# two printers each print green and white on highest quality setting **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 16, 2015, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982 "2015-08-16T11:02:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hilary\_Algar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilary_algar/32/4282_2.png) [@Hilary\_Algar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilary_Algar)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/1 "2015-08-16T11:02:30Z")
I have two HP Deskjet printers, a 3510 and a recently purchased refurbished 2540. Running Windows XP (please don’t throw eggs at me 🙂 ) Just recently when I print a digital image at the highest setting on either printer, the image prints in green/yellow and white. Colors are correct at lower print quality settings but the quality is not acceptable for what I am trying to accomplish. Both printers copy perfectly, print Word Doc’s perfectly and print test prints perfectly. I am having great difficulty getting current drivers from the HP website, possibly XP related. I spent four hours on the phone yesterday with HP product support (wa wa wa) and their solution was to replace the 2540. Methinks that is not the answer given that the 3510 has the same issues, but what do I know? What to do next, please? ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/2 "2015-08-16T11:50:27Z")
At a guess, since I don’t use Windows, it sounds like the fault is in your computer since that is the common element; so reinstalling your graphic drivers could help. Download the latest from your graphic card’s makers. In practice this will be either AMD or nVidia. ---
**Author:** ![Hilary\_Algar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilary_algar/32/4282_2.png) [@Hilary\_Algar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilary_Algar)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/3 "2015-08-16T12:56:05Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > At a guess, since I don’t use Windows, it sounds like the fault is in your computer since that is the common element; so reinstalling your graphic drivers could help. > Download the latest from your graphic card’s makers. In practice this will be either AMD or nVidia. Well, I downloaded the latest graphics drivers from the maker’s website, but it still prints in green and white. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/4 "2015-08-16T13:40:27Z")
is this only happening when you print from the photo viewer applet? What happens if you insert the same photo into a Word or Powerpoint document, and print that? ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/5 "2015-08-16T13:55:26Z")
You could try cleaning the ink cartridges, and printing a diagnostic report. But those are unlikely to help. I would recommend putting the picture on a CD, and going to the library or an internet cafe to print, and see what happens there. I suspect that the problem is somehow related to XP, although that’s just a guess. ---
**Author:** ![Hilary\_Algar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilary_algar/32/4282_2.png) [@Hilary\_Algar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilary_Algar)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/6 "2015-08-16T14:46:03Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > is this only happening when you print from the photo viewer applet? What happens if you insert the same photo into a Word or Powerpoint document, and print that? Okay, I have two word doc’s with photos inserted. I printed both–the text is perfect but the image is green and white. ---
**Author:** ![Hilary\_Algar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilary_algar/32/4282_2.png) [@Hilary\_Algar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilary_Algar)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/7 "2015-08-16T14:48:50Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > You could try cleaning the ink cartridges, and printing a diagnostic report. But those are unlikely to help. > > I would recommend putting the picture on a CD, and going to the library or an internet cafe to print, and see what happens there. > > I suspect that the problem is somehow related to XP, although that’s just a guess. What is so strange is that the diagnostic reports print perfectly. It’s only when I try to print a .jpg, etc. and only on the highest quality printer setting that the images print green. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/8 "2015-08-16T16:06:21Z")
I think it’s got to be print drivers. It’s better to use a very old version of the exact right driver than a more recent version of one that is for a different model or later os. Or you could try the HP universal print driver. ---
**Author:** ![Hilary\_Algar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilary_algar/32/4282_2.png) [@Hilary\_Algar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilary_Algar)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/9 "2015-08-16T19:49:15Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I think it’s got to be print drivers. It’s better to use a very old version of the exact right driver than a more recent version of one that is for a different model or later os. > > Or you could try the HP universal print driver. I tried the universal driver but the printing programs did not recognise the printer. Must have done something wrong. I have loaded about a dozen different HP 3510 printer drivers and none seem to show any improvement. ---
**Author:** ![Hilary\_Algar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilary_algar/32/4282_2.png) [@Hilary\_Algar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilary_Algar)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/10 "2015-08-16T19:57:17Z")
> [@Hilary\_Algar](#): > > I tried the universal driver but the printing programs did not recognise the printer. Must have done something wrong. > > I have loaded about a dozen different HP 3510 printer drivers _(for WIN XP)_ and none seem to show any improvement. should have included drivers for WIN XP ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/11 "2015-08-16T22:18:44Z")
Green and white? The other colors on the banknotes aren’t showing up?😃 ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/12 "2015-08-17T00:01:32Z")
You need to do something like this … [http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00063336](http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00063336) You probably put a fixed ip address into the printers. You can install the driver to a LP port and then go back in and change the driver to use the virtual port for the tcp/ip address… ---
**Author:** ![Hilary\_Algar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilary_algar/32/4282_2.png) [@Hilary\_Algar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilary_Algar)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/13 "2015-08-17T00:59:42Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > You need to do something like this … > > [http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00063336](http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00063336) > You probably put a fixed ip address into the printers. > You can install the driver to a LP port and then go back in and change the driver to use the virtual port for the tcp/ip address… Regrettably, under the properties of my print driver there is nothing pertaining to “color.” And sorry, but I am too computer illiterate to know how to install a driver to a LP port, etc. Thanks for your help. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-printers-each-print-green-and-white-on-highest-quality-setting/727982/14 "2015-08-17T01:33:02Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > You need to do something like this … > > [http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00063336](http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00063336) > You probably put a fixed ip address into the printers. > You can install the driver to a LP port and then go back in and change the driver to use the virtual port for the tcp/ip address… How in the name of common sense could you possibly think that that’s an appropriate response? I don’t know how much you THINK you know about computers, but you obviously don’t know even a quarter as much as you think you do.