Maintaining Your Printer

This section describes maintenance procedures to keep your printer working at its best and preparation steps for moving your printer. Follow the instructions here for:

■Cleaning the print head (below)

■Replacing an ink cartridge (on page 37)

■Aligning the print head (on page 41)

■Cleaning the printer (on page 42)

■Transporting the printer (on page 42)

For more details, read your electronic Reference Guide (described starting on page 3).

Cleaning the Print Head

If your printouts are unexpectedly light or faint, or dots or lines are missing from the image, you may need to clean the print head. This unclogs the nozzles so they can deliver ink properly. Print head cleaning uses ink, so clean it only if quality declines.

This section explains how to clean the print head using the Head Cleaning utility, which is the recommended method when the printer is connected to a local port, not over a network.

You can also clean the print head by holding down the b maintenance button on the printer’s control panel for three seconds when the b error light is off. See your Fix-it Flix movies or your electronic Reference Guide for detailed instructions.

When you don’t turn on your printer for a long time, the print quality can decline. It’s a good idea to turn on your printer at least once a month to maintain good print quality.

Follow these steps to run the Head Cleaning utility:

1.Make sure the printer is turned on but not printing, and the b error light is off. (If the b error light is flashing or on, you may need to replace the ink cartridge; see page 38 for details.)

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