My son's HP printer that I gave him a few years ago went into meltdown. I had another HP here, came with a computer system I bought a couple of years ago and gave to my daughter. It has sat on the shelf for over two years.
As HPs work well with Linux, I said he could have my Brother PCS and I would put the HP to use (partly as the cartridges tend to be expensive)
Dragged it out of the cupboard, spent a day or two trying to find the power supply, plugged it in and tried the copier thing (not connected to the computer)
It made interesting grinding and whistling noises then spat out a piece of greyish paper.
It was some sort of setup instructions with loads of barely discernible lines and a few hieroglyphics on it - the main thrust being that the ink was dried up.
Ordered replacement inks which then sat unopened on a shelf for three weeks.
Decided to press it into service the other day.
Plugged the USB lead into the computer and went to the printers folder to install it - and there is was, installed. Twenty seconds and nothing to actually do other than click the Test Print button 
No installation disks, no questions, no downloading stuff, just there!
Test page was crap, as expected, so pulled the old inks and set about inserting the new ones.
Black - no problem, straight in.
Colour wouldn't fit. Tried the old one, straight in. New one, no chance.
Then realised that there is a blocking bar on the top to prevent insertion of an incorrect cartridge and it was identical to the black one.
Got in touch with the vendor and it appears that I had erroneously selected a 'photo enhancer' cartridge, not a colour cartridge. Something I had never heard of.
Apparently it replaces the black cartridge to improve the colour reproduction in photo printing.
New colour cartridge on it's way
