Printhead issues with HP Officejet Pro X476dw MFP

[A_Caps]

We were having the same issue and ran the Printhead Recovery.  That fixed our issue.  Here's the YouTube Video we followed.

https://youtu.be/IJynbDV-ZS0 

Thanks,

Andy

[Consult2000]

The YouTube video on printhead recovery DID NOT RESOLVE this frustrating issue on a printer that has been used for only 20 months.

[danhurst]

I've got this same problem with my printer now (I bought it new about 6 months ago)!

I tried the Printhead Recovery thing, but the right side of the pages still has the white streaks.

Really frustrating!!!

HP has some explaining to do...and some good customer service!!!  There are far too many other printers out there to choose from.

[phyd]

Having the same issues here, very disappointing. Has any one had any resolve?

[Consult2000]

No resolution....I had to junk the printer and decided not to buy another HP model, which is frustrating because I had $400 in unused ink!!!!!!!

[TMG3]

I have two of these printers and there is a major problem with this model.

The printer I bought last August had this issue back in May 8 mths old and HP sent me a new printer the next day.

Then I bought a second printer in Feb this year and it has been replaced 3 times now for the same issue.

The othe day I was on with tech support from 10:30 to 3pm and then they told me to clean the heads with alcohol, but this did not work.

I have always bought HP and have 3 HP printers right now and only one is working.

I am rethinking about moving to another brand as this model has not given me any confidence in the HP products.

[Zenith_321]

Hello,

Please contact HP support for your issue.

You can HP support center from this link:

http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/search/?sp4ts.oid=5276617

Alternatively please call HP Tech Support for further assistance.

If you are in US , the toll free # is 1-800-474-6836 .

[E_P_E]

I was an engineer at HP for 8 years, management has and always will be scared to death to admit that any product may have a problem (comes from the fact that most managers are no longer technical there).  I was a loyal employee and still believe it's a good company with some problems with poor managers moving up the ranks. I have been trying to find someone internally that understands this problem and would tell me what the cause was and communicate a solution (I think there is a solution but they need to admit there is a problem to provide a solution and management is just too timid to do that). 

I'm going to try my best to help and hopefully some people can communicate back to this string if the suggestions work as I don't have access to many Pro Xs with this problem.  It is very important that everyone using these printers understand the importance of using a good inkjet compatible paper. Next, equally important is knowing how to remove and clean out the waste ink/duplex tray - this can prevent semi-dry gooey ink from getting back on the printhead (the printhead can be wiped clean by dropping down the quide just above the waste ink tray - I recommend using a distilled water or flushing fluid and getting a folded paper towel very saturated to wipe the printhead with gental pressure back and forth repeatably). These two steps can recover from ink smears better than the printer menu selection.  This is not going to fix the reported problem but I think all of this is related.

After learning how to service the waste ink and printhead surface, you need to learn how to access the service menu to run a "printhead recovery." This sometimes recovers the dropped segments and run repeatably it may be all you need to know to recover dropped segments but it has not always proven successful with some installations I tried to help. I think the ink delivery system is challenged to keep all the prntheads primed (over time and during large print volume loads).  Once the nozzles have been dropped it's not that easy for the ink to wet back out thru those nozzles so this may help. Find a strip of foam about 1/4" think and about 1" wide by about 9" long (long enought to contact the entire underside of the printbar). Wrap it with a couple layers of paper towel and dampen the surface that will contact the printhead surface with distilled water or better a flushing fluid.  This does a better job of what the service sled inside the printer does, that is dry, to help get the nozzles to recover. If you do this correctly and leave it in a minute or so, you should see all 4 colors from each printhead on the paper towel when removed. If not the nozzles were not all recovered. 

Here's my most radical suggestion. The ink flows from the cartridges down into the printbar at the rear of the printer. If air trapped inside the printbar is the root cause of the dropped segments and that is very possible then placiing the printer on it's back surface and running a printhead recovery should pump some ink up thru the bottom head up to the top head that is closest to the front of the printer.  If the printhead design is similar to the old HP 10/11/12/88/940 printheads trapped air simply can not excape the printbar unless you do something like this. I have only tried this one time myself and it certainly seemed to help recover lost heads near the back of the printer (seems to have moved the air toward the top head which is the front head when back on the bottom surface). 

I'm investigating more advanced recovery processes that involve removing the back panel of the pirnter and manually pumping ink thru the printheads but I'm hoping that is a last resort correct action. 

[E_P_E]

This looks like it could be an electrical problem but I am very confident it's not based on the efforts we have invested to determine a robust solution. 

The fact that just running a printhead recovery from the service menu sometimes recovers it (I suggest running it up to 5 times and if improvement is seen just keep running the 2 minute process until printhead is recovered or no improvement is seen for 3 consecutive reoveries (this just indicates you are wasting you time). 

The good news is that this process only consumes about 1-2mL of each color each recovery so it's not a huge ink waste (the ink delivery system contains upwards of 50mL of ink so this may explain when it can take as many as a dozen recoverieis to reco ver the printbar. 

The consern I have this doesn't always work so I have posted other suggestions. 

[TMG3]

I had the exact same problem on both of my HP Officejet Pro X476dw MFP.

It seems they last a few months then they all have the same issue as my optomitrist had the same printer which was also not printing properly.

I had tech support on my system tryin to fix the issue, after a few hours they said that if I cleaned the print heads with rubbing alcohol he gauranteed it would print after doing the manual cleaning on the printer a few times.

I ran the Clean Print head under tools 30 times after cleaning the print heads with alcohol a couple of times first. Then I waited a day and Vola it is printing and has had no issue for the past month now.

I would not recommend this model of printer to anyone for personla or business use as there seems to be a real problem with the print heads.