I don't know how to clean my printer head? - HP Photosmart C4280 Aio Printer

I know this is years old, but just in case someone else has this problem....

I just had this problem and fixed it quite easily.

Like you, my ink cartridge flooded the ink bay and caused the printer to complain about a pump stall.

Mine was fixed by taking the cover off (u don't need to) and cleaning all the ink off the white strip.

Basically, there's a white piece of plastic with a metal rectangle on it. it sites to the left of the thing under the print heads (the part doesn't move. Under the big part with all the print heads) and to the right of the paper rollers.

It's also the thing that stops the print heads from moving when they're not to be moving.

Mine was covered in black ink. I cleaned it off and turned on the printer to find it working again and no more "pump stall" messages.

I don't know what the plastic piece is for, but cleaning it fixed my problem. Also there's no "pumps" in the printer (it uses gravity to feed the ink).

Put the black ink cartrige nozzle in warm water and wait several minutes.I don't know if this will work in your case but you should try it. I had similar situation and this helped.

with the help of printer head cleaning utility clean the head and also check for alignment of the head

Hi, You don;t have to take the print head out. Just do a cleaning by ( clicking on printer properties and sellect the maintenance tab and run clean print nozzles). Good luck

When it comes to printer issues, there are few things as frustrating as expecting a clearly-printed document and ending up with something that looks like a cross between a Picasso and a Rorschadt blot. If you notice that the print quality of your documents has decreased considerably or if you are bringing an old inkjet out of retirement, you need to clean the print head to ensure you?re getting the best from your printer. A dirty or clogged print head will hinder a regular flow of ink from the ink cartridge to paper. The first step is actually knowing where the print head is and what it does. As you print a document, ink droplets leave the ink cartridge through the cartridge?s nozzle and go to the print head. The print head then lays the ink on a precise point on the paper. As you print, tiny droplets of ink can get stuck around the print head opening. If these drops get time to dry, they can form a crust around the print head opening and cause it to print poorly. Clean It With Software There are a few ways to go about cleaning the print head. Potentially, the easiest way is to let your printer clean itself. Many inkjet printers will have maintenance options in the printer?s software that will actually clean your printer for you. We used a streaky Canon BJC-80 for our testing, and the driver we installed on our system for this inkjet had quite a few maintenance options. (Keep in mind that the process for cleaning your specific printer?s print head may be slightly different than what we?re describing here.) To check these out in Windows XP, click Start and then Printers And Faxes. Right-click your printer and then Printing Preferences. This displays the Canon Bubble-Jet BJC-80 Printing Preferences dialog box, which houses various layout and print-quality preferences, as well as the printer?s maintenance options. Click the Maintenance tab to view what your printer can do from a software perspective. Our printer has two cleaning modes?Cleaning and Deep Cleaning. Cleaning isn?t quite as time-consuming as the Deep Cleaning mode, but Deep Cleaning mode does a more thorough job and can resolve some issues that the normal Cleaning mode can?t. Just click the proper cleaning mode to start it and let the cleaning process run its course. You may have to do this a number of times to get the print head clean. If you don?t see a maintenance tab, it doesn?t necessarily mean your printer doesn?t have a self-cleaning function; it just means that it doesn?t use commands from your computer to do it. For instance, on the BJC-80 you can also start the cleaning process by holding down the Resume button until you hear two beeps. Check your printer?s manual for ways to clean your print head. Clean It Yourself Some software bundles that come with printers have cleaning functions that you can use to clean your print head. If the built-in cleaning functions don?t seem to do the job, there are a few ways to clean your print head manually. Some swear by isopropyl alcohol, while others believe in just plain ol? water. When used correctly, either can help your printer perform better. First, remove your ink cartridges from your printer and then dip a cotton swab in hot water or isopropyl alcohol and rub it against the print head. This should loosen any crusted ink. Some printers, such as many Canon models, feature removable print heads that give you easy access to the print head and its nozzle(s). Many other inkjet printers don?t have this feature, so you?ll have to do your best to work around parts in your printer. Be careful, especially if you use isopropyl alcohol to clean your print heads: Some printers use rubber gaskets; if you get isopropyl alcohol on the gaskets, it could dry them out. If you have a removable print head, remove the ink cartridge from the print head and take the print head out of your printer. Put some isopropyl alcohol or hot water into a saucer and set the printer head in the saucer. Let it soak for at least an hour. If it?s really dirty, it might be a good idea to let it soak overnight. Let it air dry, reinstall it in your computer, and run a cleaning cycle. This should get rid of any dried ink that was loosened during the soaking.

