1. Home
  2. Electronics Repair
  3. Repair of HP inkjet printer "Cartridge missing or defective"

Repair of HP inkjet printer "Cartridge missing or defective"

HP OfficeJet 7000 (E809a) wide-format (A3, ledger, tabloid, 297x420 mm,

11.7x16.5 in), 4-colors.

Utility on the computer wouldn't print but instead it reported problems with the cartridge. The cartridge was recent (certainly not empty) original HP.

I presumed it was contacts between the head carriage/cartridge holder and the cartridge. I cleaned both the pins in the carriage and contacts on the cartridge with Q-tip--no joy. I then took pencil eraser to those pins & contacts--no joy. If I had an ink eraser handy I would try that next. But the next for me is a fiberglass burnishing pencil used for cleaning up corrosion on PC boards:

formatting link

4mm/dp/2102028

GENTLY brushed each pin and contact (this is a coarse brush and removes lots of gold if you're not careful), cleaned with Q-tip and alcohol, and reinserted the cartridge.

Problem solved.

Reply to
DaveC
Loading thread data ...

Or misalignment and third time lucky, inadvertently realigning

Reply to
N_Cook

Nice fix. Did you clean the printer contacts, ink cart, or both?

I usually clean the printer with ammonia or alcohol and the cartridge with a pink pencil eraser. The problem is usually NOT splattered ink on the contacts, but rather the grease used to lube the moving head somehow migrating to the contacts. Looks are deceiving as the contacts way look clean, but often are not. Brushing with a brush or cleaning with a Q-tip doesn't seem to be sufficient. I have to take a cloth rag, some solvent/cleaner, and rub to get the contacts clean.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Nice fix. Did you clean the printer contacts, ink cart, or both?

I usually clean the printer with ammonia or alcohol and the cartridge with a pink pencil eraser. The problem is usually NOT splattered ink on the contacts, but rather the grease used to lube the moving head somehow migrating to the contacts. Looks are deceiving as the contacts way look clean, but often are not. Brushing with a brush or cleaning with a Q-tip doesn't seem to be sufficient. I have to take a cloth rag, some solvent/cleaner, and rub to get the contacts clean.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558 


Using an eraser is a very bad idea because the binding material will be left  
behind on the contacts.  Try a stiff brush ( the ones for electronics work;  
they are slightly larger than a tooth brush) with isopropyl alcohol, use the  
70% stuff first, scrub it, then wash it off with pure alcohol.  The let is  
all dry. 

Shaun
Reply to
Shaun

What binding material? I just ran a Paper Mate Pink Pearl 100 eraser over a glass microscope slide. No residue at all. Some rubber particles were seen under the microscope which disappeared when brushed away. I would post photos, but there's nothing to see. I also tried some 91% isopropyl alcohol to see if I could dissolve off something from the eraser. Nope. I'm more worried about scraping off some of the gold plating than leaving a residue.

Incidentally, I don't see much of a connection problem with splatter from common dye based inks. However, the less common pigment based inks seem to leave more residue and therefore make better contact insulators.

Well, that's certainly thorough, but methinks might be overkill. Although I do use alcohol, I prefer dilute no-suds ammonia cleaner for removing ink.

Incidentally, you didn't answer my question: Did you clean the printer contacts, ink cart, or both?

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I presume all your other comments here were addressed to shawn. But I'll answer the one question I can:

Both with alcohol, and only the cartridge contacts in the head using the abrasive pen. That fixed the problem so I didn't touch the cart contacts with the pen.

Reply to
DaveC

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.