Troubleshooting Tips

Ink Cartridges

Cartridge is leaking

• Some of our cartridges may have been overfilled by the factory. We suggest you open the cartridges at a sink or over your garbage can to avoid possible leaks from damaging your valuable items.
• 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.
• (For a high temperature area) When the cartridge is opened, the ink may be bubbling/dripping out of the cartridge if it has been in a high temperature environment for a long time. This is because the heat creates pressure within the sealed cartridge and that pressure blows the ink out when the cartridge is opened. Please try chilling the cartridge in the refrigerator (not freezer) for a couple hours before use.

Cartridge has a different shape

The shape of our compatible cartridges may look a little different from OEM cartridges, but they are designed for use in your printer, and will fit.

My cartridge won't fit

Please make sure to remove the plastic protective case from the cartridge.

Low ink message showing at the printer

All of our cartridges are fully filled with ink. However, there are a small number of our cartridges that may not have been reset fully during the remanufacturing process. Either bypass the low ink message or disable the ink level system on your printer. Although your printer will not track the ink levels, our cartridges will print fine from start to finish.

On certain Epson and Lexmark printers, if the printer is saying you cannot print due to low ink, please press and hold the "stop" or "cancel" button for 10 seconds. This will reset the counter and allow you to use the cartridges normally.

The print quality is not very good or the printout contains no ink
Includes most Dell, HP, Lexmark, and Sharp models.

• Ensure that the tape covering the printhead is removed.
• Wrap the cartridge in a paper towel and shake gently up and down (not sideways) 6 times.
• 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 against 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 with 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 screen), and increase the darkness setting at the printer.
• Clean the printhead with a warm damp paper towel. Reinstall into the printer, and run a cleaning cycle using the printer's software tool.
• Wrap the cartridge in a paper towel and shake gently up and down (not sideways) 6 times.
• 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 or a "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 the electronic printhead and chip contacts with your fingertips. Slide the printhead across a moist paper towel until you see clear horizontal bars of color. Clean the print head with rubbing alcohol. Reinstall and run head cleaning cycle.
• Please select the "print head clean" option under "maintenance" on the printer, and run it. If there is any air bubble or dry ink on the print head, this will force it out, and allow it to print normally.
• Then, try to print a test page to check if the cartridge is working correctly. For the step-by-step guide on how to do this, feel free to check our 'How To Test Print' page for computers running on Windows or Mac. If your printout still has white lines or streaks, please run the alignment test again on your printer.

The print quality is not very good or the printout contains no ink
Includes most Brother, Canon, Epson, and Xerox models.

• Make sure that you have removed the foil or plastic strip covering the vent hole and the nozzle. (Usually a bright color, but sometimes clear.)
• 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.
• Then, try to print a test page to check if the cartridge is working correctly. For the step-by-step guide on how to do this, feel free to check our 'How To Test Print' page for computers running on Windows or Mac. 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
Includes most Dell, HP, Lexmark, and Sharp models.

• 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.
• Reset the printer to the factory's default configuration.
• If it is still not working, please re-install the CD, printer software and driver on your computer again.

For HP 90x/95x/97x printer series, we now have the HP printer firmware downgrade page available for the step-by-step guide on how to roll your printer back to its default HP printer setup.

The cartridge is not being recognized by the printer
Includes most Brother, Canon, Epson, and Xerox models.

• 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 clean the copper part and the contact points with rubbing alcohol.
• Power OFF the printer for 15 minutes
• Power ON the printer and re-install the cartridge(s).
• Reset the printer to factory's default configuration.
• If it is still not working, please re-install the CD, printer software and driver on your computer again.

Cartridges with yellow/orange tape

Make sure you remove the yellow/orange tape completely before installing the cartridge. Unsuccessful tape removal (picture on the left) might cause poor print quality, missing color, and no color printing. Your cartridge should look like the one in picture on the right after tape removal.

*** Please note: This troubleshooting is only for the cartridges with yellow/orange tape to pull at the top. It should not be applied to other types of cartridges.

