printhead position sensor

[preacheral]

Okay, my black ink printhead clogged up, repeated running of the clean head tool, didn't fix my problem.  Finally found some advice in how to remove and clean the print head (even if it wasn't for an  5510 Photosmart).  But now that it's clean and back together the print head doesn't know where it is.  I assume there is a printhead position sensor, but I am not sure what I am looking for... any suggestions?  A photo would be helpful

[Bob_Headrick]

The printhead position sensor is in two parts - there is a mostly clear plastic strip with tiny lines, and a sensor on the back of the carriage that "looks" at the strip to decode its position.  The pictures here may help.

[preacheral]

I think I need the second step which you din't post or so it seems.  When I removed the printer head it actully detached from the carraige so I never had to remove or detach the strip in question.  My problem now is that I get and error saying that the printer head is jammed.  It gives me a series of steps to perform to ensure that that carraige moves freely (which it does) but when I turn the power on it slams to the right side and again it tells me that I have a jam.  ...

OK, I found the issue with the printerhead alignment.  When I put the Printhead back into the carraige, I managed to not get the tape into the sensor.  Now the head moves and tracks like it should, but i guess I need to be more vigorous in my cleaning of the printhead.  The black still does not come out (and yes I did change cartraiges).  The hot water seemed to clean away a lot of material, but I guess I need to use some sort of 100 % pure solvent like ethanol or isopropyl alchohol.

[Bob_Headrick]

I would suggest not using alcohol, it can damage the printhead.  (See my post here.)  For the Photosmart 5510 the troubleshooting steps in the document here may help.  Especially make sure the vents are cleared.  If that does not resolve the issue then resetting the printer as described in the post here may help.  If this does not resolve the issue then read the entire thread here and try requesting reset instructions.

[preacheral]

Tried all of the suggested steps...  no joy.  So I ordered a replacement printhead.  Found a company that sells them on eBay for won. $19.99

[preacheral]

Received and replaced the print head but the printer will still not print back ink.  I have replaced the cartridge, and now the printer head.  I'm left feeling like this might be a softward/firmware issue.  Any suggestions about how to either reset the printer or to reload the firmware?

[preacheral]

If I didn't know better I would think that HP has some how installed some software that kills the printer so that I have to buy a new one.  I know that wouldn't be the case because they make all their money on the ink cartages. But still after all this no black ink printing.

[CesarAugusto]

Thank you so much for writing about this issue! After reading this, I was finally able to solve the same problem of jam error and carriage slamming to the right after removing, cleaning and reinstalling the print head. 

Now the printer is running fine, but I lost a complete set of new ink cartridges and some hours fixing the problem. At least I avoided buying a new printer!