Inkjet printing problems

I have an Lexmark ink cartridge that was refilled with a generic brand refill pack. It seems to be quite full from the amount of ink that it sprays out and the cartridge utilities but it misprints in an fashion. It will leave blank lines through printed text about every 7th of the page. I tried to print out a totally black page on MS Paint and it printed a thick black band, a thin white band, a black line, a thin white band over an over again which would be strange surely if it was just running out of ink. I’m printing from a lexmark Z12 printer on Windows XP and during installation Windows XP installed the drivers itself, I didn’t load any for it. I’ve had the same trouble with a similar computer using a Z22. Any ideas, cartridges are relatively pricey for this thing.

No experience with Lexmark but plenty with Canon BJ 200 and BJC 4000.

I usually resolve similar problems by:

  • running the head-clean routine thre or four times

  • standing the cartridge on the printhead, in contact with a moist paper towel, for about five minutes.

  • printing a half page of solid black, in order to get the printhead hot enough to melt any recalcitrant ink that may be blocking a nozzle.

Of course, the paper towel trick won’t work unless you can make contact with the face of the printhead.

Run the self test on the printer first to see if its the printer or the drivers. BTW, carts should be dirt cheap at ebay.com, seach by printer model number.

Cheers I’ll check it out.