HP L7680 won't print black, cartridge is new, says it is full, Self diagnostic page says printhead is good

Cleaning the print heads can sometimes help and other times aggravate the problem, because cleaning takes a lot of ink out of the cartridges. If the cartridges are emptied using the cleaning procedure, then the cartridges will have to be replaced with new ones.

The ink jet information provided by hp's software can sometimes be just an estimate of how much ink is in the cartridge and not an actual reading by the electronics. So... Try new ink jet cartridges fresh from a package to see if that solves the problem, and make sure that the contacts are blown free of dust or dirt.

Good luck on this repair.

Same thing happened to my printer hp L7590. Printed diagnostic, only black and yellow printed; diagnostic for printhead health Ky=good, MC= good. Only Hp products ever used. Uplugged, & discharged static, cleaned copper parts of printhead. Still no fix. On visual examination of floor of printhead compartment rectangular pad ( approx 1/4" by 1/2") is missing. I can only guess that during the paper jam, somehow the pad got caught up and went awol. Not sure what to do now.

The error states that you are using non-HP cartridges for all colours. If black prints fine then you should replace the colour cartridges with genuine HP colour carts. You should be able to get a refund on the refills since they clearly do not work as intended.

Yes, you can pop the cover on the right over where the printhead parks, and remove the black/yellow printhead and soak it in about a 1/4 inch deep water for 30 mins or so, you only want the nozzle area on the bottom in the water. However if you are using generic inks it may report a printhead failure soon. After soaking you dab the bottom on a paper towel and look for a solid black line on the towel.

If you print primarily black, your black/yellow printhead may have worn out and needs to be replaced. Go to start, printers and faxes, select the L7680 and then select properties. Print a test page and run the troubleshooter to clean the nozzles and lines. If it's not the nozzles or lines, search for C9381A on google and purchase a new printhead it should be about $70.

There is some problem with your print heads. Run a print diagnostic report and see if it helps. You also may want to trigger clean cartridges if triggering print diagnostic page does not help.
This issue may happen if the printer is not used for few days. Recommend to keep the printer powered on always, or then trigger print diagnostic page as it tries to unclog the blocked print heads to give you a clean print.
Hope this helps.

Print a self test diagnostic page to check the status of the black ink and print heads.

To print the self-test diagnostic page

• Control panel: Press (Configuration Page button), or press and hold the (Cancel button) for 3 seconds.

For models that support networks: Press (Configuration Page button).

If these are all showing OK then clean the printheads

To clean the printheads
If printed characters are incomplete, or dots or lines are missing from printouts, ink nozzles might be clogged and you might need to clean the printheads.

NOTE: Cleaning uses ink, so clean the printheads only when necessary.

The cleaning process takes up to 3.5 minutes. Some noise might be generated in the process.
• Control panel: Press and hold (Power button), press (Cancel button) two times, press (Resume button) one time, and release (Power button).

If this fails then replace the black cartridge and run a clean cycle again and then a self test diagnostic then try printing again.

There are replacemetn parts for the print head, just like there is for the cartridge, though the expense may be more then the printer.

Hi Jan,

Can you confirm that you are using a CIS or non-HP cartridges with this printer?

It sounds a lot like the printhead has reached a clogging point where sediment has built up in the black portion and loosens enough to printer a few lines before it re-asserts itself again.

Based on my experience of this printer, if you're using a non-HP delivery system for ink then you should consider replacing the black ink with a dyebase alternative instead of pigment.. Replacing the Black/Yellow printhead and running a number of test prints to purge the pigment ink in the printhead should then result in a clean and more reliable printout in future.

One other vector for problems is the cleaning area and I've found that this can become soiled with excess ink causing cross contamination within the inks of one printhead. As yet I've not found a reliable solution to counter this sort of issue.

Hope this gives some clues and hopefully some ideas of a fix.

Martin

The HP88 printhead can dry out and cause clogging in the black part of the K/Y (black/yellow) printhead.

This has been a major problem for a few client schools of mine and for me in my attic space where air conditioning and/or hot dry air causes clogging.

You may want to consider purchasing a new printhead and an alternative black ink supplier (non HP) that uses Dyebase ink instead of pigment as this doesn't clog in the same conditions.

However, please note that if you do this it means you may lose your warranty (certainly on the printhead) and the printout won't be as clear for text as the black ink can "bleed" slightly into other colours. It has however solve the problem of clogging in one school that went through 5 printheads in two terms/semesters until we switched.