How does a printhead become damaged?

[hiker1659]

My Officejet 6500 e709n seemed to run out of ink last week.  I knew the ink was low.  I replaced the black ink cartridge and immediately got an error message about the printhead being incompatible or damaged.  I'll add that my color cartidges have been empty for some time.  Does totally running out of ink damage the printhead?  How else might it become damaged? 

(Windows 7 Home Premium)

[samierus]

Its not damaged yet. Replace all the cartridges which are out of ink. And also call hp technical support if your printhead is still in warranty you might get the printhead with the cartridges too.

[hiker1659]

I should have mentioned that I did the troubleshooting steps mentioned in the manual and then called HP and went through a few more troubleshooting steps, including  the 3 different kinds of resets.  I also cleaned the printhead, which was not very dirty since this was only the 3rd ink cartridge that I had ever installed.  I was told by the HP support line person that a replacement printhead is not available and that I should just buy new equipment.  

[samierus]

I am sorry i didnt know about that part. I would suggest you please call our technical support again and check if the printhead is available.

[Ciara_B]

Hi, have you also tried cleaning the printer carriage contacts?

Figure 8: Clean contacts inside product

• Wipe the area dry with a dry lint-free cloth before proceeding to the next step.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01661383

[hiker1659]

I'll try a new printhead.  Once I get a new one I want to avoid this situation again.  Any idea how printheads become damaged in the first place?  Do I need to make sure that I never run out of all colors of ink at the same time?  Can replacing an ink cartridge somehow damage the printhead? 

[hiker1659]

Yes, when i called HP I was told to clean the contacts with a damp, lint-free cloth.  I don't know if she told me to wipe downward though, so I doubt that I did it that way.  I didn't rub hard, though.  It seemed pretty clean already.

[samierus · Accepted solution]

Replacing cartridges should not effect the printhead. Just make sure that you replaced the cartridges when you know its running out of ink dont keep it dry for a long time.

if your printhead is in warranty you dont have to pay for a new printhead. Call technical support once before you buy a printhead.

[hiker1659]

My printhead was past warranty when I bought the printer new from HP.  Maybe in that case the warranty period gets extended until the end of the warranty of the printer?  Either way, this didn't happen until a year and a month after the purchase of the printer, so it wasn't under warranty.  I bought a new printhead from HP and installed it.  I had to go through the setup process again.  That solved it!  I cleaned the old printhead some more and tried reinstalling it and it just doesn't work.  It was indeed damaged.  I don't know how it got that way, but it's damaged. 

[jarolf]

This just happened to my printer, too.  I went through the steps of cleaning the printhead and then called Tech Support.  I was told there were no replacement printheads available and my only option is to purchase a new printer.  Not happy.