When it comes to printer issues, there are few things as frustrating as expecting a clearly-printed document and ending up with something that looks like a cross between a Picasso and a Rorschadt blot. If you notice that the print quality of your documents has decreased considerably or if you are bringing an old inkjet out of retirement, you need to clean the print head to ensure you?re getting the best from your printer. A dirty or clogged print head will hinder a regular flow of ink from the ink cartridge to paper. The first step is actually knowing where the print head is and what it does. As you print a document, ink droplets leave the ink cartridge through the cartridge?s nozzle and go to the print head. The print head then lays the ink on a precise point on the paper. As you print, tiny droplets of ink can get stuck around the print head opening. If these drops get time to dry, they can form a crust around the print head opening and cause it to print poorly. Clean It With Software There are a few ways to go about cleaning the print head. Potentially, the easiest way is to let your printer clean itself. Many inkjet printers will have maintenance options in the printer?s software that will actually clean your printer for you. We used a streaky Canon BJC-80 for our testing, and the driver we installed on our system for this inkjet had quite a few maintenance options. (Keep in mind that the process for cleaning your specific printer?s print head may be slightly different than what we?re describing here.) To check these out in Windows XP, click Start and then Printers And Faxes. Right-click your printer and then Printing Preferences. This displays the Canon Bubble-Jet BJC-80 Printing Preferences dialog box, which houses various layout and print-quality preferences, as well as the printer?s maintenance options. Click the Maintenance tab to view what your printer can do from a software perspective. Our printer has two cleaning modes?Cleaning and Deep Cleaning. Cleaning isn?t quite as time-consuming as the Deep Cleaning mode, but Deep Cleaning mode does a more thorough job and can resolve some issues that the normal Cleaning mode can?t. Just click the proper cleaning mode to start it and let the cleaning process run its course. You may have to do this a number of times to get the print head clean. If you don?t see a maintenance tab, it doesn?t necessarily mean your printer doesn?t have a self-cleaning function; it just means that it doesn?t use commands from your computer to do it. For instance, on the BJC-80 you can also start the cleaning process by holding down the Resume button until you hear two beeps. Check your printer?s manual for ways to clean your print head. Clean It Yourself Some software bundles that come with printers have cleaning functions that you can use to clean your print head. If the built-in cleaning functions don?t seem to do the job, there are a few ways to clean your print head manually. Some swear by isopropyl alcohol, while others believe in just plain ol? water. When used correctly, either can help your printer perform better. First, remove your ink cartridges from your printer and then dip a cotton swab in hot water or isopropyl alcohol and rub it against the print head. This should loosen any crusted ink. Some printers, such as many Canon models, feature removable print heads that give you easy access to the print head and its nozzle(s). Many other inkjet printers don?t have this feature, so you?ll have to do your best to work around parts in your printer. Be careful, especially if you use isopropyl alcohol to clean your print heads: Some printers use rubber gaskets; if you get isopropyl alcohol on the gaskets, it could dry them out. If you have a removable print head, remove the ink cartridge from the print head and take the print head out of your printer. Put some isopropyl alcohol or hot water into a saucer and set the printer head in the saucer. Let it soak for at least an hour. If it?s really dirty, it might be a good idea to let it soak overnight. Let it air dry, reinstall it in your computer, and run a cleaning cycle. This should get rid of any dried ink that was loosened during the soaking.

its the problem of print head in your printer. You are not the only one facing this problem there are many other users facing this same problem.in canon printer users out of 10 users ---- 8 users face this problem.
Now I will explain the problem
In the printer where you insert the cartridges is called carriage.in the carriage there is a part called PRINT HEAD. In the print head there are tiny – tiny holes from where the ink passes.when you insert the cartridge in the carriage /head of the printer the ink from the cartridge passes from the head.but if the head is got blocked then the ink will not pass from the head and you get no print out still with the new brand cartridges.now in the printer there is a in built cleaning assembly , so when you give the command of cleaning from your pc/laptop the inbuilt cleaning assembly tries to clean the blocked ink in the tiny holes of the head.but if the ink is got stuck up hard the cleaning assembly in the printer does not have that much power to clean the ink in the head.the other procedure to clean the head is a manual cleaning.in this procedure the head needs to be removed from the printer by disassembling the printer.but in this case out of 100 only 4 to 5 heads gets cleaned and start working but that also don’t last long.its not any guarantee that how much the manually cleaned head will work.
In some cases it has been seen that ink gets used only in cleaning but after inserting new cartridges the printer starts working.if you have inserted new cartridges in the printer and still don’t get any printout then its advisable that you go for any other brand printer.hp is the best brand of printer. Or the other option is you take the printer to local printer repair shop to get the head manually cleaned if you at present don’t want to invest in new printer.a repair center have some special tools to clean the print head its 50 ---- 50 Chance.you can try that first.
This will help. Thanks please keep updated.please do rate the solution positively .thank you for using fixya

Hi
Gave it a good clean out clean under where the inks site.

Some times it needs a good clean up but this is up to you if you want to do this I put down here. But after you don this prime the printer so it gets the inks back in the heads, it may take a little time for the inks to work.

Ok it got to be the heads blockage
There is fluid cleaner for this but I can never find any in the shops the only ones I seen is when they sell them in Tesco but they come in with the ink refill bottles so I just use worm water by it self on a cloth and dabbing on the heads to clean them, it will not harm the heads but not to much water.

Some heads are on the inks them self but some have them inside the printer so I not know your printer so if the heads are inside you need to get them out you may find that some heads will just clip out put some need to be unscrewed so you got to know how they come out so be careful and not push to hard on them, if the heads are on the ink then it is a easy job to clean them,
It worth a try it worked for me more than ones.

Please all I ask is call back and just gave a vote, it will gave me some satisfaction to know am helping some one, so I will keep on helping.
All The Best: Pineworks

i think there is problum in ur cartridge cas adoptor , clean cartridge circuit plate and put cartridge then try