HP Photosmart 7520 Won't Print Black.

[johnnyt1]

Hi...I'm new here.

I've got a HP 7520 that's been a gem and hasn't had a single problem. Today I went to print a black and white document and it printed one side of the page while fading to blank on the other side.

I checked my ink meter and it indicated more than 1/2. I tried to print again and it was almost totally faded on one half of the page and the rest was blank. It appears as though the cartridge just ran out of ink. I went to the Settings, Tools, Print Quality Report.  Printed perfectly ...except that the block that was supposed to be BLACK was white.

I installed a brand new ink cartridge...still a blank page. I checked the ink meter and it indicated full. I ran a Print Quality Report and and everything was fine....except for the BLACK BLOCK...it came out white again. All the letters printed in black on the report and were of excellent quality. I ALIGNED the printer and received a message that said: Alignment failed. Cartridges are set to default quality.

I unpluged the printer, waited for a couple minutes and plugged it back in. Powered up and I tried to print again. Same results....blank page. Aligned Printer again...same thing...Alignment Failed.

Does anyone have any ideas? My printer is just over a year old and doesn't get used much. I've changed the Black Cartridge only twice  since I bought the printer new and it was still half full according to the meter.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT*****  I put a new printhead in and it works perfectly. I should note that this printer was four...that's 4 weeks out of warranty!!  I checked the page count...692 pages. I'm a little disappointed about that, but I like the printer...so....I sucked it up.

[007OHMSS · Accepted solution]

Check Solution 6 in particular of this document:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03369392

[JLeithauser]

007OHMSS - this was not helpful. I'm having the same problem but the diagnostic report prints fine.

[johnnyt1]

JL.....

I finally became so frustrated with it, I took the print head out and soaked it in really hot water, I cleaned it completely out, probably took 6 or more washings to get it so the water was clean. I let it sit on my baseboard heater to dry it out, cleaned the contacts with alcohol and put it back in.

Believe it or not, it actually started working again. However, after sitting overnight, it wouldn't work again. I'm sure all the techies are cringing right now.....but I figured I didn't have a thing to lose and I did get to print my documents.

I finally broke down and just bought a new printhead. The printer works like brand new now. I think the printhead was 70 some dollars from HP. I also put brand new ink in the printer, I was just afraid of clogging it up again with the old ink. I had quite a bit of money in it with the new printhead and new ink cartridges, but I really like the way it prints and I am familar with it. For another $200 I could have bought a brand new one, but to tell you the truth, I think my old one is just as good for less than half the money.  You can also get a repaired printhead for about 1/2 price...I didn't do that, but it could save you about $30.

Also, I'm not sure but I think the printer report is printed with the black Photo ink....that's why it still prints the report only and not your documents.

Hope this helps you.

[johnnyt1]

 007OHMSS    

Thank you for the reply. I had found this troubleshooter guide awhile back and wound up having to replace the printhead. It works great now.

Thanks again...I will check your post as a solution.

  .....by the way... I'm a big Bond fan!

[EValley]

I have a HP photosmart 7520 printer that I could not get to align because the black cartridge would not print.  I went to tools and did a clean cartridge on it, made sure the ink cartridge clicked in place and finally after several attempts I was able to get it aligned!  Better than going out and buying a new print head when this printer is only about a year old.

[fryertuck3]

Same problem and second time for same printer.  After far too much time on the phone and attempts to fix, first failure HP sent a new print head.  Now happened again, just outside of warranty.  I bought two identical 7520 at the same time for two homes and the other one failed too.  I donated that one to Goodwill and this one is going to the same place along with the $100 in new ink cartridges.  These 7520s replaced a prior HP model that failed repeatedly.

I switched to Canon in the other home and will do the same here.  I love the convenience these all-in-ones, but I can't waste so much time dealing with the failures.  Hopefully the Canons will have better reliability.

I hope the reviewers out there who rate HPs so highly will pick up the volume of online problems and report that as well going forward.

[roxane]

I'll try this method. thanks

[Cauger]

Same problem

first time i've changed ink

[gboyle105]

guess this is what I have to do  because I have same problem.