Black inkjet cartridge leaked until empty in printer. New cartridge won't work.

[MuskieNut]

I have an HP Deskjet F4200 All-in-one printer that was purchased 10/2008 and has performed well with light use.
A couple of months ago I replaced an empty HP60 high capacity black with a new HP60 of the same capacity.
Recently the black ink is shown as empty so we used it until it stopped printing.  This was surprising given the lack of printing we have done.
I've also noticed that the color cartridge is low even though we rarely print color and it is fairly new.
I removed the cartridge and noticed a mess of ink as well as a tall mound/ribbon of ink that had leaked into the printer right beneath where the cartridge positions to be changed out.
I carefully cleaned this out with alcohol and installed a new black HP60 high capacity cartridge.  It didn't work at all.  I ran the clean utility as well as prime utility and ran test pages a few times but no luck.
I've never had an HP cartidge not work out of the box. The color cartridge is printing fine.
What do I do next?

Cartridges are expensive so I don't want to buy a cartridge if it won't work anyway.
If I need a new printer it will most likely use a different cartridge.

Does this sound like a cheap fix if I have it repaired?

Any direction would be appreciated.

[Ciara_B]

Hi, if you believe the cartridge has leaked then I would suggest contacting HP Phone Support for a replacement. You can first check it's still within warranty by checking the warranty ends date

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00206040

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/wwcontact_us.html

Hope this helps

Kind Regards

Ciara

[Bob_Headrick]

The area you saw with the ink in it is the service station, it is where the cartrdige "spits" ink to keep the nozzles clean as part of the normal servicing routines. What you see is normal. Ink does not leak out of these cartridges, but there are some things a user does that will cause more ink to be used in servicing:

• Running unnecessary cleaning or priming cycles.  It is rare that a cartridge would need a cleaning cycle during its entire life.  Some folks run manual cleaning cycles on a regular basis which is both unnecessary and will shorten the life of the cartrdige (and the printer in excessive cases).
• Turning the printer off with an external switch.  The printer should always be powered by a live outlet and only the printer's power switch should be used to power off the printer.  If an external switch is used the printer will go through more initializing routines which will use more ink.

The page here has a discussion on how ink is used for printing and servicing.  In the language of that page your system is an "IPH" or integrated printhead system.

[Tasha5461]

I have an HP Officejet 6210 all in one. 

I bought an office depot brand ink cartridge, because HP is so expensive. I have had this printer for years, have used all sorts of brands of ink. 

Today error message , that the black ink cartridge is not compatible, I have noticed each time I print the black ink is not as dark.

So after many attempts of removing it , putting it back in, I got a flashlight and waaa laaaaa all the ink from the cartridge had spilled/leaked out and caked up in the bottom of the printer, what a mess.  I'm going to do what I can to clean it out.

I'm very upset.  But I think it's ruined. 

[Tasha5461]

same thing has happened to me, dealing with it now,,, yes ink cartridges do explode,leak whatever you want to call it,,, ink is all caked up at the bottom of the printer, I will attempt to clean it out and see what happens, but I do believe it's ruined. 12/23/2013

[tamanedalabe]

Ink ABSOLUTELY CAN leak out of cartridges. Without proper seating, a cartridge my "leak" its ink into the printer case. Before making incorrect comments, feel free to perform some research. It's answers from self proclaimed "experts" like yourself that give actual techs a bad reputation. 

[Bob_Headrick]

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@tamanedalabe wrote:

Ink ABSOLUTELY CAN leak out of cartridges. Without proper seating, a cartridge my "leak" its ink into the printer case. Before making incorrect comments, feel free to perform some research. It's answers from self proclaimed "experts" like yourself that give actual techs a bad reputation. 

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It is possible for ink cartridges to leak, but this is generally due to improper refilling. HP ink cartridges are designed to keep ink in the cartridge until drawn out by the ink delivery system.

As for performing research, I worked for more than twenty years in the Inkjet industry and hold five patents.  I am not a self-proclaimed expert, I was awarded the HP Expert title by HP.

I stand by my answer - folks may look into the service station and see what looks like black ink and think the cartridge has leaked (or exploded or otherwise failed).  This is not the case.  What they are seeing is the area where ink is "spit" out of the nozzles to keep the printhead clear.  While the ink appears black, it is actually a mixture of black and color inks.