Have a Lexmark 640 colour printer, the colour cartridge ran out, the ink on the text was beginning to fade halfway down so I presumed it was running out, the black has never worked, I installed a new cartridge but the pages are still faint and half way down the text is still faint. Any ideas?

Turn the Lexmark printer on by pressing the power button. Usually, the power button is located on top of the Lexmark printer. If the Lexmark printer does not power on immediately, then hold the button down for a few seconds before releasing it. Once the Lexmark printer has powered on, the installed cartridges will begin to move back and forth for a few minutes.

Raise the Lexmark printer cover up towards you. Doing this will give you instant access to the inside components of the Lexmark printer. Lift the cartridge release lever and remove any installed ink cartridges. Be careful when doing this because the ink may leak out. It's best to have a disposable bag or paper towel near you when performing these steps.

Remove the plastic from the brand new cartridges by carefully cutting them open with scissors or tearing along the perforated edges. Once you have removed the plastic, there's a yellow tag located near the bottom of the ink cartridge. Take this tag off only when you're ready to insert the ink cartridges into the slots.

Tear the yellow tag from the ink cartridges and place them into their corresponding slots. Each one will be easily identified by its color. The cartridge release lever will have the same color as the ink cartridge. If you mistakenly place the cartridges in the wrong slot, then you'll risk having your Lexmark printer stop working properly.

Press the ink cartridges into the slots and listen for a clicking noise after the insertion. Although you will need to firmly place the ink cartridges into the available slots, it still needs to be done gently. Close the Lexmark printer cover when you've completed the previous steps. Wait a few minutes for the Lexmark printer to recognize that you have inserted brand new ink cartridges. After a few seconds, it will go through some diagnostic steps to make sure the ink cartridges were correctly inserted.

Print a test page on your Lexmark printer. This will help you to determine if the ink cartridges are properly working. You can view the newly printed images and text after the Lexmark printer has finished printing. Get rid of your used ink cartridges by throwing them away or sending them to an online store that accepts empty ink cartridges.