My HP C7280 printer will not print magenta or light magenta. What do I need to do to fix? I have cleaned printheads several times and removed and reinserted all cartridges.

First make sure you still have enough ink in the cartridge: press the Setup button on the C7280 and, using the up/down arrows, go to "Tools." Press "OK," then go to "Display Ink Gauge" and press "OK." This will display levels of remaining ink for the cartridges.
If there is still enough ink left then you will need to do a full reset:


1. - Press and hold the "*" key.
2. - Press the "#" key and release both keys. Display should say "Enter Special Key Combo"
3. - Press and release in sequence the "1", "2" and "3" buttons. Display should say "Support" and display the FW rev (something like R0631R)
4. Press and release the right arrow button until the display says "System Configuration Menu".
5. Press and release the "OK" button. Display should say "Hardware failure status". If not there already, use the arrow key to select "Hardware failure status",
6. Press and release the "OK" button. Display should say "Hardware failure status: Clear. Press OK to clear".
7. Press and release the "OK" Button. Message changes to "Hardware failure status Cleared. Press Cancel to continue".
8.Press and release the "CANCEL" button as many times as necessary, so that, either the "Welcome to Photosmart Express" screen appears, or, the "Ink System Failure" screen appears. PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO PRINT AT THIS STAGE.
9. Using the Power Button, turn the unit OFF and unplug the power cable from back of the printer and wall outlet. Wait 30 seconds for the power to get discharged and then plug the power cable into the wall outlet first and then into the back of the printer
10. Turn the unit on. The printer may display message "USE POWER BUTTON TO SHUTDOWN THE PRINTER" followed by "PRESS OK TO CONTINUE". Press OK.
11. If the printer has already initialized, then go to the next step. If not, the printer will start the "ONE TIME INK INITIALIZATION PROCESS". Allow this process to complete and do not interrupt. Once the initialization process is complete, the printer will print out a Diagnostic Page.
To verify printer functionality print a SELF TEST PAGE. If SELF TEST prints, then printer is ready for use or Software Installation.

If the problem is still there, or reoccurs, replace the unit: the data communication between the processor of the printer and the printing heads is damaged and this is unfixable.

Welcome to Fixya!

• Make sure you are using HP Genuine Cartridges. Generic ink cartridges does not comply to the standard quality of ink mixture which results to print quality issues and even damaging the printers printhead.
• Check the ink levels of your printer. Magenta ink may be empty already.

• Check the Print Settings. Your settings might be set to Fast/Economical Printing. Put it to General/Everyday printing or choose the best option that corresponds to your printing needs.