• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

HP 365 "Printhead Missing"

GB2

Old Member
I had a failing carriage belt on my HP 365 so yesterday I replaced it with a new belt assembly according to the service manual. Unfortunately, the service manual tells you to unplug all the flex cables and remove the PCA board, which in hindsight I don't think was necessary and I did find it a little challenging to plug all those flex cables back into the board. After completing the job I turned the printer on and now I'm getting the message "Printhead appears to be missing, not detected, or incorrectly installed", then it tells you to "do a printhead replacement one at a time and close the door after each one". This really doesn't make sense as I've removed and reinserted all the printheads at least 20 times, one by one...all together...but when you do it one by one do you do it with only one printhead in the machine or do you leave all the printheads in and just reseat one at a time? The machine doesn't do the same thing each time, sometimes the carriage moves back and then comes back for another printhead replacement and sometimes it simply tells you to open the door again. I have also restarted the machine at least 20 times too but no matter what I do however, I can not get the machine to get out of this loop and recognize the printheads. Does anyone have any idea what might help me out in this situation? Thank you!
 

balstestrat

Problem Solver
Yeah for future do not remove the cables.

I don't remember exactly what it tells you to do but just try to follow the instructions. Just insert one and see what it does. Then keep that in and the next one.

Most likely you fucked up with the cable so figure out which one and reseat it. If it doesn't solve it, new printhead.
 

GB2

Old Member
Actually you were one of the primary people I hoped would respond as I've seen your answers to similar questions and you seem to know what you are talking about, so thank you. I'm not sure though why you are saying to possibly get new printheads if you think the cable may be screwed up? I was thinking that in fact that if it is a problem with having removed those flex cables, my worst case scenario would be new flex cables and/or PCA board. I don't know if they are even available, if they are cost effective to replace and whether that would even work though. I'm hoping that there is some other diagnostic route I can take before doing that.
 

balstestrat

Problem Solver
The thing with the printheads is that sometimes the machine gets cranky and even if you had a printhead that was working perfectly fine before, you take it out and plug back in... it won't work any longer.

So... just recheck the flex cables, you can get new ones but don't cancel out the possibility of just needing to replace a head. It's a consumable after all, should be replaced before any actual parts.
 

GB2

Old Member
I have two unopened expired printheads....do you think I should try one to test your theory? I can't imagine it would be a problem if I need all new printheads anyway and might confirm that would be the fix. I'm not excited about trial and error testing a whole new set of printheads...that could be a $1000 down the drain.
 
Top