A question for the HP Deskjet 3520 regarding Ink Levels

[Erica_Crowe]

So, I've had this printer for a good while now. Barely used. My mother was actually using it last year with no problem, primarily for printing documents (black ink/monochromatic). Then we stopped using it for about a year, all the ink is dried up, of course... So I bought the correct black ink to replace the one that was low.

Installed it, set it back up, no errors, everything seems fine. However, when I try to print a black/monochrome doc out, nothing appears on the paper.

I cleaned the printer head etc, still nothing.

So I guess my question is this: Do I need to replenish ALL the color ink cartridges, not just the black, in order to print black monochromatic documents?

I read that SOME HP Printers require all ink levels to be above "low," but couldn't find the exact answer for this model. 

I already returned the black ink single to Staples, but I am now wondering if it needs ALL the ink colors in order to work. I'm worried to buy more ink in the case that there is something wrong with my printer though. 😕 It's difficult to return items in most cases for me.

Thanks in advance.

(Serial number is: [Personal Information Removed]- If that helps) 

[Valsimot]

Don't buy ink because that will probably not fix your print quality issue.

If the cleaning process you started didn't make the printer to print anything in black ( or color) on the paper it's time for a new printer.

[Erica_Crowe]

Alright. It's strange though, because there are no errors... And it's impossible for me to check since I am out of all the other colors just as well. I actually thought about it, because I was looking at Epson printers and it mentioned that they require all colors in case of air bubbles appearing (?), even if you only wanted to use the black ink. 

I think I'll go ahead and try one more thing out since it's going to go in the bin anyways. I'll post up here if it works just in case someone else comes across this post with the same question.

[Erica_Crowe · Accepted solution]

Ladies, Gents, Theys, Thems. I have actually found a solution and it's a weird one, so here you go:

Since I was just about to give up on this printer, I went ahead and bought some unopened "expired" ink from ebay for cheap. 2017.

After finding multiple videos on youtube about how to clean the printer head on this model, I cleaned the inner part where the cartridges are loaded, as well as the bottom (with alcohol). Let it dry, and then loaded them back in, used the machine's cleaner function and ran out some test pages:

Colors look super crisp and clear, and FINALLY there.. is... BLACK!!!!!! ... Or, gray, at least.

So I'm ecstatic, right? I excitedly open up a word doc on my Surface to run through a black and white test sheet.

Print and... Nothing!?

WHAT!?

I'm angry so I take a break. Then I run some more test pages directly from the printer, this time with the easy calendar print. THERE's BLACK (gray)!!! But why isn't it printing out from my computer???

So I download the HP app on my phone, print out some black text pages and this time... THERE IS BLACK (or gray I guess).

I then go back to my PC and print from there, and it goes back to blank pages when I print black. So bizarre!

So this seems to be a Windows 10 issue, and perhaps I need to upgrade the firmware..? I feel a bit worried to do that, as I hope it won't freak out at me for using expired ink cartridges (I think I read that happening on another model).

So yeah. If anyone needs this info, here you go:

-Lookup youtube videos on how to clean the printerhead for this exact model of printer.

-Expired ink DOES work, and if you're uncertain if your printer is broken or if it's your ink clumping up, try the latest UNOPENED date you can find from ebay or marketplace. Run several test sheets after you install that ink. Check to see if the black ink isn't dried up also by rolling a q-tip over the inky part if you need to.

-Try printing from your phone rather than your PC. This is really strange, but this worked for me. I am going to try to find out if upgrading the printer's firmware prevents you from using expired ink, but I suspect it needs to update and that might be why? I never really thought that it could be Windows 10 related, but I WAS using this printer on Win 7 back then, so I guess it seems possible?

[Valsimot]

Your black is still not working, the grey you getting is combined with cyan magenta and yellow.

The printer can combine 3 colours to print in grey very close to black if you print anything from a computer that is black you will get an empty sheet.

Go to your computer open a word type some text and print it you will get the empty paper, print the dame document but this time set in the printer driver you are printing on photo paper that will make printer combine colours and your text will be printed in grey.