HP Office Jet Pro 6978 print cartridge error

[Matthew_Friday]

Hi, I have had my HP Office Jet Pro 6978 printer for over five years and until now it has never let me down. It was working perfectly fine until one day I turned it on and got the error message "the print cartridge cannot move" and would not return to the home screen. I followed the instructions stated on the screen and ensured there were no paper jams and that there were no foreign bodies or broken pieces inside the printer but this did not fix the fault. This process was repeated several times with same result.

I then performed a hard reset of the printer by disconnecting the power from the back of the printer, with the printer still on, and then disconnecting the power lead from the wall socket. I removed all the ink cartridges and after 2-3 minutes I held the power button "on" for 30 seconds. I then reconnected the power lead to the wall socket and to the printer and then turned the printer back on. The printer went through a start up procedure before re-showing the original error message of the cartridge not moving.

I checked the freedom of the carriage that holds the ink cartridges and it moved very freely up and down on its track with no effort at all. On that basis I conclude there is no physical obstruction and perhaps it might be a software issue?

Just for back ground knowledge my printer is plugged directly into a wall socket and by WI-FI to my Macbook air computer which uses BigSur. I would be grateful for any assistance in resolving this error message.

[Echo_Lake · Accepted solution]

@Matthew_Friday

Thank you for posting on the HP Support Community.
 

Don't worry as I'll be glad to help,  

I appreciate your efforts to try and resolve the issue, as the error persists, please reach out to the HP Technical Support team in your region regarding the service options for your printer. 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted for further assistance.
Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!