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Posted on Jan 13, 2009

How do I clean the printer heads for the HP K550

My printer is not printing complete pages

  • jspiels9 Mar 30, 2009

    There is no option in the Services tab of this printer to clean or align the printheads. I've had 4 of these printers serviced and replaced and all continue to have the same problems. on the Print quality diagnostics page, [Hold power button, press cancel (X) once, resume four times, then release power button] it tells me that all printheads need cleaning and linefeeds need calibrating. Too bad there is no option to complete this from the services tab.

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  • Posted on Apr 11, 2009
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1. Remove printhead for offending color.
2. Soak printhead area in 1/4" of warm water for about one minute.
3. With a dry paper towel lightly wipe the printhead length wise.
You should get two continuous color bands either black/yellow
or cyan/magenta.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until you get two continuous color bands.
5. Replace printhead in printer print several blocks of each color.
6. Repeat from step 1 until it works.
7. all else replace printhead.

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  • Posted on Mar 27, 2009
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I have installed a new print cartridge but still some lines are 'faded' and others have the top half of the letters missing. I cannot find an instruction to clean the print heads.

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  • Posted on Jan 13, 2009
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You should be able to go to Control Panel through your operating system and navigate to "Printers" once, there you should see the available printers installed to that local machine. Right-click on the printer you are having problems with and go to "Properties" once there, you should be able to tell the printer to run a cleaning on the print heads, and re-aling them and everything. Further questions, email me at kyle (dot) mancuso (at) eatel (dot) net

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Related Questions:

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My HP Officejet Pro K550 is not printing the cyan (blue) ink. It has a new cartridge. I've run print quality pages and configuration pages -- no cyan shows up. I cleaned the printheads and no c

Do a test print...
assuming you have done multiple print head cleans... if it fails to print ANY cyan, I'd guess the print head is dead... although to be honest im not an expert with this hp printer. if that is the case, it probably isnt worth repairing.
If it does print some cyan, just missing, you may be able to find info, sorry, I cant help you there, on accessing the service or maintenance mode and doing a higher level clean, if your printer supports that.
As a last option, disassembly and soaking the bottom of the print head in cleaning solution /water... overnight, without getting ANY water on any contacts, then re running print cleans.

good luck

in my exp, again, not with this printer, mind you, if a print head fails to print ANY ink for a given colour, the print head is usually faulty.

Hope this info helps
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Possible that the printing head is defective or the head is clogged.
A repeated head cleaning must show a result or else try a manual cleaning before the head can be confirmed .
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print a alignment page and do all the printer cleaning options in menu also,,if u cant find,,go to control panel,,printers ,,select properties and ther is option ,,check hp website also
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Check the Print heads and clean them if neccassary.
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Hi drglass1 -

13,000 copies - that's awesome! although you've surely fixed this problem by now, for future refs or someone else searching for an answer... you might find this ref hp support helpful. happy printing!

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00458018&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&rule=35557&product=501369

Step 4: Clean the printheads
If the print quality is still bad, clean the printheads:
1. Make sure the printer is loaded with unused white paper.
2. Open the printer Toolbox and select the Printer Services tab.
3. Click Clean Printheads . A Clean Printheads window opens. Click Level 1 Clean .
4. Examine the page that prints for print defects.
a. If there are no defects, click Exit . Stop troubleshooting here .
b. If there are defects on the page, click Level 2 Clean . 5. Examine the page that prints for print defects.
a. If there are no defects, click Exit . Stop troubleshooting here .
b. If there are defects on the page, click Level 3 Clean . Note that Level 3 cleaning uses a lot of ink – it is not recommended if the cartridges are low on ink. - JW50
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I cannot Print

Buy a differently branded printer. I have had the K550 for two years and have had nothing but problems, frustration and time wasted.All in all I have had in working for a couple of months at most. Numerous printhead cleaning exercises and paper thrashed. A tortuous waste of hours of my time (and I mean hours) trying to get it up a going. Each time I left teh printer idel for a couple of weeks, the whole printhead cleaning circus began again. Read the reviews on other websites. This model is a complete dud. Nothing can be done to salvage it. If still under warranty ask for your money back. Otherwise bring it to a recycling centre,
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Hold the far button on the right down for a minute and it will move the head over for access
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First with a clean soft cloth and a very small amt of alcohol clean off the underside of the printer carridge (the holder for the print heads) also where the print heads cleaning station is clean out any large masses of congealed link. Then remove the ink cartridge in question and with a pencil eraser gently rub the contacts and both the cartridge and the carridge replace the cartridge. Using the software tools for the printer clean and align the printheads ( if there is an option to do so). If this dosn't fix the problem try a different ink cartridge.
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