In a normal situation, the Printhead should ONLY ever be replaced when advised by the Printer. If Print Quality is poor, the first step should ALWAYS be to perform the Troubleshooting procedure (Refer to » How to Use the Troubleshooting Procedure) which will determine whether the Printhead needs replacing or not after performing various levels of recovery actions.

The minimum life expectancy of the Printhead is anticipated to be 530cc for the Black Printhead and 200cc for the Color Printheads, provided that the Printhead is used under normal operating conditions (using HP Ink Cartridges only) and its "install before date" has not lapsed. However results vary depending on the print quality setting being used.

There are 3 circumstances when you need to replace the Printheads which are explained as follows:

Printhead Error message. When this message appears, the Printer has determined that one of the Printheads has experienced a problem and should be replaced. If this message appears repetitively, refer to » Troubleshooting Repetitive Printhead Error Messages.

Printhead Error (unknown) message. When this message appears, one of the Printheads has experienced a problem but the Printer does not know which one it is.

In order to identify and replace the failing Printhead, try the following:

Select replace Printheads from the front panel.
Open the Carriage cover and remove ALL the Printheads.
Reinsert the Cyan Printhead only and close the Carriage cover and the Window.
Check the front panel - if the status of the Cyan Printhead is X or ? then the conclusion is that the Cyan Printhead is faulty and must be replaced. If the status of the Cyan Printhead is OK the conclusion is that the Cyan Printhead is working correctly. Repeat the process from step 1 for the other Printheads to identify which one is failing.

Printhead Warning message. When this message appears (normally appears when you check the status of the Printheads by selecting the Ink Menu), the Printer has determined that one of the Printheads has worn out and should be replaced.

The Printer normally determines this when:

The Printhead Alignment fails due to a faulty Printhead and the Printer tries to recover the Printhead (upto 3 times) but is not successful after the 4th attempt at the Printhead Alignment (or if the recovery process or the Printhead Alignments are cancelled).
The Troubleshooting process is performed but the Printer cannot recover the failing Printhead even after performing the maximum recovery action.

NOTE: The user can continue using the Printer even with the Printhead Warning message but will not get the maximum Print Quality that the Printer is designed to provide, unless he replaces the worn out Printhead.