HP690C only prints in B&W

My Trusty old HP690C has just decided to print everything in
B&W...no colour at all.
I have checked ink cartridges, de-installed and re-installed the
printer drivers, and still no colour.

My PC is running Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2...
any ideas how to fix the printer to get colour back ?

All help welcome !

"Nigel Mason" wrote in message
...
My Trusty old HP690C has just decided to print everything in
B&W...no colour at all.
I have checked ink cartridges, de-installed and re-installed the
printer drivers, and still no colour.

First try printing a diagnostic as shown at
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...ng= en#N100F2.
If this prints in color then the problem is probably in the driver. Check to
make sure the driver does not have the "print in grayscale" checkbox selected;
this might stick even if the driver had been reinstalled.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, not speaking for my employer HP

I am not sure I can help and I am not familiar with your model.
However, I am using W2K +SP2 and did have a problem on my HP990 when I
upgraded the driver. Certain features were not behaving properly. I
solved it by:

1. Uninstalling the Driver
2. Reboot
3. Installed the original driver that came with the machine - If that
does not work than use the one in Windows
4. Reboot

The problem went away.

Nigel Mason wrote:

My Trusty old HP690C has just decided to print everything in
B&W...no colour at all.
I have checked ink cartridges, de-installed and re-installed the
printer drivers, and still no colour.

My PC is running Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2...
any ideas how to fix the printer to get colour back ?

All help welcome !

Thanks for the 2 suggestions. I have tried both - but no improvement
I'm afraid.
The HP diagnostics ran and all passed OK ... no error messages but the
pages were in b&w.

I then de-installed the driver, rebooted the PC, then re-installed a
new driver....

and it still only prints in b&w !....
seems a pity to scrap it though ....any more ideas ?
thanks all.

"Nigel Mason" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the 2 suggestions. I have tried both - but no improvement
I'm afraid.
The HP diagnostics ran and all passed OK ... no error messages but the
pages were in b&w.

I then de-installed the driver, rebooted the PC, then re-installed a
new driver....

If the diagnostics print in only B&W then the driver and/or communication with
the printer are not an issue as the diagnostic is printed entirely by the
printer. It is possible that you have a clogged or defective color cartridge.
I would start by removing the color cartridge and carefully cleaning the
cartridge contacts. If that does not help try blotting the cartridge on a damp
tissue. If you do not get a blot of color on the tissue you probably need a
new color cartridge.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, not speaking for my employer HP

Another possibility. The ribbon cable leading to the printhead in a 690
series printer is prone to corrosion and failure. You might look at it and
see if any of the leads are "open."

Terry Quinn








"Bob Headrick" wrote in message
...

"Nigel Mason" wrote in
message ...
Thanks for the 2 suggestions. I have tried both - but no improvement
I'm afraid.
The HP diagnostics ran and all passed OK ... no error messages but the
pages were in b&w.

I then de-installed the driver, rebooted the PC, then re-installed a
new driver....

If the diagnostics print in only B&W then the driver and/or communication
with the printer are not an issue as the diagnostic is printed entirely by
the printer. It is possible that you have a clogged or defective color
cartridge. I would start by removing the color cartridge and carefully
cleaning the cartridge contacts. If that does not help try blotting the
cartridge on a damp tissue. If you do not get a blot of color on the
tissue you probably need a new color cartridge.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, not speaking for my employer HP





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