[Ham-Computers] Cleaning Print heads.

Mon, 22 Dec 2003 07:11:29 -0500

Cleaning out the entire assembly where the ink travels often times eliminates
this problem. Easily done, most of the time, with a gauze pad and some rubbing
alcohol. It hurts nothing.	

----------
From: Herb Gerhardt <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [Ham-Computers] Cleaning Print heads.
Date: Monday, December 22, 2003 12:31 AM

I have had several similar problems with my HP DeskJet 932C.  It all of a
sudden had a flashing light indicating a problem.  I checked the ink
cartridges and they were NOT empty.  I cleaned the ink cartridge heads with
Isopropyl Alcohol and that did not help.  I checked the self check
indicators after you open the top cover.  That indicated a problem with the
Black Ink Cartridge.  The ink cartridge was not empty.

I contacted HP.  They sent me a few tips which did not help.  They stressed
NOT TO USE ANYTHING EXCEPT FOR DISTILLED WATER to clean the ink cartridge
heads.  They explicitly stated not to use Isopropyl Alcohol!  If that did
not help, they said I should call their support group but since my printer
was out of warranty, I would have to pay them before I could talk with a
Tech Support Person.  Well, that sucked, I figured that would cost me more
than a new printer so I did not call!  I did not want to pay $30 for a new
black ink cartridge and another $50+ for the color cartridge, and then find
out that it was not the ink cartridge.

Well I finally found a remanufactured ink cartridge at Fred Myers on sale
for $15, so I figured I would try it.  It worked!  My printer now stated
that my color cartridge was bad.  I cleaned the cartridge head again with
plain water and that did the trick.  All worked well and the printer is in
perfect condition again.  I have printed over a dozen photos now and they
turned out just great.

With the price of the ink cartridges, it makes you hesitate to replace them
if you are not sure that it what the problem is, since that can cost over
half the price of a new printer that comes with ink cartridges!  It sure
would be nice if Office Depot, Staples or one of the other major chains
would have a service where people with printer problems could bring them in
and the store would install one of their TEST Cartridges to see if that
solved the problem.  Then to be fair to the store for the service, they
should require you to purchase a replacement ink cartridge from them if that
solved the problem.  I think this would be a great service that would cost
them very little, if anything and would be a great service to their
customers.

Office Supply stores, are you listening?

Herb, KB7UVC
NW APRS Group, West Sound Coordinator
Our WEB Site:  www.nwaprs.org

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Jim Isbell
> Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2003 3:13 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [Ham-Computers] Cleaning Print heads.
>
>
> I have several various ink jet printers that I have retired over the
> years.  Most were retired when the print head got plugged from disuse. I
> have an old HP Laser Jet that I use for B&W and the color printers
> (because of the cost of ink) sit a lot.
> Is there a way to clean a printer head when it gets beyond the point of
> the built in "cleaning" process or in the alternative, is there a way to
> keep the printers sitting around without gumming up?
>
> I have several old Epson and Cannon inkjets that I would like to
> resurrect but Ill be damned if I will pay more than the price of a new
> printer just for a NEW print head.
>
>

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