Officejet 8600 Ink cartridge carriage WON'T MOVE!

[mg_cjb]

Office jet pro 8600; right out of the box. Yes, it's powered on. When I open the front door the ink cartridge carriage is supposed to track to the left to permit install of cartridges. It doesn't move. How to get it to move to the left side to access the carriage?

[Travis_C · Accepted solution]

Hello mg_cjb

If you have not yet returned/exchanged the printer you may want to try Solution four of the following article.

Carriage Jam

You may want to exchange the printer if you still have problems.

[mg_cjb]

Carriage Jam document is no help; the carriage is "docked" all the way to the right, and simply will not move or be moved. There's nothing apparent (such as debris) blocking the carriage, or anything evidently broken preventing the carriage from moving. It's as if the carriage is permanently affixed to the right side of the interior of the printer, and wasn't meant to move at all.

Yesterday, out of time, I took it to a local Best Buy store to see if they could suggest any solution. I did this even though I didn't purchase it from there. (I purchased online, & it shipped from a completely different BB store - or BB warehouse - in a different state.) The staff at the Best Buy store (primarily geek guy) went over & above to gladly exchange the printer from an identical one off their sales floor, without question, additional paperwork, or cost to me. Kudos to the staff at Best Buy.

[Travis_C]

Hello mg_cjb

Glad you got it taken care of. I hope the exchanged printer serves you well.

[travis25]

I've had the printer for a few hours and am having the same problem.  Online support just says that they will send a replacement in a week.  

[jlaw86]

Hi,

I encountered the same problem when I tried setting up my Officejet Pro 8600 Plus. The ink carriage seems to be mechanically stuck to the right of the printer. Is the only solution to return the printer back to the store and exchange for a new one? This is a major inconvenience as I live far from Best Buy.

James

[jason_h]

Hey James,

I see you are having an issue with your 8600 carriage not moving. It looks like you are just got the printer from your post and are going through the OOBE (out of box experience) setup.  Have you plugged the printer in and followed the on screen prompts?  The unit will first ask you about language and location settings before proceeding to the device setup process.  

During the device setup process it will ask you to install the cartridges.  At this time, the device should move the carriage to the left for access to install the SETUP cartridges that came with the device.  Until this point is reached in the OOBE process the carriage will be locked in the far right hand side of the unit.

Hope this helps,

Jason

P.S. - If you are at the point of the setup that the unit requests cartridges and will not release the carriage let me know.

[jlaw86]

Jason,

Thats exactly the point I was at in the install. When I open up the front of the printer to install the setup cartridges as prompted by the touch screen, the carriage for the ink cartridges will not physically slide past the center of the printer. Again, the carriage is released from the far right but stops in the center. I turned the printer off and tried to physically manipulate the ink carriage with my hands and it remained stuck. It will slide from the center to the far right, but will not physically slide past the center of the printer, making it impossible to install the ink cartridges (or probably print for that matter). 

Thanks for the quick response,

James

[jason_h]

Hey James,

Typically the print carriage has a small cardboard piece installed to keep it from moving in shipping.  This piece may still be in the unit blocking the carriage from complete free movement.  If this is not the case, then most likely the unit has had a small piece internally come loose and is holding the carriage from going completely left.  

If there does not appear to be obstructions in the pathway, then the best step is going to be product replacement.  If you just recently purchased this unit, then you may have the option to swap it at the retailer.  If the retailer is unable to perform this option, then you can get the unit replaced under it's original factory warranty by calling HP Tech Support and performing basic troubleshooting.  To contact HP Tech Support please click on the link provided below to the global contact page for HP Tech Support.

Contact HP Worldwide | HP

Hope this helps,

Jason

[Jessaeee]

I was just on the phone with support. without turing the machine off the told me to switch it off at the wall and switch it back on. Feels so stupid to go through all that at support for that resolution but it worked!!!