Why did the blue stop working in a new HP ink cartridge on my HP officejet Pro 6978.

[JPB6]

I installed a brand new HP 902xl ink cartridge into my HP officejet Pro 6978 all in one printer and it worked for a while.  Now it's not working at all.  Even after several tries of printhead cleanings (no Blue boxes on printed sheet) and print head alignment(failed).  This printer is being used in a home office environment with 11430 lifetime pages printed.  Is it time to retire said printer?  Any help would be appreciated.

[Bob_Headrick]

The troubleshooting steps in the document here may help resolve cyan not printing on your Officejet 6978 printer.  Be sure to check the vents.  Also, turn the cartridge over and look at the ink port where you removed the orange cover.  There will be 4 orange dots, make sure these are flush with the body of the cartridge.  If any of the orange spots protrude carefully trim them with a sharp knife.   (If the orange nubs protrude they can prevent the cartridge from seating properly.)

[JPB6]

Thank you Bob for your suggestion.   Unfortunately the vent was clear and didn't have anything on the 4 dots.

[Bob_Headrick]

OK, a few more things to try:  get a cup of hot water and an eyedropper.  Open the printer and remove the cartridges.  Unnplug the printer.  Put five drops of hot water in the cyan ink port in the printer and three drops of hot water in the ink port on the cyan cartridge.  (The ink port is the large hole between the four orange dots on the cartridge and the matching port in the printer.)  Plug the printer back in, turn it on and run a cleaning cycle from the tools menu.

If the above does not resolve cyan printing it may help to manually clean the printhead as described in the video here.

[JPB6]

Hi Bob, I did not have an eye dropper so I did the manual clean.  This did not help.

Thanks,

JPB6

[Bob_Headrick]

At this point your printer will likely require service or replacement.