Clean the printhead
If your printed output is streaked or has any incorrect or missing colors, the printhead
might need to be cleaned.
There are two stages of cleaning. Each stage lasts about two minutes, uses one sheet
of paper, and uses an increasing amount of ink. After each stage, review the quality of
the printed page. You should only initiate the next phase of cleaning if the print quality
is poor.
If print quality still seems poor after you complete both stages of cleaning, try aligning
the printer. If print quality problems persist after cleaning and aligning, contact HP
support. For more information, see HP support.
NOTE: Cleaning uses ink, so clean the printhead only when necessary. The
cleaning process takes a few minutes. Some noise might be generated in the
process. Before cleaning the printhead, make sure you load paper. For more
information, see Load media.
Not turning the printer off correctly can cause print quality problems. For more
information, see Turn off the printer.
To clean the printhead from the control panel
1. Load Letter, A4, or Legal unused plain white paper into the main input tray. For
more information, see Load standard-size media.
2. From the Home screen, press the (Setup) button.
3. Using the buttons on the right, scroll to and select Tools, and then select Clean
Printhead.
To clean the printhead from Toolbox (Windows)
1. Load Letter, A4, or Legal unused plain white paper into the main input tray. For
more information, see Load standard-size media.
2. Open Toolbox. For more information, see Open the Toolbox.
3. From the Device Services tab, click the icon to the left of Clean Printheads.
4. Follow the onscreen instructions.
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Solve a problem
To clean the printhead from HP Utility (Mac OS X)
1. Load Letter, A4, or Legal unused plain white paper into the main input tray. For
more information, see Load standard-size media.
2. Open HP Utility. For more information, see HP Utility (Mac OS X).
3. In the Information And Support section, click Clean Printheads.
4. Click Clean, and then follow the onscreen instructions.
To clean the printhead from the embedded web server (EWS)
1. Load Letter, A4, or Legal unused plain white paper into the main input tray. For
more information, see Load standard-size media.
2. Open the EWS. For more information, see To open the embedded web server.
3. Click the Tools tab, and then click Print Quality Toolbox in the Utilities section.
4. Click Clean Printhead and follow the onscreen instructions.