How To Cold Reset An HP Laser Printer To Get Rid Of Toner Cartridge Errors

There’s nothing more infuriating than getting an empty print cartridge while you’re in the middle of printing an important file or document that is urgently needed. Second to that is when you’re patiently waiting for the photo to shoot out of the printer and yet the results are not so pleasing to be considered. Blotches and unexplainable color spots that appeared in the printed material will certainly pissed you off.

If it’s just a low-toner problem, say for an HP LJ M276nw printer. Then replacing its empty HP CF212A toner cartridge with a new one is just too easy. However, you have to run a few dollars to get a replacement or a set of new cartridges, though it can’t be helped. One more thing, if there are streaks or unusual lines in the printouts you may run a print test to diagnose the problem and possibly fix it. But not all printer problems can be easily fix through the aforementioned solutions, sometimes it requires more than just replacing or running a cleaning test. Lucky for you if the need to reset your printer is not necessary, but your luck may run out at some time and you have no choice but to do it by yourself.

An example of an error that may require such solution is the “Incorrect Color Cartridge” or “Unrecognized Cartridge” error. You may try the usual power-cycling option, but if it doesn’t work then you are left with no choice but to perform factory reset or cold reset the unit. Through performing the said option, the unit will then be restored back to its original configuration which in short means default settings.

Now the question is, how will you perform the printer cold reset process? It’s actually different from a Factory Reset, in a sense that when you reset the unit back to its factory default, there are certain variables that won’t be reset during the process. This is where the Cold Reset option comes handy, to do properly follow the steps provided below:

First, turn the printer OFF (no need to unplug the unit from the outlet).

Next, press and hold the Go button (green color button) from the panel followed by the switch/ON button. Keep your fingers on hold with the two buttons until all the three status LEDs are lit.

Last step, after releasing the Go and On buttons, use the down arrow key from the display until you found “Cold Reset”, then click/press it.

If you successfully perform the procedures above, your printer should now start the resetting process, calibrating and configuring itself back to its factory defaults. Hopefully, you problem with the unit goes away after it initializes.