HP 6500A Plus print head always needs replaced

[keithnh]

I own an HP 6500 e709n and have had issues with printer cartridges not being recognized and am experiencing one now in which my black double 920 cartridge was working and the printer being functional printing black only with no error messages but not printing color as one or more of the cartridges were probably low or dried up. I changed the cartriges out with genuine hp 920s and now get a message indicating one or more cartridges missing or damaged-cyan . Put my old cartiges back in and got the same failure where none was before with them. Pulled cartrige sets and open holes with pin as shown to make sure venting was ok on both sets and retried. Was still getting same message about cyan so pulled printhead and cleaned per hp procedure several times. Now getting ink system failure. Cleaned again now back to cyan cartridge failure. Loop d loop getting nowhere. Seems like this printer knows when I really need it and fails at that time in a way I cant correct.

I have worked in manufacturing and in my case all returns were looked at and analized by techs as a quality control or quality assurance measure. It just makes sense for company profitability never mind customer satisfaction. I believe since there is a common issue that appears to be frequent, there is an exact issue that has been observed by the company(HP) and they know what the problem is. Im surprised that information hasnt been put forth here by people who supposedly represent HP. What is the main problem that changing a print-head alleviates most of the time? Dried up ink in the passageways. Hard electronic failure of the ribbon or pc board? Sensing mechanism faulty? Cartridge ID mechanism proving HP cartridge causing issue? Customer using non-hp cartridge or refilling genuine cartridge? ... causes what?

[Ciara_B]

Ok as you're getting a cartridge error msg on a couple of cartridges then it could be a problem with the contact pins within the printer itself. Do any of them look out of place?

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02073774

Figure 12: Electrical contacts on the inside of the product

[keithnh · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the response. As I stated in my 2cnd post the problem was completely cured by numerous CRC printhead baths and a toothbrush. Is there a reason why my first post was edited out of the thread? Apparently you still have it as you referenced it just now. Thanks Keith

[TigerMan1]

Needing some help please. I have a ink system failure and I have manually cleaned the print head a few times. I am low on my colored ink, but I want to make sure that my printer will work again before buying more ink. How likely is it that the error is more electrical than ink related? Should I buy a new print head first? Thoughts? I just don't want to throw more money into this printer if I'm just going to need to buy a new one.