New ink cartridges in Photosmart C5180 but still not printing clearly. How do I clean the heads?

[desertflower]

I changed all 5 ink cartridges on my HP C5180 Photosmart All-in-One printer, but the print is still as if I'm out of black ink.  How do I clean the heads and realign them?

[Dragon-Fur]

Hi DesertFlower,

Find below a link to your printer's webpage.  There are manuals, help videos, software, and more.  If you do not have all the software installed that your printer can use, it will be listed in Software and Drivers. 

Depending on your printer and which Operating system you are running, there may be a "Full Feature Software" package for your printer.  The Full Feature Software package (if available, will be listed in Software and Drivers) contains many tools; some of which may allow you to issue cartridge head cleaning instructions and diagnose printer issues from your notebook/computer.

HP Photosmart C5180

I hope this helps.

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[steelpony5555]

When your printer stops printing one or 2 of the colors it means your print head is clogged. Tech support will have you remove the print head and clean the copper contacts on the bottom, but that is not enough. Hold the head in a rag and shake it, lots of ink will come out of the inside. I saw one case where the guy held his print head under hot water till it ran clear. Not sure of the long term effects on the head if you do that. Mine has clogged twice now and it has been ink inside the head.

[Bob_Headrick]

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@steelpony5555 wrote:

When your printer stops printing one or 2 of the colors it means your print head is clogged. Tech support will have you remove the print head and clean the copper contacts on the bottom, but that is not enough. Hold the head in a rag and shake it, lots of ink will come out of the inside. I saw one case where the guy held his print head under hot water till it ran clear. Not sure of the long term effects on the head if you do that. Mine has clogged twice now and it has been ink inside the head.

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I would absolutely suggest not shaking the printhead.  Ink is required in the printhead, and if air gets into the printhead it can cause printhead failure.  See this page for an ongoing discussion.

For the C5180 this is moot, since the printhead cannot be removed to shake it in the C5180 with its permanant printhead.  I would suggest three levels of printhead cleaning as described in Step 3 of this page for the c5180.

[cj_sams]

Hello,

I have exactly the same problem as reported in this post, the black ink in my C5180 printer is not working.

I've searched the posts extensively and run the recommendations in the online help page below.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00707165

The test on the printer show that the print alignment is failing. Cleaning the Printheads via the machine itself do not work and show that the black ink is not working. The diagnostic test sheet confirm that all colours apart from the black are working.

I think that this may have been caused by the printer, which is usually only used occasionally, suddenly  being used heavily for printing in black ink only.

The question is what can be done next?

Thanks for any help offered.