Lines missing or only half printed

[will345]

5740 inkjet all in one. Printing looks like this:

Only the black cartridge is affected. This started happening with the black cartridge that came with the printer, ink level showed it was about half full. It does the same thing whether I'm printing from the computer, or making a copy. I tried aligning and cleaning the catridge many times, it didn't help. I bought a new cartridge, it worked at first. It's an HP cartridge, not a compatible or remanufactured cartridge. Date on the cartridge is 2018/05/17. Now (after about 8 months, I don't print very often) it's starting the same thing again. Cartridge level shows about 2 thirds full. I've tried aligning and cleaning a few times, it doesn't help. What could be causing this? A bad cartridge? Do these cartridges dry out? Even if they do, shouldn't my cartridge be good until 2018/05/17?

[8lives · Accepted solution]

The ink dries out in the cartridge printhead, try soaking the printhead only in hot water for 5 mins.

You need to print something at least once a week to prevent this problem from happening.

[will345]

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@8lives wrote:

The ink dries out in the cartridge printhead, try soaking the printhead only in hot water for 5 mins.

You need to print something at least once a week to prevent this problem from happening.

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Wow, that worked! Thank you! I was about to go out and buy a new cartridge.

I'll make sure to print something at least once a week from now on.

[choyski]

Thank you 8lives for the fix on my half print lines,soaking the cartridge in hot water for 5 minutes worked like a charm.