HP Photosmart C309a won't print after installing new black ink cartridge.

[Akeley]

Am in the midst of trying the wash and dry fix suggested.  Does anyone who has the same printer C310 series Photosmart, have the item# of the carriage?  I tried writing it down and searching for it, so I could order an extra one, but I cannot for the life of me find the correct number to search for on any of the part sites.  Also, I applaud the security of HPs site, the sign in process took longer and required more security than most on-line banking sites.

Thanks to anyone who can find the exact part number, the one I found on the carriage is 1691263018266923 but that didn't work anywhere that I tried.

[Lonecoyote69]

Its all caused from the return bay fouled up with ink in the absorption felts and brush, clean them out like new and voila its good, your clogged print head will return until yoiu clean the above mentioned out.

[craigbOz]

Hi,

The part number is CN642A and the SKU is CB326-30002.  Either of those numbers should get you what you are after.

Note that the HP Parts Shop hasn't had this part for ages and, here in Australia at least, all the HP authorised resellers claim they can't source it from HP.  This sucks.

Believe it or not, your best bet at the moment seems to be eBay.  You can pick them up there for about US$30 or so.

Good luck,

[paullab]

Another successful solution!!! Thanks to the unemployed engineer for helping to give me the solution. I cleaned the printer head as you described and now have a functioning printer. Thank you again. Someone give this man a job!!

[Billh0746]

Thanks for taking the time to detail the process for cleaning the print heads. It worked like a charm for me and saved me time, frutstration and likely money.

[Rass]

I can vouch for this washing fix. Frustratingly it often means that you have binned perfectly good cartridges that are still holding ink as you try to restore black printing.

If you are rich and have a 'waterpick' for cleaning your teeth, simply fill it with hot water and blast through the screens as described and anywhere that ink can linger and you will fix it in five minutes, beats overnight soaking!

I have yet to damage a print head and I have used this technique on a number of inkjets.

I have to be honest and say that despite being a seriously good customer of HP I have gone right off their products due to the lack of customer service and their total obsession with selling you consumables. I think one should now think of them as ink suppliers rather than printer manufacturers, it makes you feel better.

I have always stuck to buying OEM consumables but you have to get real now the printers are so cheap, and now you know how to clean out your print head what is the risk??

[beldavenport]

I could hug you....that worked many thanks, may I recommend that this person is taken on!! After 2hrs of trying and much searching for a UK based phone line to speak to someone, I found the answer with you. Fab, well pleased.

[FrustratedC309a]

In another thread, brownsly's suggestion worked for me after hours of trying everything else from cleaning the printheads, buying new toner, constant realignment, cleaning.  All a waste of time and money when all that was needed was changing an option!

my symptons were that black text was not printing at all in most cases or sometimes in very, very light gray if the black text was bolded.

brownsly's suggestion:

Select "Properties" from the Print window.

Select the "Color" tab.

Change "Color Management" to "Application Managed Colors".

Such a simple thing that was causing all of my problems.  No idea how this setting was changed.

[alex55]

I tried this. I dried the cartridge well. I printed a printer report. Then i aligned the cartridges. It went through an entire set up. I went to print from a Word document. The first page printed great. About 1/3 way throught the second page the printer made a loud bang and spark and everything went black. My printer is now gone for good. It wont ever start. It shorted out.

[oldduke]

HP Photosmart C309a won't print black after installing new black ink cartridge