Troubleshooting Printhead Issues: Why Your Printer Won’t Print After Cleaning

Question:

I watched your video and removed and cleaned my printer’s printhead, but now that I’ve reinstalled it, it won’t print anything — not even a dot. I did 8–10 cleaning cycles, leveled the printhead, and reinstalled it carefully, but nothing does anything. What else could be wrong?

Answer:

It seems you have done a decent job cleaning and also re-installed the printhead but when there is no ink coming out of it, the problem may be an air gap created in the ink lines or a defective seal behind the capping station. So, the first thing is the manual printhead priming. Attach a syringe to the printer’s waste line, and gently pull ink through the nozzles. If you don’t feel any resistance, or only draw air, the printhead may not be seated, or the capping station’s seal may be broken. Conversely, if you feel full-on resistance when you draw ink, the capping station may be clogged and blocking ink from passing through.

The dampers could also pose a potential concern. Look for bent or misaligned dampers, as they may obstruct the ink from flowing, preventing the printhead from getting wet. If none of this resolves your issue, it’s possible that the problem is further in the printhead itself, like internal damage or clogs that didn’t get cleared during cleaning.

Printer problems can be very straight-forward but very hands-on, which makes any attempts to address printer issues a pain. We do not have remote troubleshooting, but can diagnose and repair printers at our diagnostic facility [BCH Technologies Printer Repair Service: https://bchtechnologies.com/printer-repair-service] — Our services are in high demand and are first come / first served, with a short wait time. For self-help, you might go to our YouTube channel (BCH Technologies YouTube [https://youtube.com/@bchtechnologies] and use search to get related videos.