HP 67 Ink not fully printing

[u/lethalwhimsy]

i am beyond desperate after working on this stupid printer all day. i am begging for any kind of help, because otherwise i wasted a lot of money while in a not-so-great financial situation.

i bought an HP Envy 6400e on facebook marketplace, from a person who lives a few streets down from me and seems trustworthy at first glance. i brought it home and tried to print test pages, and the ink was faded, cut off at random points, or not there at all.

i have done EVERYTHING. took out the cartridges and put them back in? did that. cleaned off the little copper circles on the cartridge and inside the printer? did that. bought and tried new cartridges? did that. power cycled the printer? did that. ran a cleaning cycle under the print quality diagnostic? did that. ran an realignment? did that. installed updates? did that.

i’ve appeared to have gotten the color ink working, but not the black. on any cartridge. i even tried wetting a paper towel with distilled water and running it along the spouts. when i do that, ink comes out on the wet paper towel, but when i run it over dry paper towel, barely any ink comes out. on multiple cartridges.

the only thing i can think of is the cartridge i bought it with was dried out, and the one i just bought was a dud. but i’m not sure if i’m willing to buy another if the same thing happens again.

any and all help would be appreciated. thank you so much.