HP 6500 Office jet E709a - Black printer cartridge HP 920 not working

[Bob_Headrick]

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Barb9492 wrote:

You referenced soaking the printhead in hot water. Really? The whole thing? And did you just throw away the cartridges or somehow protect them from drying up while they were removed?

I cleaned the printhead and printer connections with cotton-tipped applicators dipped in ethanol. It restored some of my black printing the first time, but when I did it a second time, I got an error read out of printhead failure. I have turned off the printer and am hoping for a miracle if I let it sit overnight.

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Yes, you can soak the printhead with the nozzles down and covered with about 1" of hot water.  The ink cartridges will not dry out in the 15 minutes or so they are outside.  

I would not recommend using alcohol on the contacts or printhead nozzles.

[Barb9492]

Caution! Bob doesn't think alcohol is a good idea.  Read his post to me about the 15 min hot water soak of the printhead. BUT, it would still be necessary to clean the printer side of the connection. That gets fouled, too. I had to order a replacement printhead (cost ~$40).

[mrsbordona]

After running the hp cleaning program numerous times, ran diagnostic program, alignment program, and test sheet program on my HB offiject 6500 series e709a printer, the black ink cartrdge still will not print.  I have changed all the cartridges, making sure each ink supply outlet is not covered with factory tape, too.  I still cannot get my printer to print in black.  What should I do?

[Barb9492]

It's funny that it is the black ink printing that "goes bad" first for all of us. You should look through the other posts about this, and my advice is to follow Bob's instructions about soaking the "money end" of the printer head in hot water. He provides a link that will take you to instructions (with pictures) of how to remove the printer head.

[Bob_Headrick]

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Barb9492 wrote:

It's funny that it is the black ink printing that "goes bad" first for all of us. You should look through the other posts about this, and my advice is to follow Bob's instructions about soaking the "money end" of the printer head in hot water. He provides a link that will take you to instructions (with pictures) of how to remove the printer head.

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The black ink is pigmented (like paint) and may be more prone to issues.  My suggestions for soaking the printhead can be found here.

[mrsbordona]

I soaked the printer head and carefully cleaned all the ink I saw globbed on the print head.  Re-ran the Clean Printerhead, alignment, diagnostic tests, etc.  Nada.... still not printing with black ink.  Funny thing, though, is that all the cartridges, including the black ink cartridge, indicates it is being used (levels are lowering along with the color cartridges), but it will not print in black.  What gives?

[aidandjen]

dear bob thanks for your info it did the job soaking the printhead, it cured all the problems in one the only thing that is not working properly is with new cartriges in, just ? sign where colured ink cartriges are not level can you help with this many thanks you have made my day cheers mate    Adrian Pointon

[Jrzgirl]

Cleaning the printhead worked for me! Thank you so much - I thought I'd need a new printer and its only 2 yrs old.

[aidandjen]

i have now changed the colur cartriges again and all is working properly again so all my problems are solved thanks for all your help Adrian xx

[trilady]

I have the same issue, mine is an all in one B210a printer, no black, just colors, I need to print and the printer is newer!