(SOLVED) HP printer was working fine but now only prints in a blue color

[Cressida]

After I did an updates from Synaptic a few weeks ago my wife's HP C4180 printer now only prints in light blue color.  

This computer only has PCL installed on it and it had been printing in both black and color (was fine) and immediately after I did one of the major updates this problem started. (I think it was the KDE 4.6 major)  

I have removed the printer and reinstalled it using the PCL control panel ( I think it was reinstalled with "Printer drake" wizard) but the problem continues.

We purchased new print cartridges and that had no change either.   I had hoped subsequent updates from Synaptic might repair what ever was changed but it hasn't.

I goggled about it and have seen others have had similar problems (with different printers) over the years and attribute it to drivers.  Therefore I wonder if a driver might have somehow gotten changed during the updates?

Anyway if anyone knows how to go about trying to get the printer to print in black instead of blue and function normally again your help would be appreciated.

[Texstar]

Not sure how long ago you updated but there has been printer updates and most black ink issues have been resolved. hplip.3.11.3a

[Cressida]

The only HPLIP that is not installed is this one :

libhpip0    "Dynamic library for the "hplip" HP printer/all-in-one driverP"


And it cannot be installed because it has "unresolved dependencies" according to the message within Synaptic.

Since the printer with issues is an "all-in-one" I wonder if this could be the smoking gun?

[bitzbox]

I doubt if that's the problem.

Navigate your way to /etc/cups/ppd and you should find a .ppd file in there for your printer. Click on it (it's just a simple text file) and look for the FileVersion line (it's usually the sixth line from the top) and tell me what it says.

Regards .....

[Ramchu]

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,87414.msg760760.html#msg760760

[bitzbox]

Yes, that's the way to do it but you didn't say if you were given the choice of using either a hpcups or a hpijs ppd. From past experience, I've found that my OfficeJet Pro 8000 will only work correctly with the hpijs ppd. If I use the hpcups ppd, black is greyish-green, duplex printing doesn't work correctly and general printing is a total mess.

Regards .....

[Ramchu]

Yes, that's the way to do it but you didn't say if you were given the choice of using either a hpcups or a hpijs ppd. From past experience, I've found that my OfficeJet Pro 8000 will only work correctly with the hpijs ppd. If I use the hpcups ppd, black is greyish-green, duplex printing doesn't work correctly and general printing is a total mess.

Regards .....

When cups created the ppd file in my system it was created as :
*FileVersion: "hpijs 3.11.3a"

[Texstar]

The only HPLIP that is not installed is this one :

libhpip0    "Dynamic library for the "hplip" HP printer/all-in-one driverP"


And it cannot be installed because it has "unresolved dependencies" according to the message within Synaptic.

Since the printer with issues is an "all-in-one" I wonder if this could be the smoking gun?

libhpip0 is depreciated as it is part of the hp-3.11.3a packages. I need to remove hplip out of repos.

[Cressida]

I found  /etc/cups/ppd and deleted the  .ppd file.   Then I reinstalled the printer.  

It did nothing.  Same problem - blue print.

I reinstalled the hplip files and did everything I could think of.  Nothing.

Finally here is what fixed it.   Every time I reinstalled the printer it was automatically being recognized as an HP C4100 series printer  (Mine is a photosmart C4180 - all in one).     I finally manually forced/selected and used the driver for a photosmart C4200 series printer.   Using that driver (C4200) and all the printing color returned to normal.   I have black text again.

It appears HP did something to the driver files and didn't get it right?    I had been using the automatically recognized and selected (C4100) driver with no problems until about a month ago.  Now that one doesn't work but the C4200 driver did...  I guess anyone with the HP C4180 will have this problem.

What a pain - thanks for the help.  My wife can now use her printer.