HP PageWide 477dw, Printhead black problems after Level 1&2 cleaning, adjusting and manual cleaning

[TIPS1-2_3]

To get to TAP 21 was originally posted on this Forum by DEEPAK:

"Please access the Service Menu by tapping the back arraow 4 times ( usually it would be "off"status on bottom left corner) by tapping the same area.
Go to Reports Menu >> Print Mech Tap Test >> select OK >> using the arrow to get the desired value (Tap 21 or Tap 23 ) by selecting or getting the respective number >> click Ok.
Perform the steps up to 2-3 times if you see a progressive result on first attempt.
Note: this process will consume more amount of ink."

Good Luck!

[E_P_E]

I worked at HP for 8 years and their is a general management code to not admit issues. I've seen this issue a lot on both the Pro Xs and the Pagewide models. 

Sometimes I believe it's air and sometimes I think it's gooey ink getting back on the printhead from the spit roller (there is wiper blade under the front of the duplex / waste ink tray that builds up with ink and some of it eventually slips by the wiper blade). The duplex / waste ink tray does not need to be replaced but it needs cleaning far more frequently than HP implies with their replacement recommendations. You can open the front of the tray and clean the ink off the roller or you can just keep allowing the front area to fill with hot water and agitating aggressively ... this will remove the gooey ink from the wiper blade. After cleaning allow to sit leaning on it's side for most of the water to drain from the pads. Dry and can be reinstalled.

If the gooey ink did find it's way onto the printhead about the only way to clean it is to use a very wet folded pad of a paper towel (shop towel quality is best). Use distilled water, a good printhead flushing fluid, or even distilled water with some windex sprayed on. The pad should be like 8 layers thick and about a 1" square or rectangular so you can move it along the printhead surface. Where there is a quality drop really wipe well and even push the wet pad at that location to get some wetness into the nozzles that can be blocked or clogged.  It is very very important that the pad be almost dripping wet because the nozzles need to be cleared and the water.

After this cleaning the other colors may actually look worse until you then run a cleaning or recovery to get ink back into the nozzles. 

I hope this helps. 

[TIPS1-2_3]

Boah...E_P_E,

thank you so much for getting on to this long lasting and constantly lasting issue! You might have read a post where I was warning about a remedy which is like yours with the real wet wiper. At least for all sufferer this means that there is this remedy by wiping with real wet wiper along the print-head. I will try it again since I never touched the printer again but have another one to cure from similar issues. I am really thankful encouraging me to try this again and I will report the result. E_P_E...please stay tuned because many of us will need your help.

Best & Ciao...

Bernd

[E_P_E]

Bernd,

Your welcome.  When the black is dropping like that and there is some evidence of smearing / ink spray at the top edge of the print quality bar it's typically something impacting the nozzles which almost always needs to be wiped off and from what I've discovered only a very wet pad of good paper towel or lint free paper towel works well for this. Its like you want to put additional pressure on the drop locations to get some of the water to push up into the nozzles. 

Are you do this you do typically have to run an additional head cleaning or printhead recovery (this was a function in the Pro X service menu but not sure if it's even available on the new Pagewides ... HP hopefully integrated it into the head cleaning processes because it was a very effective tool at keeping the heads primed. 

Be sure to clean your duplex / waste ink tray every 10,000 pages or so. I've run these printers without the spit roller in the tray and believe that is just a better solution but this could increase the ink mist inside the printer or inside their air filter that is designed to pull that mist out the back of the tray (you can see the port on the back side of the tray that goes to the air filter chamber).  Not having the spit roller just eliminates the chances of gooey ink getting back onto the printhead surface. 

Good luck with this.

If anyone know if these so called "tap test" are a replacement for the "printhead recovery" process on the Pro Xs that would be very helpful.

I do want to take a second to comment about HP. I worked there for 8 years and I find it totally pathetic that they have no one that steps up anymore to help customers resolve what are KNOWN issues. 

[edit] that does the right thing even if it means admitting that a product isn't perfect.  These printers have great potential but they decided to cut some corners on the design and it's the reason these issues do not get resolved....they just cross their fingers that most of the printer get past warranty. I would welcome some at HP contacting me to discuss this poor behavior by the company. I'm at [edit] if someone (maybe even in management) wants to discuss this. If I were still there I would HELP the customers and not ignore them!!!! Oh but then I would be breaking with policy. Sad. 

[Cheron-Z]

@E_P_E

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