Motherboard Forums


Reply
Thread Tools Display Modes

Here's another fix for HP printer problems

 
 





















Roy Lipscomb
Guest
Posts: n/a

 
      04-23-2007, 06:44 PM


Here's a printer fix that I'd like to publicize, but I can't
find a good place on the Web to post it. So maybe someone
here do that for me.

Some HP printers have a strip of "plastic linguini" behind the
printhead. The strip has barcode-like markings that the
printhead employs to position itself precisely.

Most people here know that HP printer problems can sometimes
be cured by simply wiping that plastic strip. I've myself have
used that trick to cure several problems.

But I've had a few problems that couldn't be cured that way.
Most recent was one where I kept getting false "out of paper"
error messages.

My printer, incidently, is an HP 648C.

After I cleaned the plastic strip several times to no avail,
it finally dawned on me that there's another element involved
in reading that guide strip: The electric eye on the back of
the print head. The electric eye can get dirty, too.

So I decided to clean the electric eye.

First, I attempted to slip a wet piece of printing paper between
the plastic strip and where I figured the electric eye is. But
the paper was too thick.

Then I tried putting a few beads of water on the plastic strip,
and then running the printhead back and forth over the wet
spots. While doing so, I pulled the plastic strip forward
to help the water make contact with the electric eye. Then,
just to make doubly sure, I did the same thing again while
pushing the plastic strip in the opposite direction.

That cured the problem.

Before this, I was getting a "paper out" error every page or
two. After this, the problem didn't recur. I've now printed
about fifty pages without any error messages or problems.

Hope this tip is useful to someone else!



--
 
Reply With Quote
 
Bob Headrick
Guest
Posts: n/a

 
      04-23-2007, 07:24 PM
"Roy Lipscomb" <> wrote in message
news:f0iraj$blk$...
[snip]
> Then I tried putting a few beads of water on the plastic strip,
> and then running the printhead back and forth over the wet
> spots. While doing so, I pulled the plastic strip forward
> to help the water make contact with the electric eye. Then,
> just to make doubly sure, I did the same thing again while
> pushing the plastic strip in the opposite direction.
>
> That cured the problem.
>
> Before this, I was getting a "paper out" error every page or
> two. After this, the problem didn't recur. I've now printed
> about fifty pages without any error messages or problems.


Interesting, but a coincidence. The encoder described is related to the
side to side movement of the carriage. There is a similar sensor for the
paper movement direction, but it uses a small encoder disk (a couple inches
in diameter). There is also a paper sensor that uses a sensor that looks
much like the others, but is positioned to be in the paper path. My guess
is that in opening the lid and moving things around to clean the carriage
encoder you probably dislodged a bit of paper debris in the paper path
sensor.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 
Reply With Quote
 
pheeh.zero@gmail.com
Guest
Posts: n/a

 
      05-09-2007, 12:30 PM
On Apr 23, 12:44 pm, Roy Lipscomb <lipsc...@ripco.com> wrote:
> Here's a printer fix that I'd like to publicize, but I can't
> find a good place on the Web to post it. So maybe someone
> here do that for me.
>
> Some HP printers have a strip of "plastic linguini" behind the
> printhead. The strip has barcode-like markings that the
> printhead employs to position itself precisely.
>
> Most people here know that HP printer problems can sometimes
> be cured by simply wiping that plastic strip. I've myself have
> used that trick to cure several problems.
>
> But I've had a few problems that couldn't be cured that way.
> Most recent was one where I kept getting false "out of paper"
> error messages.
>
> My printer, incidently, is an HP 648C.
>
> After I cleaned the plastic strip several times to no avail,
> it finally dawned on me that there's another element involved
> in reading that guide strip: The electric eye on the back of
> the print head. The electric eye can get dirty, too.
>
> So I decided to clean the electric eye.
>
> First, I attempted to slip a wet piece of printing paper between
> the plastic strip and where I figured the electric eye is. But
> the paper was too thick.
>
> Then I tried putting a few beads of water on the plastic strip,
> and then running the printhead back and forth over the wet
> spots. While doing so, I pulled the plastic strip forward
> to help the water make contact with the electric eye. Then,
> just to make doubly sure, I did the same thing again while
> pushing the plastic strip in the opposite direction.
>
> That cured the problem.
>
> Before this, I was getting a "paper out" error every page or
> two. After this, the problem didn't recur. I've now printed
> about fifty pages without any error messages or problems.
>
> Hope this tip is useful to someone else!
>
> --


It is not a good idea to use water on these sensors, as they may short/
over-load other components. Air-in-a-can would be a better choice.

 
Reply With Quote
 
mluiry via HWKB.com
Guest
Posts: n/a

 
      05-09-2007, 02:01 PM
Hi, nice solution I will try that. Actually I recently found a great tech
support site that helped me deal with my printers problems. They also have
free live chat support so I just chat with won of their expert and together
we found a solution.

Here is the page for HP printers Solution:
http://www.fixya.com/support/hp/printers

--
Message posted via HWKB.com
http://www.hwkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/pc-hp/200705/1

 
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Fix for epileptic HP inkjet printer Roy Lipscomb HP 0 07-03-2007 01:15 AM
OT printer problems Fixer Dell 0 06-21-2007 09:36 AM
Here's another fix for HP printer problems Roy Lipscomb HP 0 05-14-2007 03:21 AM
Here's another fix for HP printer problems Roy Lipscomb HP 0 05-14-2007 03:17 AM
HP PSC 1600 Printer sets to default printer Albert HP 0 01-09-2007 07:56 AM


All times are GMT. The time now is 02:32 PM.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43