How do you clean the removed printhead nozzles on a HP 7000?

[Mike-112]

I have removed the printhead on my Officejet 7000 and wiped the nozzles clean.  However I am sure these will now have become blocked how to you ensure they are clean?

[Bob_Headrick]

The best way to clean an Officejet 7000 printhead is in the printer with up to three cleaning cycles run from the front panel.  Why was the printhead removed - were you having issues with printing?  Was the printhead removed from the printer for more than a few minutes?  

If running three cleaning cycles in the printer (with adequate ink available in the cartridges) does not resolve the print quality issues you might try soaking the printhead as described in the post here.

[Repairatrooper]

If your printer is out of warranty, HP has this video that shows the process of manually cleaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTPASKLUzPc

[Mike-112]

The cleaning regime form the video worked fine.  Unfortunately the printer didn't like the printhead anymore and gave me four flashing lights.  Is that the printer's version of two fingers?

[Bob_Headrick]

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@Mike-112 wrote:

The cleaning regime form the video worked fine.  Unfortunately the printer didn't like the printhead anymore and gave me four flashing lights. [snip]

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Let's back up a bit:

• Why was the printhead removed?  Were there error messages?  Were there print quality issues with one or more of the inks? How long had the printhead been removed from the printer?
• Did you try running three cleaning cycles as described in my post above, before soaking the printhead?  What were the results?  Were there any error messages?  Was there any printing on the resulting test pages?

It may help to clean the electrical contacts on the back of the printhead and in the printer with a slightly damp lint-free wipe.  A clean coffee filter that has been slightly dampened works well for this.