HP D145 - 'Bad Printheads'

Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

Hi gang,

Help or any suggestions from anyone would be most gratefully recieved
on this one... After a good while's worth of perfect functioning, our
HP OfficeJet D145 seems to be playing up, to the point where it is now
unusable.

To begin with, it starts complaining about 'bad printheads', but for
all 4 of the colours. Removing them, cleaning them and their contacts
with cotton buds and resetting/replacing them (as per the HP KB
ariticle http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc [...] n&lang=en)
doesn't help at all, and the next time I try to copy/print I get the
same 'bad printhead' for each of the four printheads.

Tried replacing them with new ones -- ouch -- and still got the same
error. Thankfully, our local PC World were quite understanding and
gave a full refund.

Secondly, from time to time, either during power up or when it's being
asked to do something, the whole unit begins flashing at me with all
its LED's, and tells me to 'turn power off then power on'. Sometimes
doing so seems to work, but sometimes I'll have to unplug it for a
good few minutes before I get any joy, and even then it won't clear
first time. Temperamental.

Looking elsewhere, I've seen suggestions of earthing problems etc, but
this happens to me even when USB is unplugged.

Any suggestions would be very welcome - are these two 'funnies'
related by any chance? Is there somewhere inside I can check? Has
anyone else witnessed any of these?

Many thanks,

David Mc, Guildford UK.