New ink cartridges installed and sometimes prints with missing horizontal areas(blank lines about 1/8 inch thick 20 plus randome down the page. The next time printing may be fine. Color is washed out yelowwish tinge.

Had this exact problem after blowing some leaked toner out with an air compressor. Cleaning the 4 mirrors behind the cartridges fixed the problem!

Print a diagnostic page If the steps above have not helped, print and evaluate a diagnostic page to see if the cartridges or the printer is causing the problem.

1. Make sure the printer is on and loaded with unused, plain, white paper.
2. Press and hold the Power button and then press the Cancel button. Release both buttons. The diagnostic page prints. Figure 1: Power and Cancel buttons 1 - Cancel button 2 - Power button

Step 4: Note which cartridges printed which areas of the diagnostic page You must identify which cartridge printed which part of the diagnostic page, so that if you find defects on the page, you will know which cartridge is the problem. However, you can install different combinations of print cartridges in your printer, and different cartridge combinations print different diagnostic page patterns. Your diagnostic page may not look exactly like the picture below, but the right and left cartridges will print in the same areas of the page no matter which cartridges are installed. Figure 2: Diagnostic page layout (the patterns in each area may look slightly different on your page) 1 - Printed by the right cartridge 2 - Printed by the left cartridge NOTE: If you are printing in reserve mode (one cartridge is missing), the missing cartridge's area of the diagnostic page will be blank. Step 5: Check ink levels NOTE: If you have installed a refilled or remanufactured ink cartridge, or a cartridge that has been used in another product, the ink level indicator is inaccurate or unavailable. Look in the middle of the diagnostic page. The bars with "E" (for "empty") and "F" (for "full") at each end show the ink levels in the cartridges. As ink is used, the solid color changes to a faded color. Figure 3: Left (tri-color) cartridge almost full - right cartridge empty Figure 4: Both left and right cartridges almost full

This can be caused by a number of reasons however it is mostly caused by the toner cartridge missing a small spring on one end. Try replacing toner cartridge first.

You actually answered your own question, you said it started fading and came out with lines missing. Looks like and could possibly be that the ink cartridge you are using wasn't as full as you thought it was, and the computer really has no idea, it's just software and i do not recall seeing sensors on the inside of the ink tank to tell the computer how much ink is in the cartridge. Try refilling the ink again or maybe a better idea is to buy a new cartridge since over time the cartridges can get contaminants in them which will block the ink from the inside of the cartridge.
Hope this helps

Do you refill ink tank? Print blank pages. Is there horizontal lines appear? It might be caused bay ink leakage. Check respiratory hole at ink tank and rubber seal at bottom of ink tank. Print blank pages until no horizontal lines and try to use new ink tank.

You need a new Toner Cartridge

I think you need a new cartridge.

Hi George,

It sound's like an ink-feed issue:

1) Dirty heads, even after cleaning
2) No-ink or poor quality ink
3) Damaged head: some are part of the cartridge, some are not
4) Air bubbles in ink

The test page is typically not as hi-res nor as saturated as a
photo print. The hi-res photo puts the greatest demand on the print head.

The color lines you see are actually lines of missing color,
where the head has failed to deposit ink, so one or two primary
colors are missing from the complete picture.

For example missing yellow will make a blue line.
Missing magenta will make a green line
Missing cyan will make a red line.... etc..

Clean the heads again and again, print again and again,
hoping to flush the system.

BUT, keep in mind that cleaning wastes huge amounts of
ink and tiny little cartridges of ink cost more than many new printers.

Martin

Depends on whether the "lines" are colored or just blank areas missing in the print . If it is blank areas , then most likely the laser scanner is dirty and the glass needs to be cleaned . If it is colored lines , then you most likely have a defective drum .

hi i am having roughly the same problems i use cad and have not even managed to print that far yet what windows are using?