Cyan ink cartridges won’t print

[Toby724]

My printer cyan ink will not print consistently.  I’ve replaced the cyan cartridge with a new cartridge several times.  I’ve run the printer through every built in cleaning cycle more times than I can say (over and over and over again).  The best I get is a slight improvement of cyan on the test print, but then as soon as I try to print an actual page (nothing special, just a LITTLE bit of colored text!), the cyan plays out before the page is even half printed.  I’m ready to throw this printer out the window!!  Someone on a different forum suggested doing a “nozzle check” but when I asked him how to do that, he quickly said I needed to contact tech support (I think he was just blowing smoke and didn’t know what he was talking about).  So what do I do know?  This HP printer is next to useless to me right now in its current condition!!  Is there something besides an ink cartridge that I can remove and clean, or flush out, or replace??  As I said, putting in brand new Hp ink cartridges didn’t fix the problem (but cost me a lot of money to try).  Thanks.

[Bob_Headrick]

It may help to manually clean the printhead as described starting at 1:21 in the video here:

[Toby724]

Thanks Bob for your suggestion.  It was the best one so far!  I did the steps, got LOTS of old ink removed from the bottom of the ink head, put in brand new ink cartridges, and now yellow and magenta are AWESOME!!!  But not one drop of Cyan is getting through, even after running the automated print cleaner routine :-(. I noticed while cleaning the print heads that cyan ink was puddling on the top of the little screen where the ink cartridge “mouth” sits.  Almost as if the cyan print head is completely plugged and ink is backing up in it.  Is there a solvent (isopropyl alcohol?) that I might try to dissolve whatever buildup seems to be inside the print head? I read somewhere that Hp printers have a micro filter somewhere in the print head, so I’m wondering if maybe that’s where the plug is.  Thanks!

[Bob_Headrick]

Sorry this did not resolve the issue.  A few observations:

• I would not recommend any solvents stronger than hot water.  Alcohol or other solvents may attack various layers in the printhead or "plumbing".  Since the printhead in the Officejet 6978 is not replaceable damaging it is not advised....
• The screen you see *is* the micro filter.  You might try the following:  Get an eyedropper and fill it with very hot (but not boiling) water.  Remove the cartridges and unplug the printer as if you were doing the manual cleaning.  Put the tissue under the printhead ad when cleaning.  Next put 3-5 drops of hot water on the cyan screen and let it sit for a few minutes.  If the water stays on top of the filter gently blot it with a tissue after five minutes, then put 3-5 more drops of hot water on the cyan screen, and wait for five minutes before gently blotting with a tissue again.  Repeat this a few times, then remove the printhead tissue and proceed as if you were finishing the manual cleaning from the video.