Troubleshooting Tips -- Remanufactured

The printout contains no ink

• Ensure that the tape covering the printhead is removed.
• Wrap the cartridge in a paper towel and shake gently.
• Stand the cartridge upright for a few minutes before using. Then get a damp paper towel, fold it into quarters and sit the cartridge print head down onto it. Hold the cartridge down to the damp paper towel for three minutes. This will help pull the ink out of the print heads, priming them and getting them ready to print. Clean the print head by rubbing alcohol. Finally, install the cartridge into your printer and print a few test pages.
• Please make sure that the printer is set online (at the computer), and increase the darkness setting at the printer.

The printout has white lines, streaks, or is poor quality in general

• Clean printhead with warm damp paper towel. Reinstall into printer, and run a cleaning cycle using the printer's software tool.
• Place the cartridge in about 1/4 - 1/2 inch of warm water for a few minutes. When ink starts to slowly leak out take the cartridge out of the water and dry it using a soft cloth to "Q-tip." Then place it back in your printer and run the print head cleaning utility that comes with your printer software. You may have to run this 2-4 times before printing quality is reestablished.
• Avoid touching contacts with fingertips. Slide printhead across a moist paper towel until you see clear horizontal bars of color. Clean the print head by rubbing alcohol. Reinstall and run head cleaning cycle.

Cartridge is leaking

• The internal pressure in the vacuum is not balanced. The cartridge should work fine anyway. Let the cartridge sit (printhead down) on a paper towel for a few minutes, then clean it up and install.

Low ink message showing at the printer

• All of our cartridges are fully filled with ink. However, there is a small number of our remanufactured cartridges causing printers to display low ink or empty messages. It is possible that those cartridges may not have been reset well during the remanufacturing process. You may turn off the ink level system at your printer and press "OK" or "Go" button once for each cartridge. Although your printer will not track ink, our cartridges will print fine from start to finish.

Cartridges not "click" into the slots (For remanufactured HP 920XL and HP 564XL)

• Try to bend the plastic arm outward from the cartridge. After the arm is bent outward, about 1 inch, the cartridge should "click" into the slot.

Cartridge is not recognized by the printer

• Ensure that the tape covering the printhead is removed.
• Take out the cartridge, turn off the printer, unplug the power cord and other cables, wait 15 minutes, then plug it back in, turn it back on and reload the cartridges.
• (While the cartridge is out of the printer) Gently wipe cartridge printhead and circuitry with a nonabrasive towel to ensure there is no debris. Cleaning the copper part and the contact points with alcohol can work very effectively as well.
• If it still not working, please re-install the CD, printer software and driver at your computer again.

If the issue is not resolved, please see our return procedure.

Troubleshooting Tips -- Compatible

The print quality is not very good or the printout contains no ink

• Make sure that you have removed the foil or plastic strip covering the vent hole and the nozzle.
• Make sure that the vent hole at the top of the cartridge and the nozzle are unblocked by any tape or plastic strip.
• To ensure that the vent hole is unobstructed, use a paper clip or another small, pointed object to probe the vent for blockages.
• Run the head cleaning cycle 2-3 times.
• Please make sure that the printer is set online (at the computer). And increase the darkness setting at the printer.
• If the color is still off, please install a whole set of our cartridges at your printer. It is possible that the formula of our ink is different from that of your original compatible cartridge.

Note that Epson printers should be turned on and used at LEAST once a month, or preferably once a week. If the printer has not been used in over 5-6 months, Epson recommends that you replace the ink cartridges.

The cartridge is not being recognized by the printer

• Make sure that you have removed the foil or plastic strip covering the vent hole.
• Also make sure that the cartridge you purchased is the correct one for your printer.
• Make sure that printer cable (from printer to PC) is not loose.
• Remove the cartridge from the printer.
• Gently wipe the cartridge's computer chip with a cloth or paper towel. You may cleaned the copper part and the contact points with alcohol.
• Power OFF the printer for 15 minutes
• Power ON the printer and re-install the cartridge(s).
• If it still not working, please re-install the CD, printer software and driver at your computer again.

The printer is out of color ink even though I print in black only. Why does this happen?

• To keep the print head clear, the printer uses a small amount of ink from all the cartridges whenever it prints. Even if you set the printer software to print black only, some color ink is still being used.

If the issue is not resolved, please see our return procedure.