Printer doesn't print

I have a Lexmark Z12 printer. My OS is Wins XP, home ed.
I've refilled my cartridge twice before sucessfully. This time, after refilling, I can't get any printing at all. Tried cleaning nozzles, tried cleaning contacts. Everything seems fine, but no ink is getting through to the page.
I soaked contacts in cleaner, and even injected a small amount of cleaner into the cartridge bay's sponges. No help. At the time I did the refill the color and amount of print on the page was fading. It looked like it was out of ink.
Now I'm thinking the cartridge finally just 'died', and an ink refill will not revive it.
I tried every 'troubleshooting' suggestion in the Lexmark manual to no avail.
Should I just fork up 25 bucks and buy a new cartridge?

 

Yes. Print cartridges are not designed to be refilled at all. The manufacturers want you to buy a new one, and from them. If you managed to refill it twice you are getting more mileage out of it than was originally intended, so you should consider yourself lucky.

 

Bob,
Thanks for replying. I have had a very different experience with refilling cartridges. I have an office full--Lexmark, Sharp, Canon, etc. I have replaced ink in all of them successfully for over 3 years now. If it weren't for refillability Bob, I couldn't let my young sons' copy to the extent they do, and I couldn't afford to run off the hundreds of copies I now do weekly for a charity I support. I understand manufacturers may not have designed their cartridges to be refilled--I've had a few where I needed to remove the the top to get to the ink bays--but I know of at least 4 others, even a commercial user, who's been refilling various cartridges successfully for years. In fact, the only failure I've had in years has been this cartridge and one other, but that one was completely dried out before I tried refilling. moreover, I once spoke to a rep from Sharp who admitted that " those inkjet refill kits are killing our cartridge replacement business".
From your words I will consider myself fortunate to get the continued use I've gotten via added ink.
With that in mind Bob, would you try anything else before you retired this cartridge?
I understand that even with my luck at refilling, other cartridge components must wear out. Is it the contacts that most likely fail and can't be restored? The sponge's ability to keep feeding ink? Something else?

Thanks again for your time and attention

 

Sorry, I don't have any advice to try to reuse this cartridge. I don't reuse my cartridges, so if I get a cartridge that won't work (only happened once) it goes right back to the store I bought it from.

Maybe others have suggestions and/or you might try googling the topic.

One other note, some cartridges include the print head, while others have a separate print head. Consult the documentation for the printer to see what you have. Sometimes the print head itself needs to be replaced or cleaned.

 

Try a new cartridge.

See if your printer has a test mode that can print a test page without computer intervention.

 

Thanks for your help folks. I bought a new cartridge today and my printer works fine again. I think this particular cartridge failed to work after refilling because it's a cartridge which I hadn't used all summer. Maybe it sat too long unused allowing key components to dry out...?
It's interesting, because I have a Sharp, multifunction printer that's accepted refills to it's cartridge for 4 years now. It only gets moderate print use, and it's black, not color, but I estimate that the refills have saved me over $200 on that cartridge alone.
It would be an interesting experiment to talkto each cartridge company's support dept. and ask see what they say about their product's refillability.
Most would give the standard boiler-plate reply discouraging it, but I'll bet others like the Sharp rep I spoke to would discuss it in more detail.

Thanks again folks.
(It's really wonderful to have a resource of dedicated professionals like this site provides)

 

Most OEM vendors don'twant to hear of refilling, as selling ink cartridges is their profit in the deal.