Repair of HP inkjet printer "Cartridge missing or defective"

Or misalignment and third time lucky, inadvertently realigning

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.

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.

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?

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.