Officejet Pro 6968 not longer prints in blues or greens

[rcan1015]

A few months ago, I tried using off-brand printer cartridges and they would not print colors accurately. I reached out to HP (extremely difficult to do since the printer is older and out-of-warranty) and they gave me a few options that I had already attempted--clean printheads, reset, update drivers, etc. Nothing helped and recently I replaced the cartridges with HP versions. NO help, still prints in browns, yellows and oranges. I really miss accurate colors and greens and blues. 

I have tried resets, hard resets, level three printhead cleaning and they have all been a waste of effort. The HP site tells me I need to update the firmware, but every time I download and try to install it 'grays' out the option to chose my printer and says 'firmware up to date'. Not the HP has ever had a decent functioning website, but it is ridiculous to follow their suggested steps. Each link forces me to login again, many of the links 'not available at this time try later', and the bot has never suggested anything helpful. Does anybody have suggestions for getting the colors to work again? It would be greatly appreciated since I've spent hours and days with no solution.

Please and Thanks!

[Valsimot]

Printhead problem, not worth replacing, new printhead will cost you close to a new printer.

You have some videos on YT on hot to clean the printhead using for your printer model, try it, maybe it will be helpful for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkVSjDG6wwM 

All suggested fixes firmware, reinstallation, resets will not help in your case.

[rcan1015 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the response. I tried all the usual stuff and then followed the instructions on manually cleaning the printheads. The process is frustrating but I cleaned the printheads with alcohol/warm water using a syringe. I went through that process three times and then used the software to 'clean printheads' and did that 3 times also. No change. I did notice a lot of ink goop on the bottom of the printer underneath the area that the printhead rests when not in use. I cleaned most of that since I was motivated to get my printer functioning in blues and greens again. Of course that was just cosmetic.

When I go to the HP website it always says there is a firmware update but it never installs. I download it and run it and it wastes a lot of time and then says it can't be completed. If I check for updates on the printer interface, it says there aren't any and I'm up to date.

I would go and buy another printer today--except I just spent a bundle on new HP cartridges two days ago hoping they would fix the color issue. I'm pretty sure a new printer won't use the same cartridges. But, you are probably correct that I need a new printer, I just don't want to give in yet.

Thanks