For some reason my HP Deskjet 840c refuses to print, I have just bought a new cartrige for black ink and it just fails to print. On the ancient drivers I tryed to get it to clean print cartriges even but it just makes sounds and fails to prints eventually telling me that my port timed out (everythings connected properly) Please help me before I smash it through a brick wall. Below the two buttons (power and test print) there is a flashing orange light which wont go out. I assume this is some sort of problem and I have tryed putting my old cartriges back in but no luck. thnx in advance

On my HP 690c flashing ornge light is paper out/feed problem, maybe you hve piece of something jammed in there. It`s happpened to me before a foam disk from watch continer got in somehow :( HTH Woof

thnx for the suggestion but now when I ask it to print its not even making a whisper, any other ideas?

ok i ran a hp840c for 5 years until about 2 weeks ago until it sadly passed away. the problem with ur anceint drivers is that they dont support XP im afraid but a bit of searching and you can find some that will work but not great. try: 1.unplug the power from printer to reboot it 2.reinstalling the drivers 3.if the lights flashing like woof said check for jammed paper or sticky label inserts in the back door of the printer. 4.clean the circuit bit of the cartridge (sometimes a thin film of ink can stop the circuit)

also try setting your printer port in bios to epp or even just bi directional. I just remembered my printer doesn`t like it much when the port is set to ecp tho tht could be due to the scanner i also have attached. HTH Woof

Hi, There are three lights on the 800 series printers. POWER (GREEN), RESUME(ORANGE), and CARTRIDGE(ORANGE). The Power and resume are also buttons. HP use these lights in many ways to indicate a problem. Based on your description, it is the CARTRIDGE light that is blinking. (The power light should be on steady). One or both of your cartridges has a fault. It may as suggested, dirty contacts. Take both cartridges out and clean the conntects with a lint free cloth. DO NOT TOUCH THE NOZZLES OR SILVER BIT AT THE BOTTOM, just the copper coloured contacts. I assume that you are using genuine HP cartridges too. Some of these "cheap" alternative cartridges will not be detected properly by the printer. Refilling a cartridge will only work about three to four times too. As to drivers, XP has it's own drivers for the 840C/841C/842C/843C. It would be prudent, assuming the printer does not have a mechanical problem, to use those drivers in XP. IF your printer in the PRINTERS & FAXES window is listed as above then you have the correct XP dirvers. If it just says 840C series, then you have drivers from a CD. If so, delete the printer. Then do the following to REMOVE the drivers completely (deleting a printer does not delete the drivers which stay resident in the system):- Click FILE menu and select SERVER PROPERTIES. Click the PORTS tab and, assuming LPT1, select it and click REMOVE. Say YES/OK to the warning that you are about to reomve drivers. Now go back and ADD a new printer. Follow the Wizard and select HP and 840C/841C/842C/843C drivers. Complete the Wizard. You now have the specific XP drivers for your printer. SAFE COMPUTING...:o)