Ribbon tangled in cartridge (see photo)

[rocamu]

Hi, I just had a cartridge jam and saw that a plastic ribbon (about 4" long) was caught up in the carriage. I pulled the ribbon out with pliers and the printer is working again.

But, does anyone know what this ribbon is for? It has "plugs" on either end and feels like heavy flexible plastic or super thin metal. I can't tell where it belongs.

[Valsimot]

Looks like a cable connecting the control panel with electronics or a cable for Wi-fi.

Do the control panel and wi-fi work too? 

[rocamu]

Yes, the control panel works. I called HP and the support staff could not tell me exactly what this ribbon does.  

[rocamu]

and yes, Wi- fi also works. 

[Valsimot]

Any chance that came from some different device? There are few cables like that in that printer model, and the printer wouldn't work without them.

[rocamu]

Hi, this definitely came from the printer. I purchased a new Tango and I can see the end of a similar strip that wraps around the back of the ink cartridges. At this point I'm just super curious as to what this exactly does. I'm surprised (but not really) that the HP tech support group did not have this information. They set up video access to see the ribbon and then took about 45 minutes to tell me that they did not know the functional properties of this strip.

Wifi works

online paper counts work

BW and color printing works

Ink levels look like they are working