HP 6978 Office Jet will not print Color

[KEWilcox]

Five days ago I replaced my Magenta, Cyan, and Yellow cartridges with new HP Ones.  They were 902 XL's.  I left the Black alone because it had a bit on ink in it.  Everything worked fine.

Yesterday, I replaced the Black Cartridge with a HP 902  XL.  This is a double wide carrtridge.  The printer will only print black---no color.  Test page from printer only prints Black.  Word and Excel pages with some color will only print black.  Both from my Desk Top App and from the printer onboard App,  the estimated cartridge levels show the Black and Magenta at 100% and the Cyan and Yellow at about 95%.

I ran the trouble shooter from the Desk Top App and found not issues.

I powered off the printer, waites at least 1 minute before powering it on.  Did not fix the problem.

How else do I troubleshoot this problem and fix it?

Thanks, 

K E Wilcox

[KrazyToad]

Hi @KEWilcox

Welcome to HP Forums. This is a great place to get support, find answers and tips.

I understand that you are unable to print in Color after you changed the Black cartridge.

I'd like to help.

Please make sure the cartridges are well vented and seated.

1. Press the Power button to turn on the printer, if it is not already turned on.

2. Open the ink cartridge access door.

   The carriage moves to the center of the printer.

   Figure : Opening the ink cartridge access door

   

3. Wait until the carriage is idle and silent before you continue.

4. Press the tab inward on the front of the old ink cartridge to release it, and then pull up on the ink cartridge to remove it from the slot.

   Figure : Removing the ink cartridge

   

5. Examine the vent area above the HP logo on the top of the ink cartridge.

   Figure : Examine the vent area on the cartridge

   

6. If the ink cartridge still has the orange pull-tab attached, pull to remove it.

   Figure : Remove the orange pull-tab

   

7. If the vent is clogged, use a straight pin to gently remove excess adhesive from the vent.

   Figure : Cleaning the clogged vent with a pin

   1. Clogged vent

   2. With a straight pin, gently remove excess adhesive from the vent

   3. Unclogged vent

8. Turn the ink cartridge so that the cartridge contacts face downward, and then match the label color with the color dot on the carriage.

9. Slide the ink cartridge into its slot, and then gently press the ink cartridge down until it snaps into place.

   Figure : Installing the ink cartridge

   

10. Repeat these steps to inspect the vents on each of the ink cartridges.

11. Make sure each ink cartridge is firmly installed in its slot. Run your finger along the top of the ink cartridges to feel for any that are protruding, and if any are, press down firmly until each ink cartridge snaps into place.

12. Close the ink cartridge access door.

    Figure : Closing the ink cartridge access door

    

Then perform a Printer Reset

(1) Turn the printer on, if it is not already on.
(2) Wait until the printer is idle and silent before you continue.
(3) With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer.
(4) Unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.
(5) Wait at least 60 seconds.
(6) Plug the power cord back into the wall outlet.
 NOTE: HP recommends connecting the printer power cord directly to the wall outlet.
(7) Reconnect the power cord to the rear of the printer.
(8) Turn on the printer, if it does not automatically turn on.

The printer might go through a warm-up period. The printer lights might flash, and the carriage might move.
Wait until the warm-up period finishes and your printer is idle and silent before you proceed.

If the issue persists, please clean the Printerhead

1. On the printer control panel, swipe down to open the Dashboard, and then touch the Setup icon .

2. Swipe up on the display, and then touch Printer Maintenance.

3. Touch Clean Printhead, and then touch Continue.

   A test page prints.

   Figure : Example of the printhead cleaning test page

   

4. Examine the test page.

   • If the print quality is unacceptable, touch Clean Again to continue the next level of cleaning. Repeat these steps for the third cleaning stage, if necessary.

        NOTE:If the printhead is badly clogged, it might require another cleaning cycle. If so, wait 30 minutes before you perform all three levels of cleaning again.

     You can refer to this Link

Keep me posted how it goes.

Thank you. 🙂

If the information I've provided was helpful, give us some reinforcement by clicking the "Solution Accepted" and "Kudos" Buttons.

[KEWilcox]

KrazyToad,

Thanks for the reply and detailed instructions.  I followed your instructions to the letter,  Unfortunately, the procedure did not fix the problem.

This printer is  fairly new.  I purchased it on OCT 27, 2017 via Amazon.  All of the cartridges I mentioned replacing were the original ones that came with the printer.  As of this writing only 292 pages have gone throuth this printer.

When I replaced the color cartridges the printer seemed to be working fine although I probably only printed 5 pages that included Black and Yellow print.  When I replaced the "Double Wide" HP 902XL Black Cartridge is when the color printing quit working?

Any more suggestions greatly appreciated.

KE Wilcox

[KrazyToad]

Hi @KEWilcox

Thanks for keeping me posted. Since the issue persists even after cleaning the Printhead, please contact our Phone Support for Service Options or Upgrade Options.

Step 1. Open link: www.hp.com/contacthp/
Step 2. Enter Product number or select to auto detect 
Step 3. Scroll down to "Still need help? Complete the form to select your contact options"
Step 4. Scroll down and click: HP contact options - click on Get phone number and phone number appear.

Thank you.

[KEWilcox]

I have tried the trouble shooting suggested here and appreciate the answers.

However,  none of the suggestions worked,

I am now trying to connect to HP Technical Support.

[Greggernaut]

This seems to be a pretty common problem, based on the forum threads.

I've also followed all the instructions, installed and run the HP Print and Scan Doctor for Windows, unplugged it and waited before plugging it in again, removed and reinstalled the cartridges, tried the Virtual Agent (who gave up before I did), updated the driver software, made sure gray scale was unchecked, tried cleaning the (new) printheads ("An error has occurred. (pgDevServ-parsererror)")... All after spending $50 on new HP cartridges so I could print something in color tonight.

I've had this printer since October, 2016. Even though it's out of warranty less than 6 months, it looks like I may have to pay to talk to someone at HP and hope they can figure it out. 

If that happens, I'll post a solution here. 

[Johnc2780]

didn't work. Color cartridges still not printing after cartridge clean and vent clearing

[ToBeFranky]

Were these genuine  HP cartridges or compatible?

[Johnc2780]

Yes, the cartridges are new genuine HP cartridges.

[NormP1]

My HP Office Jet Pro 6978 is printing a pink stripe in a field which should be blue.  It is not in the same location, but still there, on subsequent copies printed.

I have installed Genuine HP ink cartridges throughout.  The color cartridges are XL.

I have cleaned heads, run the Print Doctor and nothing eliminates the Pink stripe which is not on the original being printed.