Hey Wally,
Kudos are in order and I'll do that in a moment. As for the printer challenge. I'm further ahead with your assistance than before.
Soooooooo,
I used the info you sent and diligently cleaned the printer areas (surgically speaking) and through the dissection discovered what looked like a lot of ink residue left over from days gone by. Using only distilled water as specified, and carefully noting the mecahnical assembly with a view toward correct reassembly i am now fully qualified to go where no man should go.
After reassembling the print head and placing the cartridges in the printer the problem cleared for a full minute but on "test print" it threw a new error displaying the message that the print head was damaged. Likely by the corrosive effect of the ink sitting on the contacts for so long but noneltheless a good sign because it's modular. next step will be to order another from HP or swap one in from a working 6500 on the shelf.
Anyway, thanks again and this can now be added to the fix archive and is less of a mystery than first thought.
Regards,
TAS