Troubleshooting Tips

The printing is poor quality:
• the page is blank
• it's faded
• there are lines

Have you remembered to remove the protective seal? This will block the ink from coming out.
(N.B. Don’t remove or touch the copper strip or the small circular seal on Epson cartridges. This will damage the cartridge irreparably.)

A few of the nozzles may be blocked due to microscopic dust particles, air bubbles or dried ink. This is common when a cartridge is new, has been stored or hasn’t been used for a while. Run the head cleaning programme on your printer once or twice. This is found under the printers ‘Maintenance Setting’ and may be shown as “Nozzle Clean”, “Deep Clean” or similar.

Could the cartridge be low on ink? Have you had it for a while or done a lot of printing lately? It may be time to replace your cartridge. Go to our Products Page to place your order.

Have you remembered to remove the protective seal?
(N.B. Don’t remove or touch the copper strip or the small circular seal on Epson cartridges. This will cause irrepairable damage to your cartridge.)

It is possible that the printer won’t detect the cartridge due to dirt/ink build up over time. Give the printer a careful clean, then re-install the cartridges to see if this fixes the problem.

A printer cartridge communicates with the printer via a chip - the gold and copper contacts/dots or the copper banding. Give the chip a gentle wipe with a lint-free cloth to remove any dust particles and re-install. Remember not to touch the chip with your fingers.

If it appears that the cartridge is not communicating with the printer at all, there may be a problem with the resetting of the chip. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. Request an exchange.

Many alternative and refilled cartridges give this alert due, in many instances, to printer manufacturers wishing to discourage the use of 3rd party cartridge suppliers.
Messages such as ‘Used’, ‘Counterfeit’ or ‘Non-Branded’ ink cartridges, can be bypassed simply by choosing ‘Yes’, ‘Continue’ and/or ‘OK’. This will enable print operations to continue.
For Canon printers that use tri-colour cartridges, there is a particular trick when the ‘low ink’ alert appears:
 Press and hold the STOP/RESET/RESUME button for 7-10 seconds and then continue printing as normal. This is the reset button (insert picture)

A printer cartridge communicates with the printer via a chip – the gold and copper contacts/dots or the copper banding. It records ink levels amongst other things. If your cartridge is giving an error message, give the chip a gentle wipe with a lint-free cloth to remove any dust particles and reinstall.

If the error message persists, try a hard restart:
 Turn your printer OFF at the plug for 20 seconds, then turn it back on. This should refresh your printer memory and remove the error message.

Some alternative cartridges have a previously used chip which gets reset in the remanufacturing process. Some of these chips cannot be reset and will read ‘empty’ regardless of how much ink is in the tank. Just print until your pages start to fade and you’ll know it’s time to replace it.

If it appears that the cartridge is not communicating with the printer at all, there may be a problem with the resetting of the chip. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. Request an exchange.

In this instance, remove the cartridge and power OFF the printer for a few minutes. Turn the printer back ON and reinstall the cartridge. Make sure you have removed the clip, if it came with one, and that the cartridge is fully installed and snaps into place securely.

My Inky Shop cartridge looks different to the original cartridge? This is due to patenting of the original, but though they may look different, your alternative cartridge is designed to fit.