I just replaced all three color toner cartridges in this old warhorse after letting them run all the way out. The black toner was not replaced and is still saturated, but the colors now look "thin" and biased toward yellow.
Comparing an old "Supplies Status Page" with a current one, I can see that the yellow is almost as saturated as it used to be, the cyan is noticeably less so, and the magenta is quite pale.
I tried running "Cleaning Mode," but that was no help. Then I tried "Calibrate Colors," which might have darkened the yellow a bit, definitely brought the cyan almost to full saturation, but only improved the magenta about half way to the original. A second "Calibrate Colors" yielded no further improvement. The magenta just won't fully saturate.
I have only three guesses that might be relevant: 1) The cartriges go in the machine in order, black, yellow, cyan, magenta from top to bottom, so the saturation level decreases steadily from top to bottom. Could this be relevant? 2) These toner cartriges were purchased in a three-pack but have been sitting around a while. The only thing stamped on the individual toner boxes that looks like a date code ranges only from 20120828 (yellow) to 20120918 (magenta). 3) I print mostly in B&W, so I often use "Supplies Override" in order to keep printing without replacing the color toners. I also use that mode to "squeeze out" the last from a black cartridge, which often turns out to be on the order of 100 additional pages! (I always replace the offending cartridge as soon as the printed pages begin to be tinted with that color, indicating, I suppose, that the waste-toner container is getting too full.) I've done this serveral times before without trouble.
RnRMusicMan from HP Support Forums suggested I post this question over here. Any help would be greatly appreciated! -- jclarkw