DesignJet 500 Plus head contacts dirty

[JPT14]

Hi,

i inherited an old DesignJet 500 Plus which was broken and wasn't used for well over 5 years.

I already replaced the belt and now the mechanics runs totally smooth again, wow!

and after I cleaned the heads it actually started printing. yay!

But while cleaning the heads the black head's contacts were dirty and I could not remove the stain using 70% isopropanol. What should I use to clean the contacts?

It wasn't able to align the heads because black prints gray only.

Now it tells 3 ink cartridges were empty and the black head was dead.

I do not believe either of these, as initially it reported 3 of the cartridges as 100% full. and if you shake them, they actually still contain a significant amount of ink. They are over date for about 5 years, 3 of them are original HP cartridges.

And replacing the head wont do anything to clean the dirty contacts on the machine, so this most likely won't help either.

thanks

[Repairatrooper]

The best product I have found for contacts is deoxit. Expensive, but the best contact cleaner ever made in my opinion. As the black ink is pigment based it can he harder to clean than the color which is dye based.

[JPT14]

Hi,

using contact cleaner should have been obvoius.

thanks for the hint!

cleaning the contacts didn't help.

what helped was rinsing the head with a cheap chinese kit that comes with a clamp, syringe and funnel.

Printer works great again, for an investment of like 30€

and I found a complete set of new heads on a shelve nearby. that's valuable!
I was just about to trash them because I expected them to be ink cardtridges of some lone gone printer.