Print head streaks

[troy_kirkwood]

I replaced the photo black & light gray print head and now I'm having trouble with it leaving streaks or not positioned in the right spot. I aligned the print heads when I replaced the head, I don't want to blow through the ink as I'm almost out of light gray and don't want to starve the head by cleaning it. Is there anything else I can do in the meantime while I wait for ink to come in to solve this problem?

[D Hook]

Is this an after-market printhead or OEM?  Will the seller accept returns?  It sounds like a bad printhead but I'd also pull the right cover and take a good look at the service station to see if it's gunked up with dried ink.

[troy_kirkwood]

The head is an HP head, I actually just replaced it this week as the last new one I bought stopped putting out light gray. The printhead is already out of warranty though from hp as they said they no longer make that part. I will have to look at the service station to see if it is all gunked up too. I did change the paper type yesterday and that did seem to solve the problem. Now I just have to make the black look darker.

[D Hook]

Sounds like you're on the way to solving the problem.  Changing paper was a good idea.  What paper were you using when it failed to print correctly?  Just curious.  I have the same model of printer and really like it but usually only use simple bond paper, sometimes heavier weight so I'm interested to know what kind of paper you had problems with.

Your service station may be gunked up if you had a bad printhead in the past.  You can remove it and clean it if it has a lot of ink in the bottom.  Check the wipers also to be sure they're not dragging dried ink across the bottom of the printheads.  I pulled a service station out of a T650 printer a few months ago that had about 3" of black ink sitting in the bottom of the service station and it was migrating up and getting on the wipers and the upper assembly and jamming the sled that moves wipers/caps.  This all came from a bad black printhead that kept leaking ink into the service station, even when the printer was idle.  You can remove the service station and give it a good cleaning but it's a very messy operation so be prepared with an apron and gloves.  If you don't have a service manual, you can google you printer model and there are some on line you can download if you want.  You'll need it to remove the service station.  Here's a link to one:  https://www.laserexpressinc.com/manuals/HP/hp-dsj-t790-t1300-z5400-t2300-service-manual.pdf

Be aware that the printer uses several different colors to make black (especially yellow) so it might be a good idea to do an image check print (from front panel menu) to see that all the printheads are firing ok.  

Out of date printheads are ok to use but try to stay within 5 years of the expiration date for best results.  Aftermarket printheads are usually junk and may work for a few prints but then fail.

Good luck.  Let us know how it turns out.