Magenta cartridge not printing

[Ghazzer]

The printer slowly stopped printing magenta, even tho it said that there was 60% of that ink remaining. The first time through I was able to restore printing by cleaning the heads and removing/replacing that cartridge. When the problem returned I purchased ANOTHER HP magenta cartridge, but still have the same problem.   This printer only has 1600+ pages. The HP Print & diagnostic S/W was absolutely zero help. I suspect a problem with the print head, but would like to confirm the problem before I blindly purchase a replacement.

[asmita6658 · Accepted solution]

@Ghazzer

Greetings!
 
Welcome to the HP Support Community. This is a great place to get support, find answers and tips to your technical queries. I have reviewed your post and I understand, the printer is not printing in color.

Appreciate you trying the steps. Don't worry, I'm here to help! To better assist you - Are you experiencing the same issue while making a copy as well? 

While you respond to that, let's begin by printing a print quality report -

1) Load plain white paper in the input tray.
2) From the printer control panel, open the Setup menu.
3) Open the Reports or Tools menu.
4) Touch Print Quality Report.

Evaluate the Print Quality Report -

• If there are no defects found, try step#1.
• If there are defects found, try step#2 and 3.

Step 1 Re-install the printer driver -
1) In the search box, type and open "Uninstall a Program". 
2) Look for HP Printer software. 
3) Right-click to uninstall. 
4) In the search box, type and open “Devices and printers”. 
5) In the Devices and Printers, look for your HP printer. If you see it listed right-click on it and choose “Delete” or “Remove Device”. 
6) Open the run command with the "Windows key + R" key combo.  
7) Type printui.exe /s and click Ok. (Note: there is a space in between “printui.exe” and “/s”). 
8) Click on the "Drivers" tab. 
9) Look for HP Printer driver. If you see it Click on it and click “Remove” at the bottom. 
10) Select Ok. 
11) Select Apply and Ok on the Print Server Properties windows. 
12) Close Devices and Printers Once the software and drivers are removed. 
13) Restart the computer. 
14) Download and install the software and drivers from here.

Step 2 Clean the printhead -
1) From the printer control panel, open the Setup menu.
2) Open the Printer Maintenance menu.
3) If necessary, open the Tools menu, and then touch Clean Printhead.

Step 3 Align the printer -
1) Load plain white paper in the input tray.
2) From the printer control panel, open the Setup menu.
3) Open the Printer Maintenance or Tools menu.
4) Touch Align Printhead.
 

Hope this helps!

Let me know how that goes.

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!

Have a great day ahead 🙂

[Ghazzer]

The problem was not "printing in color", but getting the Magenta cartridge to print.

I assumed that the print head (or the printer) was at fault because installing a new cartridge did not resolve the problem. I cleaned the print head several times and ran the cartridge alignment several times, but no help. I have printed many reports, checked the ink levels several ways, and run the HP diagnostics (which did not help. This time I cleaned the heads 3 times, and I began to see some streaks. I cleaned them a fourth time and the problem seems to have resolved itself.

Now I’d like to find a way to clean the print head that doesn’t gobble the ink.

Can you link me to some kind of document that explains how the print head works?

Thanks - - -

[asmita6658]

@Ghazzer

Happy to hear that your issue is resolved now. 

The printer has fixed printhead, it cannot be manually cleaned due to the way it is designed but we can clean it from the printer's control panel and printer software. 

There are three stages of cleaning. Each stage lasts about two minutes, uses one sheet of paper, and uses an increasing amount of ink. After each stage, review the quality of the printed page. You should only initiate the next phase of cleaning if the print quality is poor.

Align the printhead when the printer status page shows streaking or white lines through any of the blocks of color, or if you are having print quality issues with your printouts.

Cleaning uses ink, so clean the printhead only when necessary. The cleaning process takes a few minutes. Some noise might be generated in the process. Always use the Power button to turn off the printer. Turning the printer off improperly can cause print quality
problems.

Let me know if you have any other questions. 

To help the community find this post, click here to access our public post and Select - "Accept as solution".

[Ghazzer]

Thanks. That explains a few things I was wondering about.

I know that cleaning uses extra ink and cartridges don't grow on trees, so I have another question. In a situation like mine where only one cartridge is not printing, is it OK to replace the others with "used" cartridges while cleaning? I usually still have some on hand that have not yet been recycled. I realize that this would slightly decrease the HP sale of cartridges, but it would certainly benefit your customers.

[asmita6658]

@Ghazzer

Thanks for replying. Used up ink might not fix the issue. If the automatic cleaning tool does not help, the next option is to repair the printer as this could be a hardware issue causing the printing problem. 

Have a good day!