P703W - Never Prints Correctly

 RuprectGern,

Can you copy a document, when you put it under the glass? B&W and color?

The cartridges are the first place to look.

Is the printer under waranty?

Rick

After being on the phone with dell support yesterday they indicated that it might be a bad batch of printer cartridges.  Since i bought them from Dell, they offered to replace all 4 of them for free.

Since i live in round rock, texas - they arrived today fedex but the issue remains.
this didn't resolve the issue as there is still no black printing. sometimes the black ink prints subtlely but other times not at all.

I did get half of a diagnostic page to print and the top 10 contain the same error:

• Firmware Version  6.78.2
• Error Code 3501  

How can i find out what error code 3501 is - an internet search returns nothing illuminating

Thanks

RuprectGern,

Try...

http://selfservice.kodak.com/service/main.jsp?t=solutionTab&ft=searchTab&ps=solutionPanels&locale=en_US&_dyncharset=UTF-8&curResURL=%2Fservice%2Fmain.jsp%3Ft%3DsearchTab%26SearchButton%3DFind%26searchstring%3DHow%252520do%252520I%252520resolve%252520the%252520error%252520code%252520%25252220x99x12002x%252522%253f%26useFocusTopic%3Dtrue%26focusTopic%3D9001674%26sfield%3D%26dosearch%3Dtrue%26pn%3D1&solutionId=kin_prs_00911&isSrch=Yes

Rick

thanks for the reply, but the door not closed is not the issue.  however, the error does indicate that so its likely that the sensor is bad, OR there is another underlying issue that is triggering the error. regardless, this printer is the worst hardware that i have ever owned. 

In my carreer as an IT Professional, owned at least 20 or 30 different printers.  new and used in various states of disrepair.  dot matrix, Laser and Injet. and when i got this P703W for free DEC 2008 (it came with a notebook purchase),  i thought it would be great to have a WiFi printer and i could stop using my server as a print server.   Well the WiFi printing was sketchy, and it didnt seem to print well with Win7 so i packed it up and waited for Win 7 drivers and  i just never hooked up the printer and it sat in a closet until this week

My son is off to college. so i pull it out of the box to send it off with him, and it wont print black.  I bought DELL black (20) Cartridges FROM DELL and all 4 failed.

Dell Sent me 4 more and none of those worked either.  I have printed MAYBE 5 successfull pages on this printer in the 3 years that i have had it and its a shame because its pretty but a total waste of money.  considering that i got it for free, maybe i shouldnt complain, but anyone else that considers buying one of these shouldnt.   the really sad part is the printer is worth around $50 bucks but IF i could find a new black printhead (which is what i suspect is wrong) it would probably cost me $80 or so with shipping.  so I gave it to my youngest son and his friends and they shot it up in the back yard with a shotgun.

Closure
... i went out to Frys and bought a brand new HP AIO printer today...  not only does it work perfectly right out of the box, but it joined my home network in a few minutes and works perfectly through its own Net Card. 

Maybe printers arent Dell's thing?

RuprectGern,

If I'm correct, this printer was made for Dell by Kodak. If my memory serves me correctly, another member had an issue with their Kodak Printer and they needed a new print head, which Kodak sent to them.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/peripherals/f/3528/p/19331884/19696981.aspx#19696981

That was the solution, please read the whole thread.

Rick

RuprectGern,   If I'm correct, this printer was made for Dell by Kodak. If my memory serves me correctly, another member had an issue with their Kodak Printer and they needed a new print head, which Kodak sent to them. http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/peripherals/f/3528/p/19331884/19696981.aspx#19696981   That was the solution, please read the whole thread.     Rick

so whats the deal here? I have the same printer, and same issue...... apparently this is common.

when I first purchased this printer it had this issue, but after a head cleaning, and run through by a tech friend, it was in tip top shape.

used it for about a week, and it ran out of ink (only like 15 copies total!) no problem, got more ink, didn't use it for awhile. now when I need it I slap some fresh ink in and BLAM! problem is back.

seems to only be the black cartridge. but there is no signs of issue aside from it simply not working.

just a guess here, but this is just going to be one of those things where Dell just isn't really going to help aside from telling to check things that have been run though over and over.... them once fully annoyed I will probebly go buy a HP printer... my last HP worked for manymany years without issue.

I tried to mess with it as much as possible but eventually was frustrated to the point that i just threw it in the garbage.

I went out and bought an HP OfficeJet 6500 and it has worked flawlessly for the last 6+ months

Lesson Learned:         HP makes printers,   Dell does not.

That was my message. I got a nastygram from Dell that I violated their posting policy and they were deleting the post. That's what we should expect from this thin skinned, no accountability, screw you after we get your money corporation.

I get my post deleted just because I state that DELL should step up to the plate and fix this issue for its customers, and this incident has cause me to steer my friends and family to other manufacturers?

DELL... you have to show the good with the bad, don't rave about being such a good company while shoving people like me under the rug.