NEED TO REPAIR MY HP 1610- CARRIAGE JAM!!!

I had the same problem, but the carriage was jamming on the right. When the carriage is in the right, there is a component that moves front and back under the carriages to clean them. The rails that this component moves on were covered with sticky ink and so it wasn't moving freely. I disconnected the power and used q-tips with mild cleanser to remove the ink from the rails. This fixed the problem.

I found out the sponges underneath the carriage's resting place were soaked, and actually had a pyramid of black ink that was gumming up the carriage. It's a good thing HP's ink is so cheap! Wait ...

Mine turned out to be a very easy fix -- and may help reduce problems in the future. Total cost of about $4. You need disposable gloves; a $2 pint of rubbing alcohol; a cheap piece of Gladware or similar plastic container cheap enough to throw away without feeling guilty; and a sink that isn't terribly precious.
-- Put on a pair of medical gloves, or kitchen gloves you'll never use again
-- Get a disposable Gladware container -- the 4-ish-cup one, lower profile, is ideal.
-- Pull out each of the sponges. They may stick. Note which way the notch on the color sponge faces.
-- Plop the sponge into the Gladware. If you have a -lot- of ink on top of the surface, you may want to rub 'em on a newspaper or scrap piece of paper first to get the globs.
-- Plop 'em back into the Gladware, upside down (ink-heavy surface to bottom).
-- Put Gladware in the bathroom sink you don't like much.
-- Slowly pour in almost an entire pint of rubbing alcohol (70 percent, for ~$1.99, worked great). Keep a little in reserve.
-- Using your gloved fingers, keep scraping the sponges against the bottom of the Gladware. Occasionally pick the sponges up, squeeze them out, repeat as necessary. Eventually, they will start to look white -- unlike your alcohol, When they're relatively clean looking and can hold some liquid, you're done.
-- Pick up each sponge and squeeze the liquid out. Set aside in the sink and outside the Gladware, being sure it can't wash down your drawn.
-- Strip off a glove. Use your clean hand to turn on the -hot- water in your sink. It will start to overflow the Gladware, sending an ink-water-alcohol mix down your drain.
-- Let it run. Let it run some more. And more. And then flip over the Gladware, dumping out all the inky water. Let the sink run a full minute more -- keep that liquid flowing out.
-- Put the sponges under the running water; let 'em soak, squeeze out, soak, squeeze out.
-- Splash water and use your hands to rinse away any splashed inky spots in the sink.
-- Splash the reserve alcohol into your hands to clean them, and wipe down the sink again.

This is simpler than you'd think - it's due to the rubber "parkers" under the cartrdiges' rest position being mis-aligned. Solution: 1.Whilst Printer is on, remove power cord 2. Remove power cord from AC outlet 3. By hand, move print cartridges to the left 4. Pull rubber "parkers" under where the cartridges were fully towards you. Now move the cartridges by hand left-to-right to ensure no further obstruction. 5. Connect power cord to printer 6. Connect power cord to AC outlet 7. Switch on. You may need to re-align print heads at this point but carriage jam will be solved.

My printer is working okay now, thanks to a thorough clean-out with a toothbrush..there was a lot of gunky ink collected underneath the cartridge on the right hand side. This might have been caused by a leaky cartridge, but it was messy and gummy and therefore the cartridge wasn't moving forward and backwards (as opposed to left and right) smoothly.  See if this works for you, Eilla,

Thanks "jhv550" - solution #7. That was exactly my fix - it seems that ink jet printers need a little "spit cup". I used que tips and rubbing alcohol to clean the area. Note - there is a little "rub" rail at the top - clean that too - the little rubber parkers "rub" on the rail - apparently to clean themselves up.

Check to see if there is a thin plastic strip behind the carriage. It will be clear, and will run along the belt that moves the carriage. If not, that\'s most likely it and it will have to be replaced, the printer that is

Of course you can always throw your hp printer out the window and go buy a Kodak printer...less problems, ink is less expensive, I feel better just thinking about it! :)

Unplug your printer, move the bay to the middle, turn it back on and it works :)

If none of the above mentioned techniques fix the issue then it is an HP Hardware Malfunction. I went thru this all and ended up doing an online chat with an HP tech and those were his exact words. HP will try to sell you on another HP printer if you go thru them. I suggest just not buying HP stuff anymore. :)

Before you try any of these other solutions, do this: 1 - with the printer ON, unplug the printer's power cord and usb cord, 2 - open the printer, 3 - move the cartridge to the middle, 4 - close the printer, 5 - plug usb and power cords back in, 6 - turn the printer back on 7 - run cartridge alignment (or just print something), should work fine now, more effective than cleaning or calling tech guys, although that may be the ultimate solution if this doesn't work.

I think this is HP's built-in obsolescence. My printer is
immaculate~~showroom condition~~conveniently just out of warranty. I engaged in a technical chat for 1 hour and 20 minutes with a HP technician trying to solve my carraige jam problem. His conclusion was that I needed a new printer.

I have a HP 1610 and have a carriage jam. Help!!

I had the same problem with a consistent "carriage jam" message on my HP 1610. I too discovered a stalagmite building up from the sponge on the bottom. I LOVE the internet... googled, found this site and boogerhead1 Solution #9 fixed the issue!

I just want to thank you all. Especially 'inkstain' solution # 3. I have a HP 2610xi and I love it. First time I have had a problem. Aside from the good solutions about the ink goo build up under the ink cartridge, the statement about the cartridge wasn't moving forward and backwards caught my attention. Cartridges move left and right. My cartridges were moving left and right just fine. But I couldn't understand why the gears were grinding and the paper tray would not rise to feed the paper to the rollers. I cleaned out the ink goo and re-started the printer still no luck. Kept poking and then finally say the carriage below the ink cartridge carriage move forward and backward. I knew I had found the problem - and the printer works fine. I will have to do a little better cleaning but at least I am up and running.

My HP 1610 was giving the "carriage jam" error message, I checked the HP site and the troubleshooting tips were not helpful. The carriage was attempting to track from right to left and it seemed to me it was being blocked by the a curved plastic"guide" attached to the drive mechanism / gears at the bottom left side of the carriage. After many failed attempts by the pritnter itself to move, with the power on, I physically forced the carriage to the left, over the "guide" and toward the middle of the printer. At that point the printer took over and reset itself, with the gears and "guide" in the proper alignmnment and now it works fine.

My problem was the same as jhv550 (solution 2). I followed his/her instructions except that I used Q-tips and rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol and I also cleaned the extrermely overfilled ink overfllow collection sponges as Boogerhead 01 (Solution 9) suggested. The result was fantastic. The printer worked and no more "Carriage Jam" messages. The cleaning did take about 2 hours. Thanks for all the input.