HP 5520 can I use colors only to print ?

[Jimself49]

I have given up trying to get print out of the black ink cartridege on m HP 5520. Can I somehow specify using colors only when I print. Thanks.

[Bob_Headrick]

One thing you could do is tell the printer driver that you are printing on Photo Paper, even for printing on plain paper.  This would force color ink to be used for all printing, even black text.  You would probably also want to set the driver for lighter printing if it is an option, printing on photo paper uses more ink than is typically suitable for plain paper.

Are there any error messages regarding the black ink?

[Jimself49]

Thanks for the clever suggested workaround, Bob, but it did not work for me. The two workarounds that I have had success with are changing the font color in a text document or making a photo of the text and printing that. I was hoping there was some kind of setting that only allowed the color ink to be used.

I have tried three different black ink cartridges. No error messages re messages about low black ink.  have gone through all the steps suggested by HP which has used and wasted some of the color ink in doing so. I have done a cleaning of the print head under the black cartridge following a youtube video. There is another video out there about the problem could be further in the guts around the purge pump. The fix is beyonswhat I want to get into.

[Bob_Headrick]

What is your printer model - do you have the Photosmart 5520 or the Deskjet Ink Advantage 5520?

Is your computer a Mac or PC? 

Are you using the HP driver?

[Jimself49]

Thanks for hanging in with me, Bob.  My printer is an HP Photosmart 5520 All-in-One. It’s old and I probably should just replace it, but we use it very infrequently and I’m trying to see if I can make do with just the color ink cartridges operating. I use an Ipad  running OS18.2.1. I tried to update the Ipad printer drivers from the HP Smart App but it would not complete the download. I contacted Hp printer support via online chat to help, but they said they only support real computers.

Thanks again for trying to help me out.

[Bob_Headrick]

Unfortunately, I do not have any experience with Ipad.  Does the driver you are using have an area to select the type of paper?  Are you using AirPrint?  I do not know anything about Airprint except it appears it is compatible with the Photosmart 5520 as indicated in the web page here.  (I found this in a Google search, the HP page with Airprint discussion seems to have been removed.)

Sorry I could not be of more help.

[Jimself49]

Thanks for all your efforts trying to help me out, Bob.

[Bob_Headrick]

Sorry I could not help with the Ipad driver settings, but it may be possible to review what you have already done to address the underlying issue of the black ink not working.

Unlike most printers the printheads in the Photosmart 5520 are not intended to be user servicable.  On the other hand, users faced with a non-working printhead have gotten creative about manually cleaning or replacing the printhead.  I looked at several posts and videos and it appears the Youtube video here should help.  

I would suggest reading all the comments.  One user reports the suggested fifteen minutes of cleaning was not succeswsful (after three tries) but an overnight soak of the printhead did clear the issue.

Please let me know if this works, if not there is some futher work in removing the printhead compeltely that may work.  (The results for that one are about 50-50.)

[Jimself49]

Bob, thanks for pushing me to try again.  I have done a procedure similar to what was described several times with no improvement, but your pointing to a comment suggesting an overnight wet paper towel soak was maybe needed, sent me back for another try.  We will see the results tomorrow morning . . . 

[Bob_Headrick]

For the overnight case I would suggest putting the ink cartridges in a sealed tupperware container with a damp tissue included.  Make sure none of the ink ports, the container walls, or the damp tissue touch each other.