I was printing lots of pages. When I sent the last page to print, nothing happened. I was looking here and there trying to find the problem, and finally when I opened the spooler window there was a message saying "Ink cartridge empty".

However, I do know it's not empty. My last printings were at really good quality, and I could still make copies straight from the printer. Also, the printer does not show any warning about empty cartridge.

Later, I decided to replace the cartridge for a brand new one. Sadly, the error persists.

I tried restoring my Windows, because I installed Firefox 3.5 today, and as expected it still doesn't work. Finally I tried to print to a .xps file with Microsoft's XPS Writer, but every time I try, it crashes. (1)

While I'm writing this, I could print a notepad file to a .xps file (2). I'd try the same with the printer if the the other file weren't stuck within the spool. Maybe I'll restart and try, then post the results.

(1) makes me think the problem isn't related to the printer itself, but to Windows. On the other hand, (2) shows the opposite. I can't get any conclusion about it.

Do any of you have suggestions or guesses? Do I need to exorcize my hardware?

Update: after looooong minutes I could print my document to a .xps file.

well without name or make of your printer nobody is going to be able to do anything but stab around in the dark..

for a start, try googling "<printer name>"+"Ink cartridge empty"

I tried. It's a HP PSC 1315.

"Have you tried turning it off and on again?"


and have you tried reinstalling the drivers?

A thousand times.
It was OK.
I printed one file, closed, opened another, and when I tried to print it stopped working.

I would think that there's a reset ink counter button somewhere? remove and re-seat the ink cartridge?

I already tried some reset methods. As I said, the printer doesn't report any "empty cartridge" message.

This might help:

uninstall and reinstall the printer driver?

It didn't work. It's late now, tomorrow I'll try to connect to another computer.

I have a clue: what I want to print is a graphic which goes to -infinite at a certain point. Then Windows thinks "if the line is infinite, so must be the ink. There's no infinite ink, and you're not gonna print this".
Yeah, this is very weird, but I guess that's the problem.
I'm gonna edit the file (it's a pdf), need to restart and then I try.

Update: editing the file didn't seem to work. So I transferred from the pdf file to a simple image file with Photoshop, then I could print.
And I still think that "infinite ink" theory is true.

CMD:

net stop spooler

followed by

net start spooler

quote:

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Originally posted by tony
CMD:

net stop spooler

followed by

net start spooler

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If spooler's crashed, end spoolsv.exe in Task manager.