Cartridges not "clicking" 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.

HP 932XL/933XL/950XL/951XL Cartridge Non-Recognition Message

1. On the printer control panel, touch (right arrow), and then touch (Setup).
2. Select (Preferences), and then select (Cartridge Chip Information).
3. Touch (OK) to turn off the usage information collection.

HP 950XL/951XL Cartridge Protection

On the printer:

HP OfficeJet Pro 8600

1. On the printer control panel, touch (right arrow), and then touch (Setup).
2. Select (Preferences), and then select (Cartridge Chip Information).
3. Touch (OK) to turn off usage information collection.

HP OfficeJet Pro 8100

1. On the printer control panel, press and hold the (Wireless) and (Resume) buttons.
2. The ink supply icons will blink four times.
3. Press and hold the (Wireless) and (Resume) buttons again to turn usage information collection back on.

Next on the computer: (See image below.)

The HP OfficeJet 8100 and 8600 has a “cartridge protection” feature. In the toolbox there is a tab named “HP Cartridge Protection”, where you can choose if you want to enable or disable this function. The default setting here is “enable” which results in the cartridges only working in this particular printer. If you install the cartridges treated with this “protection” feature in another printer, they will not work and a message pops up.

Printer Warranty

Use of remanufactured or compatible cartridges does not void your warranty as stated by the MAGNUSON-MOSS WARRANTY IMPROVEMENT ACT, United States Code Annotated Title 15 Commerce Trade Chapter 50, Consumer Product Warranties 15 Sections 2302.

Toner Cartridges

Print quality is poor

Shake the toner cartridge sideways several times, disable the toner saver mode, and perform the print calibration to improve color density. Then, try to print a test page to check if the cartridge is working correctly. For the step-by-step guide on how to do this, feel free to check our 'How To Test Print' page for computers running on Windows or Mac.

My toner won't fit

Make sure to remove all the plastic and paper protective coverings from the cartridges. (Usually a bright color.) Some toner cartridges also have clear tape on the sides that need to be removed.

My printer is showing a toner end of life error message

Please reset the printer to its factory default settings and unplug the printer for 15 minutes.

TN115 Toner Life End Message

1. With power on, open the toner access main door (You will get a "door open" message in the LCD.)
2. Hit the "Clear/Back" button and you go right to the “Toner Reset Menu”
3. Using the up ^ Down > "Search" arrow buttons you can then scroll through reset options for each of the printer's [4] toner cartridges!
   Code: B. = black; C. = cyan; M. = magenta and Y. = yellow
4. For each for these cartridges is the option to reset for Low Yield (S) or High Yield (H)
5. Using the number keypad, select option #1 (to reset each to "H")
6. Hit the "Clear/Back" button to get out of the menu, close door and You will be able to print.

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

Reset the new drum unit

Make sure to reset the drum unit when you install a new one into printer, referring to your printer manual for details. You may see an error message if the new drum unit is not reset properly.

Printer Warranty

Use of remanufactured or compatible cartridges does not void your warranty as stated by the MAGNUSON-MOSS WARRANTY IMPROVEMENT ACT, United States Code Annotated Title 15 Commerce Trade Chapter 50, Consumer Product Warranties 15 Sections 2302.

Color Issues

Printers use a combination of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow.

The traditionally primary colors red and blue are actually a combination of two or more colors with CMYK printing!

• If you're trying to print BLUE but it looks CYAN, then troubleshoot your MAGENTA
• If you're trying to print BLUE but it looks MAGENTA, then troubleshoot your CYAN

• If you're trying to print RED but it looks YELLOW, then troubleshoot your MAGENTA
• If you're trying to print RED but it looks MAGENTA, then troubleshoot your YELLOW

• If you're trying to print GREEN but it looks YELLOW, then troubleshoot your CYAN
• If you're trying to print GREEN but it looks CYAN, then troubleshoot your YELLOW

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 your issue still is not resolved, please see our return procedure.