HP Deskjet 3600: Offline and won't stop blinking and won't print

Question

Using Vista and an HP Deskjet 3600 on USB connection

Normally when I unplug the printer, I open the printer queue and in the title bar it says "HP Deskjet 3600 - Use Printer Offline" then the offline message will go away and it will start printing.

But for some reason, the bower button light is continually blinking. (this is the only light on the machine). The printer queue says "HP Deskjet 3600 - Offline" and when I unplug it it says "HP Deskjet 3600 - Offline - Use Printer Offline". I have tried unplugging it for a few hours, also tried turning it off for a few hours.

Does anybody know what the single word Offline means?

Does anybody know how I can clear out the memory in the Printer? (this is my guess as to what is causing the problem)

Edit: I don't know if it helps any, but the last four pages it printed were 100% blank (the ones before that were fine with both color and black). Also the beginning of that day with the blank and successful pages it started off with the blinking but I opened the lid and closed it and the blinking stopped and the printing started. However, that trick is not working anymore.

Answer 1

mine usually blinks like that when its out of paper, but im sure youve checked that.

The thing you can try is unplug the printer and try to turn it on a few times, while unplugged, this may discharge any charged capacitors.

Also unplug the power supply from the wall, sometimes they get stuck in a weird state.
"Offline" just means it cannot be accessed.

(If nothing works, kick it a few times and consider buying a new printer, it barely costs more than the ink.) just kidding =P