HP 6500 Office jet E709a - Black printer cartridge HP 920 not working

[Bob_Headrick]

If you have done the steps in this page, soaked the printhead and replace the the printhead the likely next step is service from HP.  You can Contact HP here.

[NJAK]

I called HP and the tech said, "Umm, I'd just replace the printer". Gee, thanks. After having 2 HP laptops and now 3 Officejets fail in less than 3 years, I guess I will be replacing the printer - with a different brand.

[MM61021]

I just wanted to post that I tried the soaking repair and whalla it worked! My thoughts on how to do it:

Get a small cup and fill it with water. Microwave it unit it boils. Remove it from the microwave and the boiling instantly stops. Please the printhead into the water 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch, just enough to get the print head wet nut not the contacts. Let sit for 5 minutes.

I repeated this process a second time and noticed that unlike the first soak, the ink didn't immediately flow into the water. It took a few second then ink started flowing. I believe the hot air/steam helps to break up any clogs and sticky ink.

I throughly dried the printhead, making sure to carefully dap the printhead surface to remove any old ink. I cleaned the contacts and stuck it back into the printer and tested it.

IT'S WORKING GOOD AS NEW!

THANKS BOB FOR THE FIX!

[BlackInkNoWork]

The hot water method worked for me.  I switched my water out a few times for a couple minutes each until it ran clear and then dabbed the head dry.  Ran through 2 cleaning cycles 1 and 2 before black ink picked back up and had to replace the color cartridges afterwards cause the cleaning process blows through a lot of ink.  The only unique recommendation I have to add is to keep a set of empty cartridges around to use during cleaning process so you don't waste your hard earned ink.  ie:  If your trying to get your black flowing again replace the colors, if your working on a color replace the black and other two colors with empties. 

[TabTreeJunkie]

I also have the OfficeJet 6500 and had the same problem. The black text was printing using a mix of colored inks instead of the black ink, resulting in a grey, fuzzy text. I finally found a solution. In each application under Page Setup, there is an option called "Format for". Mine had been set to "Any Printer". I changed that to "Officejet 6500 E709n [830E4A]" and now it prints the black just fine. I have a Mac running 10.4.11. Hope this helps.

[Ciara_B]

Hi TabTreeJunkie, thanks for the input. Ciara

[EveH]

Hi Bob,

Your posts seem very informed and useful. I wondered if soaking the print nozzles was a good idea for my K8600dn printer? Tried every other suggestion I can find on here. The error message is now 'ink supply failure' but has deteriorated from just bad print quality to only magenta and blue printing to this current state. Your (or anyone else's) help would be most appreciated!

Best,

Eve

[Moya]

I have purchased 3 new '363' black ink cartridges for printer yet message still says empty ink cartridge each time.

I followed previous forum advice ohere f taking out coloured inks and they showed straight away as needing replacing as well as the black, removed USB cable, then removed power cable. Turned printer back on and then connected USB cable - still saying 'empty black ink cartridge' as before.

Further forum advice did not refer to C6100 series where it advised immersing print head in water.

Please advise how I should now proceed.

Thank you,

Moya in UK

[Moya]

Did not mention in first post that my C6180 will also not print in colourunless the black ink is recognised. Put in something to photocopy but will not do that either - message still saying 'the empty ink cartridge must be replaced to resume'. I am using Microsoft XP operating system.

I have noticed that some other users are able to print with colour or get a green colour instead of black - none of this applies as message will not allow me to proceed without new black ink cartridge - have already tried 3 new ones.

Advice please how to proceed. Thank you. Moya 

[andbob]

My printer has stopped printing black ink. when I checked Printhead health my Black/Yellow status came up as monitor. Ah, I thought I needed a new printhead and so after installing a new Black/Yellow I was once again able to print black. However. after a couple of weeks the black ink stopped. My Black/Yellow printhead health has gone back to monitor and I dont know what to do. I have manually cleaned the printhead but the printhead was very clean as it was new. Any thoughts?

My printer stats are:

Printer Model HP Officejet Pro 8000 A809 Wireless
Firmware Version:BZM1FN0842BR
Operating System  Windows 7 64bit Service Pack 1
Connection Method - Wireless

Thanks for any help,

Andrew