Unknown Printer
I’ve a XP322 printer and its’ being working fine until today. Serious gaps and very, faint printing where it will do so. I’ve changed the cartridges and re-entered the new cartridge 3 times. I’ve also cleaned the nozzles and print heads and I’ve also done a re-alignment test, all to no avail.Dopes this sound somewhat terminal as I’ve just bought 16 black ink cartridges as I’m self-publishing a stamp catalogue???!!!

Experienced technical support provide their insights in answering this question :
Don’t know what you mean by cleaned the nozzles. If you used the printer function to do that, it was a waste time and ink. You should buy a printhead cleaning kit off of eBay and do it right.

How to Identify and Fix Common printer Problems ?

Our sources include academic articles, blog posts, and personal essays from experienced technical support :

If your printouts are faint or have gaps, try these solutions: Clean the print head. The ink cartridges may be old or low on ink, and you may need to replace them. Make sure the paper type setting matches the type of paper you loaded.
One or more clogged nozzles preventing ink from getting to the page is the most common cause of a printer skipping lines. Through normal use, small amounts of ink can collect and dry in the printhead blocking the nozzles.
A printer printing lines on the page are normally caused by a blocked, dirty, or damaged print head. Blocked ink cartridge nozzles, or not removing protective seals correctly when you installed a new ink cartridge can also cause missing lines of print.
What Is Banding? Banding is a defect in inkjet printing that will appear as horizontal or vertical lines, streaks or bands in the printed output. Everyone will eventually experience some type of banding with their inkjet printer.
Ghost prints happen when the drum or fuser unit within your printer become faulty. Because a fault with this element won`t heat the particles of the toner to a high enough temperature, the marks being made on the paper are much lighter in colour and appear more faded than typical documents.
If you notice that your print quality is uneven, too light, too dark, or there are vertical or horizontal lines in the print (banding), try these solutions: Run a nozzle check to see if any of the print head nozzles are clogged. Then clean the print head, if necessary.
Banding happens when you do not have enough information in your file. Or you push the edits to an extreme. Avoid banding by making a well-exposed photograph and saving it as an uncompressed RAW file. To fix color banding, make subtle edits and limit how much you compress the photo when exporting as a JPEG.
Shadow printing is a printing technique that creates a lighter shade of the text off centered to make the text appear to have a shadow beneath it.
If the paper is too thick, glossy or not designed for laser printing, ghosting will most likely occur. Dust and debris inside the printer can also cause ghosting as too much dirt can interfere with the drum units, transfer units and fuser units.
Ink and toner problems can include streaking and fading (which usually indicates a dirty print head) or toner in a laser printer that is running low. For inkjet printers, the print head may need a good cleaning. The printer utility app that came with your printer will include a cleaning option.
You`ll know the drum is dirty if you notice that the print quality has become blurry and features blank spots or oddly-colored spots despite having full toner cartridges. Horizontal lines across the printout when the paper passes over a dirty area are another sign that it`s time for some maintenance.
Take a cotton swab and moisten it with 70% isopropyl alcohol. Gently rub the paper feed roller in a circular motion, using the moistened cotton swab to remove any toner buildup. If needed, replace the cotton swab with a fresh one to ensure effective cleaning.
If your PC or the LCD screen on your printer is telling you that your ink cartridges are full but no ink is passing through to the paper, then it`s most likely that you are dealing with a clogged printhead. Blurry documents and images that appear faded are also signs that it`s time to remove the excess ink.
After a lot of use, your inkjet printer`s printhead nozzles may become blocked with dried ink. The first thing you can do is initiate a cleaning cycle and add drops of 91% isopropyl alcohol if needed. If the steps above does not work, you may need to manually clean the printhead out of the printer.
The nozzle check function allows you to check whether the print head is working properly by printing a nozzle check pattern. Print the pattern if printing becomes faint, or if a specific color fails to print.
Streaks on your print jobs are a result of your copier glass being dirty. “Dirt” is created by fingerprints, dust, and other forms collected through usage. Often this will be detected by your device before streaks begin to appear, and a display will read that the glass needs to be cleaned.

Relevant Questions and Answers :

the most relevant questions and answers related to your specific issue

Faint printing with gaps
ANSWER : Don’t know what you mean by cleaned the nozzles. If you used the printer function to do that, it was a waste time and ink. You should buy a printhead cleaning kit off of eBay and do it right.

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Unknown Printer

My printer feeds through one piece of paper all the way and then a half piece of paper and stops. I pull out the paper to stop the paper jam and then it prints but sounds rough. After printing, it doesn't feed the paper all the way through.
ANSWER : And the first 2 sheets, the full and half sheet that go through first, are blank.

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Unknown Printer

when printing front and back, the front will print well but the back will fade
ANSWER : It happens because second side voltage is much higher and the board breaks. Are you getting this issue in auto duplex only, or same error you are getting when you print second side manually?

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Unknown Printer

Print file sent but no printing occurs
ANSWER : Been working on these since they first were released. Never seen a problem like yours. If it happens again, try doing an engine test, as it bypasses the formatter board. The engine test is located at the right side of the manual tray opening. Look for a hole in the side wall. Stick something like a paper clip into it to actuate the test button. It will then print a lined test page. If it does that, then it points to the formatter board as the cause of your problem.

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Unknown Printer

Prints blank pages, won't print from computer
ANSWER : Don’t know why you replaced the fuser, but assuming you had print before, then it must have been something you did during the procedure. Only thing I can suggest is to recheck your work. Just because you reinstalled a connector doesn’t mean that it is seated firmly enough to work. Any flat ribbon connectors that you removed and reinstalled, check to see that the contacts are all flat and not peeled back.

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Unknown Printer

HP Deskjet 640c wont print??
ANSWER : yes

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Unknown Printer

Epson Artisan 835 print head cleaning question
ANSWER : I had the same problem. After reading the comments, I tried Liquid Wrench spray. 1st try got about sixty percent improvement. Tried again this time I let it set for about 10 min then did a head cleaning. Completely solved the problem. I am a little concerned about its use on plastic. So far so good.

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Unknown Printer

My printing come out blurred
ANSWER : doris…There are usually 2 reasons for blurry output on this printer. First, make sure that the alignment is correct. You can get to it from the maintenance tab on the software that came with the printer. The other common cause of blurring is debris under the printhead. Hope this helps.

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Unknown Printer