New Photosmart 5520 won't print in black

[pgrahamlaw]

I just got this printer this morning, and this was the first issue I had - black ink wouldn't print or was stripey and grainy. The other colours were fine. After inspecting the black ink cartridge against the others, the Stickling problem became clear: when I had opened the cartridges for the first time, the black ink pull strip hadn't fully pulled away and the vent was almost completely blocked.

A couple of seconds with a pin weedling away the plastic covering the vent sorted the issue. Black ink flows like the Styx, no more issues.

[oktoberrust11]

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@Janet3 wrote:

This worked for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f57jOGj-G5s

Was really worried after reading all the negative coments but finally got my black back!

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This right here. Watch the video, these steps worked for me. I dabbed and ran the cartridge track over 2 sets of damp paper towels, until all the gunk/old ink was gone. Plugged it back in, did a print head alignment, and bam, good blank ink again.

[Jan9255]

Hi support, hi All,

I am having the exact same problem with my 5520 printer.

The print quality diagnostic page however contains quite some black and is correctly printing all text in black

also the frames boxes that show the 4 colors are printed in black, no problem. 

However, the box that should show the black 'color' is empty, while the other boxes contain their resp. colors correctly 

I am using geniune print cartridges and went completely through following troubleshooting without any results.

Printer Does Not Print Black Ink or Color Ink, or Prints Blank Pages. 

This all happened after I have moved and I reconnected the printer to a new wireless network.

My guess is that the problem is not a physical problem as the printer is printing well some diagnostic pages.

I my opinion (as an IT expert) I believe the problem to be a firmware problem.

After I have connected the printer to my new wireless network and enabled e-services on the printer, a firmware upgrade must have taken place. I can see that the setting for this is set to automatic. After this upgrade, the printer stopped printing in black. 

Is there a way to install the previous firmware version and where can I find it?

best regards,

Jan

[Sunshyn2005]

Hi @Jan9255, 

My own personal recommendation, not one of HPs, is to use the solution offered in the following video.  I only suggest doing this if the printer is out of warranty; How to fix a HP Printer, not printing black ink and missing colours 

Based on the comments, it looks like this will help 

@King_Zog wrote:

I tried most of the suggestions in this thread, but stopped short of disassembling the print head. Nothing worked until I saw the video referenced in Sunshyn2005's message. That did work, but not on my first try. For the second attempt, I left the wet paper towels in place for a couple of hours to really soak the print heads. That did the trick.

So, thank you Sunshyn2005, for pointing me to the solution.   - Source

Although the printer might be out of warranty, if the issue persists, HP may be able to offer you something. Maybe they can offer you a discount on an alternate model. What you can do, is use the following link to create yourself a case number, then call and it may help speed up the call process:

Step 1. Open link: www.hp.com/contacthp/
Step 2. Enter Product number or select to auto detect
Step 3. Scroll down to "Still need help? Complete the form to select your contact options"
Step 4. Scroll down and click on HP contact options - click on Get phone number

Case number and phone number appear.

If this resolves the issue, please let me know so we can help others who may be experiencing the same issue.

[Sunshyn2005]

I tried most of the suggestions in this thread, but stopped short of disassembling the print head. Nothing worked until I saw the video referenced in Sunshyn2005's message. That did work, but not on my first try. For the second attempt, I left the wet paper towels in place for a couple of hours to really soak the print heads. That did the trick.

So, thank you Sunshyn2005, for pointing me to the solution.   - Source

[Jan9255]

Hi Sunshine,

I also bumped into this video just after I sent the previous post and hav tried it.

Let me retry and soak the printhead in water for a couple of hours before I come back to you.

regards,

Jan

[Jan9255]

SOLVED !

Indeed the problem was a clogged printhead and not as I first suspected a firmware problem.

I got mislead by the fact that the printer was printing black text well, but did not print anything in the black testfield of the Quality checkprintout...

I used the technique from above video since printer was not under waranty anymore.

I have soaked the printhead as in the video but had to do this much more intensive. I used a part of a sponge soaked in water befor moving teh printhead on top. then had to move the printhead left and right, and reapeated these steps about 20 times. I also left the wett sponge under the prinhead during the night while the print cartridges were removed.

My printer is working well again, however, I have lost more than half of all my print XL cartridges... quite expensive compared to the cost of a new printer.

Also I find that HP needs to find a solution for all these printhead probems. Before, when the printheads were part of the cartridges, HP made the difference..., nowadwys, I am not sure.

I have 2 HP printers, both having printhead problems. Never had thins with my old HP deskjet printers.

Printheads should be easily removeable or cleanable.

[BRITTONE]

MY 5520 PRINTER WILL NOT PRINT ANY BLACK.

I HAVE REPLACED ALL CARTRIDGES WITH GENUINE REPLACEMENTS BUT STILL NO BLACK TEXT