Have you ever come across a problem with your inkjet printer where it suggests that something is amiss with your printheads?
It’s something that is quite common but something that does confuse many people.
Recently we came across Sophie on Twitter, who appeared to be getting close to the end of her tether with her printer! So we wondered if we could offer some assistance:
@sophiehannah95 Oh dear, Sophie. Perhaps we can help? What seems to be the trouble? GM — TonerGiant (@TonerGiant) January 15, 2015
Sophie told us that her printer was a Kodak ESP 3200. She said that she’d managed to resolve her problem after posting about her frustrations, but was still confused as to why she was having difficulty in the first place:
@TonerGiant have managed to sort it now but kept saying print head was missing when it wasn’t 🙁 — Sophie Churlish (@sophiehannah95) January 15, 2015
This is actually quite a common problem, not just with the Kodak, but many other inkjet printers, too.
Firstly, it’s worth explaning what the printhead does. Essentially its job is to shoot ink from your cartridges onto your page. You place your ink cartridges on top of your printheads when you open your printer.
Now, in our experience, when error messages relating to a printhead or printheads occurs, it sometimes works to remove your ink cartridges and then reinserting them:
@sophiehannah95 Sometimes with things like this it’s worth taking your cartridges out and then reinserting them; that often does the 1/2
— TonerGiant (@TonerGiant) January 15, 2015
@sophiehannah95 trick. If you have trouble with it again let us know and we can look into it properly for you 🙂 2/2 — TonerGiant (@TonerGiant) January 15, 2015
And this is exactly what Sophie did. But then she asked this:
@TonerGiant I reinserted it twice then it worked. Tho I was wondering do I need to buy a new print head with cartridges?
— Sophie Churlish (@sophiehannah95) January 15, 2015
Now this is something that many people ask us. With this particular printer you cannot buy a replacement printhead in this country direct from Kodak or a supplier. It’s worth noting that you can for other printers, however it’s not something that’s particularly commonplace and many manufacturers advise against doing this.
But you can clean your printheads. It’s incredibly easy for ink to dry on the end of the printhead nozzles and cause a clog, especially if the printer isn’t used regularly. So here’s what we advised Sophie to do:
@sophiehannah95 No you can’t replace print heads. But you can clean them. If it’s a regular problem it’s possible that your print heads… — TonerGiant (@TonerGiant) January 15, 2015
@sophiehannah95 might be slightly clogged, or some dirt that’s interfering with them being read correctly. If you go to your Kodak printer..
— TonerGiant (@TonerGiant) January 15, 2015
@sophiehannah95 software on your computer, under the help toolbar, there’s a section called maintenance where you can select to clean… — TonerGiant (@TonerGiant) January 15, 2015
@sophiehannah95 print heads. Give that a go 🙂 GM
— TonerGiant (@TonerGiant) January 15, 2015
As one final thing you can do, you can always take your printhead out and reinsert it to see if it has the same effect as removing and reinserting the ink cartridges did for Sophie. Kodak outline exactly how to take your printhead out in this post, as well as in the video below:
If you’re still having trouble with this problem, leave us a comment below and we’ll be happy to help you!
About Stuart DeavallI have been working in the printing industry with TonerGiant for over 16 years, and I'm the resident technical printer expert, helping people fix their printer problems for over 14 years. I have taken part in many training courses with HP, Samsung, Brother, Canon and Xerox to further my knowledge, and I'm also the Digital Marketing Manager at TonerGiant.co.uk (degree qualified).
I am still having problems after reinstalling carriage, ink cartridges and unplugging printer.
Hi Kathleen, this could well be a problem with the print head not working any longer which could mean it needs to be replaced.
I am still having problems with loose or missing printed even after reinserting it multiple time and trying three different new ink cartridges. Now it also says black ink not in right and cannot get rid of that error. Ready to chuck whole thing out the window
I’ve only ever had this happen on the Kodak of this model. Less than 500 pages, and it looks like this thing is now a paperweight. I’d say never buy another Kodak product, but that’s a moot point, isn’t it?
Honestly, by the time you’ve replaced the print head and the ink involved, you would be better off buying a new printer.
My Kodak esp3250 stopped printing black. No error messages, just stopped printing black ! As I hadn’t used my printer for a while I put it through the built in head cleaning process several times. Still not printing black so I soaked the printhead in a shallow bath of water to soften any dried up ink. Still not printing black but no error messages. I bought a replacement printhead and on fitting it got a message telling me that the printhead was loose or missing. I have taken it out and replaced it several times with no change in the message. I have tried new cartridges in both the old and the new printhead. With new cartridges in the old printhead the printer will not print black but there is no error message. With new cartridges in the new printhead I just get the ” printhead loose or missing ” error message. I am now at a loss as to where to go from here. I would be the first to admit that I am not the best of people where computers are concerned but feel that I have tried all the usual ways of solving my printer problems.
Hi there, it might sound like a stupid question but are you sure all clips or protective strips are removed from the new print head? You must be fitting it correctly or the old one wouldn’t work when you put it back in but it sounds like either the new print head is being blocked in some way or it’s faulty.
I have an esp 3. 2 can I clean the print head with warm water, dry it and put it back?
Hi there, whatever you do, don’t submerge it in water though! You can clean them with a lightly dampened lint free cloth.
I got a printer of my mother in law which she has had a few years but never managed to get it workings. It has never been used.
It’s saying printhead loose or missing
It sounds like you have a damaged print head. You can sometimes buy replacements depending on the model of printer.
i keep on getting the printhead loose or missing. i have installed a new printhead but still getting same message.
Hi there Derek, I’m not very familiar with the kodak printers but it could be a memory issue where the printer doesn’t realise the part has been changed. You’d have to hard reboot it by powering down and unplugging for 10 – 20 minutes and powering back on. If that doesn’t work, it could be a further technical fault with the print head connections.
I have cleaned, removed and replaced the the printer head multiple times, and still get error code, head missing. Have found replacements, may try that route. Can not seems to find any other answer.
Hi John, it sounds like there is some other mechanical fault at play connecting the printer to the print head. Unfortunately, if that’s the case, it’s not likely something that can be fixed.
Hello John
May I ask where did you get the new print heads from?
I’m assuming you have a Kodak printer.
I have tried some of the ones from Ebay, they are useless.