laserjet 3050 'no print cartridge'

[Carla Schroder]

My two-months' old Laserjet 3050 suddenly displays the message on the printer control panel 'no print cartridge', and it does not print. It has a toner cartridge, and there is plenty of toner remaining as it has not been used very much. Any ideas? Of course it's under warranty, but I'm hoping there is a fix that doesn't require packing and shipping the darned thing.

thanks!

[Adam F.]

There's, unfortunately, only one way to tell: get another cartridge and put it in. If it's the cartridge, the new one will clear the message. If not, the new one will give the same error.

HP can give you another cartridge, if you give them a call. If you can't wait, because of the long weekend, local stores usually carry those in stock.

[Carla Schroder]

Turns out there was an easy solution. I filed a support case and had an answer in half a day:

"Often this issue is caused by a sensor.  Therefore the first thing we should do is try to trigger the sensor.
1 Turn off the HP LaserJet 3050
2 Remove the toner cartridge from the HP LaserJet 3050
3 Remove all of the paper in the paper tray
4 Check the entire paper path for any obstructions
5 Reseat the toner cartridge and paper
6 Power on the HP LaserJet 3050

If the issue is still not resolved we will need to try some resets on the HP LaserJet 3050.
1. The first reset we can try is a soft reset, it is done by pressing the MENU key then holding *# together.  This will bring you into a Developers Menu.  Scroll through the options until you find reinit FFS and then press the ENTER key.
2. If this reset doesn't clear the issue we can try a harder reset.  We can do this by pressing MENU, scrolling over to SERVICE, pressing ENTER, scrolling over to RESTORE DEFAULTS and pressing ENTER to restore the defaults and ENTER to confirm.

WARNING: Restoring the defaults will clear your fax settings, phonebook numbers and headers so you may want to print a phonebook report and Config Report first.  We can do this by accessing the Reports menu.

3. If these two resets do not help there is a third reset we can try.This reset will completely put the HP LaserJet 3050 back to factory defaults.WARNING: Before doing this reset we will need to disconnect the power cord, the phone cable, and the USB cable from the back of the HP LaserJet 3050.We can do this reset by unplugging the power cord from the back of the HP LaserJet 3050 then holding down the MENU/ENTER key and * symbol at the same time,then powering the HP LaserJet 3050 back on with the keys compressed.We will release the keys as soon as PERMANENT STORAGE INIT appears on the display screen."

I tried all the steps in sequence; it took #3 to fix it. Fortunately I didn't have a big fax address book or custom settings, so a factory defaults reset didn't cause any extra problems. It retained the time and date, and now it works fine.

[harold Fulk]

Hello Carla
my 3050 had a error message. i reviewed your message.
and i tried all three of them and it worked.
thank you
Harold Fulk