Hi, I have a Dell A960 that prints blank pages. I have tried removing the cartridges and cleaning them with vinegar on a paper towel until ink stains the paper towel, I have tried cleaning caked ink off of all parts of the printer I can find, printing test pages, turning the printer off and on, and restarting my computer. None have worked. Any advice?

Hi

Please try to add or set up the printer again and set it as default printer. and then try to print the test page.

If not, remove the cartridge and rub the print head into a plain paper with alcohol until inks flows on the paper. Return the cartridges and run the print nozzle for 2-3 times. Then try to print again.

Please let me know if you need more help. Please rate my solution if it helps you or might help others.

Remove the cartridges and press the end with the ink sponges onto a paper towel. If you see ink on the towel, insert the cartridges and run the cleaning 3-7 times. This will use up some ink, but is the only way to resolve this issue. If you continue to see improvement in the prints, continue to clean until quality is acceptable.

Sounds like the cyan print head is clogged or you are out of cyan ink. You can try running cleaning cycles with your printer or you can try to clean the print head yourself. To clean it yourself you will need dry paper towels and papers towels moistened with warm water. First rub the print head with the wet paper towel, then press the cartridge into the dry paper towel to see the three color bars (a good print head will have three solid fat color bars). Then you can try resting the print head on the wet paper towel for about a minute to get the ink to flow out (do this on a surface that you don't care about, ink stains). Then rub and blot the print head on the dry paper towel. Continue until the cyan flows again (if after 2-3 tries it isn't flowing you probably won't get it flowing). If you go to a Cartridge World store they have equipment to get print heads flowing again and they should clean it for you.

As much as I hate to say it, you might just try a purchased cartridge to see if there is a problem with the refills. If it doesn't print, then you can keep it as a spare and we can try something else.

If it does print, then might double check the refilled cartridges.

The print heads on your ink cartridges have dried up. Ink printers need to print in black and white and color once a week. Doing this will extend the usable life of your cartridge because the ink will not dry on the print head and clog it. You can try and get the ink flowing yourself by resting the print head on a warm moist paper towel until you see ink on the towel (ink stains most surfaces so be careful where you do this). To check your progress, press the print head into a dry paper towel. You should see three entire distinct colors for the color cartridge and one black line for the black cartridge. If you can't get it flowing again you will need to buy new cartridges. You can get Dell refills from Cartridge World if you would like to save some money.

I just sprayed windex on bottom of cartridge several times and wiped with paper towel until dark streak of black appeared. Then I dried off cartridge and replaced. It works now. Must have been clogged.

My new black ink cartridge wasn't working at all. I sprayed the cartridge with windex and let soak for a minute. I wiped dry with paper towel and there was black ink on my towel unlike before. The windex unclogged it and it worked like new!

This printer is really ****...

Blank Pages Printed

Remove the protective tape from the cartridges:
With the printer power on, open the front cover of the printer. The cartridge carrier should move to the middle.
Remove the cartridge(s) from the printer.
Look on the underside of the cartridge(s). If there is yellow tape and/or transparent blue tape there, remove it.
Clean the cartridge nozzles:

Go to the Lexmark Control Program or Solution Center and run the Clean print nozzle test.
If a black cartridge is installed, you should see black lines only.
If the color cartridge is installed, you should see yellow, magenta (a reddish purple), and cyan (a dark sky blue) lines.
If a photo cartridge is installed, you may see different colors.
Examine the diagonal lines above and below the solid horizontal lines. These diagonal lines should be solid from left to right, with no gaps.
If there are gaps in the lines, you could run the Clean Print Nozzle page a few more times to try and clear it up or try the "wicking" procedure below to conserve ink.
If the page is faded from left to right and the wicking procedure doesn't clear it up, your cartridge is probably out of ink.

Clean ("wick") the cartridges:
Remove your cartridges following the instructions in your User's Guide.
Take a warm, damp paper towel and fold it so that it has about 4- to 6-ply thickness.
Set the ink cartridge right side up on the damp paper towel so that the ink nozzles are touching the towel, and hold the cartridge in this position for about 15 seconds. The nozzles are where the ink comes out of the cartridge.
Now drag the cartridge lightly across the paper towel in one direction only (left to right) until the bottom of the cartridge looks clean.
Turn the cartridge over so that you can see the bar code sticker on the back. Note: Only perform steps 6 and 7 if the contacts look dirty or corroded.
Using a clean pencil eraser, clean the contact points on the copper strip (only the little squares just below the bar code). Caution! Do not use the eraser on the nozzles that were cleaned, as this will damage the cartridge.
Using a clean part of your dry paper towel, wipe the eraser dust off the contacts; ensure that they are dry, and snap the cartridge back into the printer.
Make sure to install the cartridges following the instructions in your User's Guide, selecting Old Cartridge. Failure to do so could reset your ink levels as explained above.
Repeat the nozzle cleaning procedure one more time. At this point the diagonal lines should be solid.
If they are not and you think the cartridges should have ink in them, contact our technicians by e-mail and let them know the results of this test.

Reset the ink levels:
Lexmark printer cartridges do not have ink sensors. The levels of ink are produced by a mathematical calculation of ink drops and page counts. The printer stores this information and then writes it to the win.ini file on your computer.

Ink levels can be reset by telling the printer you have installed a new ink cartridge or by reinstalling the printer drivers and selecting Cartridges Installed. Once ink levels have been reset, there is no way to change them except by printing.

Accordingly, even if your computer says that your ink is full for a particular cartridge, it may be incorrect and the cartridge may need to be replaced. You may want to try a new cartridge to see if that clears up any print quality problems.

i was having these same exact problems then i looked at my old ink cartridge and saw that the blue tape was off and that i hadnt taken it off my new one i was trying to print with.!!!