Does my unit need a new print head?

Hi all,

My printer is displaying the following message: “There is a problem with the printer or ink system. Turn printer off, then on. If the problem persists, contact HP.” Of course I have tried turning it off and on and doing full power cycles and resets, to no avail.

It’s worth mentioning that there was previously an internal ink leak. The black ink cartridge started leaking and so the printer head was bathed in black ink and it dropped down inside the case and even out of the bottom corner. So that’s what’s caused whatever problem this is, I guess. The ink is now dry and I’ve soaked up as much of it as I can, and removed the leaky cartridge.

Notably if I remove the print head completely, the main menu comes back (and complains about a missing print head, fine). All of the normal functions with, so Wi-Fi, scanning, etc all work as they did before.

Which leads me to the question, is this now a problem with the print head, given that everything seems happier with it removed? If I were to replace the print head with a new one, would that work? I know this isn’t the usual error message for print heads, but maybe it’s broken in a certain way?

Thanks for any advice?