Procedures for clearing clogged inkjet cartridges and printheads The following information may not apply to all inkjet printers, but it will sometimes save your cartridges, and might salvage the printer also. Here's a trick I've used with some success. Depending on the cartridge, this is for carriage mount styles like HP, Lexmark, Canon (current models) and others. Remove the cartridge and soak the printhead portion, where the tiny jets are located, in a small shallow dish with clear alcohol. Try swooshing it around a bit, and you may start seeing a discharge of the ink color you're using. You may need to repeat the process more than once. Let it soak some more, dry it off and reinstall. If the old ink is dissolved, then the cartridge may start printing, and it will be a little "weak" until the alcohol is mostly evaporated or used up. This is not a guarantee to work all the time, but it's worth a try. The "tank" style cartridges like Brother uses are another story, since they are reasonably priced containers with no printhead. They have a tubular system feeding ink to the printhead on the carriage. Either the printhead nozzles or the tubes could become clogged, and require factory service, or a pretty elaborate set of disassembly procedures to clear the blockages. I have had mixed results, refilling an empty cartridge with alcohol, and allowing that cartridge to try feeding the tubular system, and dissolving the dried ink. If it succeeds, then simply install a new or known good cartridge, and the problem may be solved. I hope these tips will give you a chance to get your printer and/or inkjet cartridges operating again. Regards, Bill

HP88 CARTRIDGE RECOGNITION FAILURES/CAUSES:

The failure to recognize an ink cartridge(s) could either be a possible Cartridge connectivity, PRINTHEAD* connectivity or an end-of-life PRINTHEAD issue.

We suggest you remove all the ink cartridges and thoroughly clean BOTH PRINTHEADS manually along with cartridge chip contact surfaces (located on bottom-rear side of each ink cartridge). Clean all electrical contacts, including those inside the printer which mate to the PRINTHEADS. Reinstall both PRINTHEADS and cartridges and retest. You may refer to HP's 'manual' cleaning procedures here:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=125&prodSeriesId=2511747&prodTypeId=18972&objectID=c00844045

Ensure an "expired ink cartridge" alert state is not causing the issue, refer to this page on how to check & bypass: http://inkjet411.com/?page_id=1384

---- If you observe an "Expired xxxx ink cartridge" alert or message, this error may be bypassed by performing the following:
a. Press and HOLD the Power button.
b. Press Resume button 3 times.
c. Release the Power button

If the cartridge was refilled (i.e. at Costco or Fry's Electronics), following HP 88 cartridge chip replacement and complete cartridge/printhead/printer manual electrical contact cleaning, the cartridge alert message(s) continue, then you may have a damaged PRINTHEAD* (there are two printheads inside the printer) which may require re-priming or replacement depending on problem symptoms.

* The HP 88 ink-series printer models have two electronic PRINTHEADS (each of these electronic devices are responsible for pulling ink from the ink cartridges and then firing the ink droplets onto the paper) - both PRINTHEADS will eventually fail depending on printed content, printer duty cycle (i.e. typically rated for ~41, 500 printed pages depending on image content & frequency of printing). The average inkjet printer can typically be refilled with ~15 to 20 complete sets of ink cartridges over the life of the printhead, after which, either the Yellow/Black and/or Cyan/Magenta printhead will need to be replaced due to internal electrical failure (available at HP.com).

Refer to video on how the HP PRINTHEAD functions: http://inkjet411.com/?page_id=2054
When the PRINTHEAD electronically fails typically the printer will provide an alert message when this happens, but if a printhead has suffered a deprime (i.e. loss of ink/pressure which results in no printing of color), it is possible to recover the system using a 3rd party PRINTHEAD priming tool, such as this one: http://www.inkowl.com/?p=product&product=5035

For advanced HP printer diagnostics or information on ink refilling services, please visit Inkjet411:
http://www.inkjet411.com

Use the HP Printing Assistant software to run a few "print-head-cleaning-cycles".
The BLACK ink-jets are CLOGGED. So, no ink from any of the 3 different cartridges reaches the paper.

hello

go to this link and read all instructions entirely -- follow all procedures

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bpu03037&tmp_task=solveCategory&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=ca&product=3643612&lang=en#N35

Hi,
The single item in an inkjet printer that requires the most attention is the ink cartridge and usually is the cause of uneven, light and inconsistent printing problems. When such problems happen usually the ink cartridge needs to be replaced, but sometimes you may need to inspect the ink cartridges for problems. Ink cartridges can be popped out of the printhead assembly for inspection of the inkjets. if any or all of the jets are clogged, it is possible to clear them by gently wiping the face of the cartridge with a swab. A gentle squeeze of the ink reservoir can also help to unblock the clogged jet.
Hope this helps

Hi!

There are different possible and safe ways to clear the clog in your cartridges..

The basic steps is to clear the clog using the printers software utility that is installed in your computer...how? on your control panel..double click printers and faxes, when your printer icon appear.. right click on it and click properties to bring up the utility..on the maintenance service tab...press the button for cleaning the cartridge.

the second thing to do is flushing the printhead of the cartridge directly from the tap water ....Open your printer cover, remove the cartridge..place the printhead directly on a tap water running slowly. This will help flush the dried ink that clogged in the printhead. Turn the print head over, bottom side up until you see the ink flowed out from the printhead, do this until you see the a smooth flow of ink..(better result if the water is warm).. tap water contains residual minerals that can clog also the printhead..so it is advisable to final flush the printhead with a distilled water (it has no impurities) and dry it with cloth..

The last thing to do and it will take you sometime is to soak the printhead portion of your cartridge in a mixture of ammonia and hot distilled water, (please make sure that the contact point of the cartridge to the printer is not soak).. Place the printhead on the hot water and leave it there for about 4 to 5 hours..move it on different location from time to time..After soaking, rinse it with distilled water and dry it with cloth...

After doing the instructions, return back the cartridge to the printer and do the printhead alignment..

Try printing a test page and see the outcome...


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