For years that has been one of my all-time favorite posts on this bbs! "...Just shoot me now!" I remember it well.

I tried most of the things you suggested, no change. I even uninstalled the printer and reinstalled it again from scratch, went through all the settings I could find, nothing seemed to apply to the problem.


I think I have solved the problem, going at it from a different direction. I mentioned that I had HP OEM cartridges ($100+ each) in the printer, except for the black cartridge which was aftermarket. As an experiment I figured I'd give them a try, they came bundled in a two-pack for about a quarter the price of a single HP cartridge. There was a slight problem with a bad seal on one end of the first cartridge that would occasionally leave a black smudge on the left hand margin of the page, but nothing I couldn't live with. The seller (on eBay) offered to replace it, I told him not to worry about it, it was usable and the logistics of exchanging it from Mexico made it not worth the trouble.

On a whim (or desperation, take your pick) I pulled that cartridge out and put in its twin, the second aftermarket cartridge. The printer now prints proper color pictures again.

Looking back, the built-in test page from the printer that I thought was OK originally... actually it wasn't. The nature of the test page (color balance, sharpness) didn't lend itself to looking really bad until I compared it with the test page printed with the second aftermarket cartridge. I then ran a few test prints of photos from my computer and they look as good as ever.

What could explain this?

tanstaafl.