HP Officejet 6500A Plus black ink smears

[King Mustard]

We purchased a new HP Officejet 6500A Plus e-All-in-One Printer (E710n) printer 5-6 years ago.

For a few years, the printer has had an issue printing using black ink.



We only use standard A4 paper.

We've tried the Clean Printhead and Align Printhead Tools on the printer itself.

Any ideas?

 

[The Hat]

Your either suffering from ink starvation in your black cart or your print head is near the end of life.

Its noticeable on your printed sample the further the print travels down the page the more black is missing, you could try cleaning the air vent in case it has got debris in it, or replace the current cart with a new one, I am assuming your using OEM carts and ink ?

If the head is worn out then only a replacement head will fix this issue...

 

[King Mustard]

Your either suffering from ink starvation in your black cart or your print head is near the end of life.

Its noticeable on your printed sample the further the print travels down the page the more black is missing, you could try cleaning the air vent in case it has got debris in it, or replace the current cart with a new one, I am assuming your using OEM carts and ink ?

If the head is worn out then only a replacement head will fix this issue...

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I followed the following video guide to the book but unfortunately, there's no improvement.

Manually Cleaning the Printhead on the HP Officejet 6500 Printer

 

[PeterBJ]

The print head in the HP Officejet 6500A is very similar to some Canon print heads so the same cleaning methods as used for Canon print heads can also be used for the HP, so you could start checking the Canon inkjet printer forum.

Here is a method that is similar to the one from HP on youtube. But in stead of heated water a special cleaning solution is used. You can also use a window cleaner with ammonia instead of pharmacist's cleaning solution.

Not all clogged print heads can be saved, but this method has worked well for me more than once.

 

[King Mustard]

I have printed two different post-clean test pages and placed them side-by-side.

It appears the issue is not occurring at the same locations.

This happens on various systems that send pages to print, so it's not software related.

I now believe the printer has developed an actual fault.

 

[PeterBJ]

I think some nozzles in the pigment black section of the print head are clogged. This is best seen in the bar code in your first test print. I have attached a zipped test document that should be better at showing if the error is caused by clogged nozzles in pigment black. Please print and scan and upload the "HP pigment black test" document.

 

[King Mustard]

I think some nozzles in the pigment black section of the print head are clogged. This is best seen in the bar code in your first test print. I have attached a zipped test document that should be better at showing if the error is caused by clogged nozzles in pigment black. Please print and scan and upload the "HP pigment black test" document.

 

[PeterBJ]

The test print shows that some pigment black nozzles are partially or totally clogged. Notice the constant vertical distance between the errors in the vertical black bars. Cleaning might save the print head. I suggest trying the method I linked to. If the cleaning does not work, then it looks like new print heads are available, but is it worth spending maybe 77$ for a new print head for a 5 years old printer?