Hi,
I recently changed printheads (they dried up after I unintentionally had the printer off for a while) and upgraded firmware on my A909n to the latest version (R1344A). I'm now using third-party pigment ink since the printer sucked dry over $100 worth of HP cartridges while trying to clean the printheads. As expected, the printer now displays the ink volumes as empty (even though the re-filled cartridges are full), but still allows me to print.
Originally (before these changes), the pririnter used to be asleep most of the time and wake up briefly once a day or so to pump some ink through the printheads to keep them from drying up. Since all these changes, the printer doesn't sleep much. Most of the time the touch screen stays on when idle (although it will go to sleep for an hour or less periodically). Also, I haven't heard it automatically clean the printheads as before (it does if I manually instruct it to do so, or if I reboot it).
I tried doing a full reset on the printer (#+9), unplugging all cables (except for power), resetting the power supply (by unplugging it from everything for 5 minutes), plugging the printer directly into the wall (instead of via a surge suppressor), turning off all nearby RF sources (like the wireless router), setting energy save mode to on and off, and downgrading the firmware to R1006B (I am not sure what firmware version was originally on the printer bought in 2009 or where I can get one to downgrade further). None of these steps have helped with the insomnia problem (mine or the printer's).
So my questions for the HP experts are:
Is this likely an upgraded firmware issue?
Can I obtain the original firmware that shipped with the printer?
Can the false ink-empty status cause the printer to behave differently (e.g. not automatically clean the printheads)?
Are there any other steps I can take to diagnose/solve the problem (aside from spending another ~$100 on HP ink)?
Please don't tell me to call the main HP support line. Last time I did, the only advice I received (from somebody in Asia) was to buy a new HP inkjet printer. Ha!
Also, mostly un-related:
Is the latest firmware known to kill printheads? After cleaning and using one of the old printheads for a little while, it died (with a burnt-chip smell and a system-locking error message) suspicioulsy soon after I upgraded to R1344A. I saw in the firmware log that one of the changes had to do with extending printhead life. Is this by chance done by pumping more ink through them and/or pumping it harder?
- Inco