side.

If several horizontal stripes appear, you can clean the transroller yourself (the black roller under the cartridge). It is easy to pull out, but try not to touch it with your hands. You can clean the roller with cotton pads or a soft cloth; you can also use isopropyl alcohol.

To summarize, we can conclude that most printer malfunctions can be eliminated by cleaning them from contamination and adjusting the mechanisms, even at home. All you need is basic technical skills and patience.

Good luck with your renovation!

As a user of printers from Hewlett Packard, sooner or later you may encounter difficulties in further printing due to a message with an error code. As a rule, it appears when The cartridge is running low on ink. And if the device refuses to print and the yellow indicator flashes even when installing a newly refilled cartridge, you can try replacing the cartridge with an original one, or you can, contrary to the warranty conditions, reset the counter. And this article contains instructions on how to reset the HP122 cartridge.

Resetting the HP 122 cartridge can be done in one of the following ways:

1. To be able to print on the device again, you must remove the container itself before refilling HP cartridges. Turning it with the contacts up, you should find the first left contact at the top. It will need to be carefully sealed with tape and put in place. When trying to print, the device will display another error that the cartridge is not positioned correctly. However, it will print. In other words, resetting the HP122 cartridge in this way is done to disable the sensor for monitoring the ink level in the reservoir. An important condition in this case is that all printed jobs must be sent from a computer.

2. According to this method, before zeroing HP122 cartridge (black), remove all paper from the tray, and then turn on the product. With the device turned on, press the ON key again and, while holding it, press the CANCEL button four times. Without releasing the ON key, you should now press RESUME once, and then release all buttons. As a result of such manipulations, the yellow indicator will stop lighting and the device will attempt to print the document in normal operating mode.

However, since there is no paper in the tray, the unit will run idle, but will display a corresponding message on the monitor. After pressing the CANCEL button, the user must place paper sheets in the tray and perform a test print. If it suddenly crashes and shows an unknown error, try restarting the printer by turning it off and on again.

It is also worth remembering that before you reset the HP122 cartridge, you need to make sure that the consumable is placed correctly and that the print head has not dried out or been damaged during the refilling process.

Below is a video example

It is advisable to refill the cartridge as soon as it runs out .
Refilling the cartridge,
that has been stored empty for some time is more difficult (and the longer it has been stored empty, the more difficult it is) and does not always end successfully.
The longer the cartridge is stored, the more difficult it is to wash the print head; it can dry out so that the cartridge can be safely thrown away and bought a new one.
Also, you should not print until the ink in the cartridge is completely used up (the cartridge begins to streak heavily, print faintly, or stops printing altogether).
The principle of thermal inkjet printing is such that ink is released due to the heating of the nozzles... and they are cooled accordingly by the ink itself.
That is, the ink runs out - the nozzles heat up - there is nothing to cool them with and they burn out, partially or completely. Then the cartridge just goes to waste.
Started to print faintly, streak slightly - refill immediately.

Instructions on how to refill an HP 122 cartridge

5. Slowly add ink into the cartridge until excess ink appears in the fill hole. Rinse the refill needle with distilled water and dry it before refilling with a different color.

The arrangement of colors, as well as the cartridges themselves, in principle, are identical to HP 121. Perhaps the only difference is that HP took a step “to meet” the consumer and significantly reduced the resource of cartridges No. 122; they contain less ink.

Pay attention! This is the arrangement of colors in a color cartridge at the time of publication of the article!

In 2011, cartridges with a different color scheme went on sale! If your cartridge has not been lying around for a long time in the store or at your home, then the color scheme is as in the figure below:

The arrangement of colors even for cartridges of the same brand can be different. Therefore, in order not to confuse the ink colors, before how to refill an HP 122 cartridge, you should definitely do a test first: insert the needle of an empty syringe into the hole and determine what color ink it was stained with.

Pay attention! HP No. 122 black cartridges are distinguished by a larger pre-chamber (indicated by a red rectangle in the photo). The new pre-filter, which separates this chamber and the reservoir with filler, easily becomes airy in an empty cartridge and does not allow refilled ink to pass to the print head. Tests have shown that the standard method of refilling black pigment or water-soluble ink (regardless of the manufacturer) often leads to malfunctions of the refilled cartridge.

As a solution for the successful use of compatible ink in HP No. 122 black cartridges, we recommend that immediately after refilling, pierce the pre-filter with a thin syringe needle (see photo) and “fill” the camera with ink. To avoid damaging the nozzle plate, do not lower the needle deeper than shown in the photo.
Once the pre-filter is punctured, ink can flow freely to the print head.

6. Blot any remaining ink around the refill hole (with a clean part of a paper napkin) to prevent different inks from mixing.
7. Stick on the top of the cartridgeput the sticker back exactly as it was, so that the filling holes are evenly closed and air flows through the grooves.
8. Clean the print head and cartridge contact plate with a dry cloth.
9. Install the cartridge into the printer and carry out the initial test cycle according to the printer maintenance instructions.

Video instructions on how to refill an HP122 cartridge

HP Cartridge Error 122