Officejet Pro L7780 Printhead Problem

[sbamaven]

My printer is 2.5 years old and has light home use.  The printheads started failing...I had to run "clean printheads" before attempting to print anything.  HP Solutions said "Printheads OK."  Still, the printer was unusable.

I bought 2 new printheads, cleaned the printhead contacts in the printer, installed the printheads.  Now the printer won't do anything and HP Solutions says printhead health is "bad," and the display window on the printer says both printheads have a problem.

I re-inserted the old printheads and the "problem" messages disappeared, HP Solutions says printhead health is "good," but the printer won't print.

I've done every solution suggested on user forums.

I've done a full factory reset and flashed new firmware.  No help.  Anyone had a similar problem and been able to solve it?

Thanks.

[Drucker]

I've got the same problem! I have installed two replacement printheads and after a few pages a message appears saying to switch the printer off then on again. After that it says the printhead has a problem and will not allow you to do anything else. All keys on the machine are dead. It will work again if I replace the old printhead but I then have the original problem of awful black print quality.

There seem to be a few people having the same problem from the search I have done on the web.

Hope you find a solution.

[LidNe]

Sorry you're having trouble with your L7780. HP doesn't recommend routinely cleaning the electrical contacts before you install new printheads. I'm worried that you might have transfered some ink onto the contacts, since your problem changed from a print quality problem to a error message. I would suggest that you try cleaning the electrical contacts one more time. Try the instructions in this document: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01628836 - make sure you let everything dry completely before you reinstall the printheads.

Also, for print quality issues, this is the HP support doc http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01957673

[nikrocks]

i have had the same problem and have tried everything.   Conveniently (not for me), the 2 year warranty has just expired.  Seems like the only solution is to buy a new printer.  Not this one, clearly.

[sbamaven]

Thank you for your response.  I cleaned the printhead contacts in the printer according to the instructions....no help.  Now my printer has died and it won't turn on. 

I contacted HP and they felt my pain.  They no longer make or support this printer.  They said I had a hardware problem and there was no solution.  They then tried to upsell me to another similar printer.  Because of my difficulties, they offered to discount the new machine to make me happy.  They offered the printer to me for $30 more than I could buy it on the internet!    They love me so much that they'll sell me the new machine at $30 over retail!

Over the years I've owned a succession of top-of-the-line HP color printers as well as HP desktops and laptops, all of which performed well.  This product is a dog.  After the treatment I received from Customer Service, I will never buy another HP product.

I have 3 new 88XL color cartridges and 2 new 88 printheads that will now go in  the trash, not to mention the 4 nearly new cartridges in the printer.

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.

CAVEAT EMPTOR!

[tphagstrom]

My printer just failed too.  I think it has something to do with softwareHP downloaded onto the printer without consent.  At least, on my PC's, HP installs about a dozen software packages that show up in the list of software and about 6 of the are listed in task manager under processes.  Who knows what HP is doing, but apparently they did something to reak their printer, and now we're obligated to pay HP to fix it.  I cannot verify that HP actually broke it, but the HP updates are more likely the cause than the third set of printheads I installed last month.  Sadly, I could not find an email address or a phone number to call on the HP web page to get the printheads replaced (they're still within their warranty period).  HP makes getting support difficult, even if I'm willing to pay an extraordinary premium to buy their ink.  I'll see what I can dig up on their web site, but for the moment I'll keep working the problem since I paid $125 for the printheads in December.  By the way, I followed the direction HP gives for troubleshooting printhead problems and they culminate in "clean the contacts"...  It didn't help.  Then HP says send more money...  I thought the $125 was more money...

[Vake]

My Officejet Pro L7780 Pro will print from my MAC, copy and scan. When I send it a job from my PC it goes through the motions but will not feed the paper for printing. It will print from the PC if I perform a test, but will not feed paper for a regular print job.

[LidNe]

Hi tphagstrom - sorry you're having problems with your printer. If the printheads are under warranty, you should be able to get them replaced. If you're in the U.S., call 1-800-HP-INVENT, and make sure to explain that your ink supplies are under warranty. Outside of the U.S., go to hp.com/support, select your country, and then look for a Contact HP link at the bottom of the page. You're right - it could be easier to find.

There is nothing in the printer or software to 'break' the printhead. They definately do fail though, and HP should pay for a replacement if you're still in the warranty period.

[LidNe]

Hi Vake:

Take a look at this support document - it may address your problem if your print job is stuck in queue: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05368413 (Link Updated 05/01/2017) 

[tphagstrom]

Thanks for the number.  I was able to finally reach HP.  Unfortunately they stated that since my printer was out of warranty, my printheads were not warranted, even though I bought them and installed them in December 2011 (2 months ago).  This despite the printer error given is "The following printhead(s) has a problem:

Black/Yellow [K/Y],

Magenta/Cyan [M/C]

I guess K/Y is the operative term here.  And to think the technical representative was informing me that if I bought a suitable HP replacement printer, I could still use my HP print cartridges.  The question I put to the readers is would you buy a printer from a company that does not have enough integrity to honor its warranty commitments?  As for me, it would be unamerican to continue to support such a company.