Officejet 5220 dies after just two years - prints nearly blank pages

[Sprky19]

What is the deal with HP quality these days?  I've run through several HP printers in the last decade that crapped out within just a few years, under very light usage (fewer than 100 pages/year).  The latest is this Officejet 5220 that I bought in 2022.  Everything appears to work as normal, but the pages emerge almost entirely blank, or only with a bit of blue ink showing.  I've run all the diagnostics and nothing works.  The HP cartridges are new and show plenty of black and color ink remaining.  Cleaned the nozzles like ten times in a row; no difference.  Printed alignment page, it's so faint it's almost blank.  None of the bot and auto-help tools can fix the problem.  Of course, the warranty expired in 2023.

So I'm just supposed to throw it into the massive pile of e-waste?  The **bleep** product is engineered to die in 2-3 years no matter what?  What happened to this once-great company, they only produce garbage products now?  So I guess I have to buy another printer, but it certainly won't be an HP after getting burned multiple times.  Very frustrating.

[A_Gayathri]

Hi @Sprky19 ,

Welcome to The HP Support Community.  

Thank you for posting your query, I will be glad to help you.
 

I completely understand your frustration. Printers should last longer, especially with light usage. The symptoms you describe—faint or nearly blank prints despite new cartridges and multiple cleanings—suggest one of the following issues:

Possible Causes & Solutions:

Clogged Printhead (Even After Cleaning)

• Try a deep cleaning or manually clean the printhead with a lint-free cloth and distilled water or isopropyl alcohol.
• If possible, remove the printhead and soak it in warm water for 10-15 minutes.

Air in Ink Lines or Dried Nozzles

• Run multiple printhead cleanings (you've done this, but sometimes it takes over 10 cycles).
• Print multiple color-rich test pages to force ink flow.

Defective or Expired Ink Cartridges

• Even if the cartridges are new, try replacing them. Some HP ink cartridges have been known to fail early.

Firmware Update or Downgrade Update the firmware on an HP printer

• HP firmware updates sometimes introduce problems. Check if a recent update caused the issue.
• Try rolling back the firmware, if possible.

Refer to this document: HP printer prints blank pages

I hope this helps. 

Take care and have a good day.

Please click “Accepted Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

[Sprky19]

Thanks, I will try these steps.  I'm not sure I can find the print nozzles to soak them in water, but I will check.  Running more printhead cleanings is easy enough (the fact that some pages print blue ink and nothing else seems to indicate the print head still works).  I hate to spend another $50+ on new ink cartridges if the problem is with the machine itself, especially when new printers are a couple hundred bucks.  I'm not sure I know how to roll back a firmware update or even what firmware is; this is a consumer product that shouldn't require a lot of technical expertise.  

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions; I shouldn't have to throw this away after a couple of years of very light usage, but by the same token all of the troubleshooters failed to find anything wrong, which is obviously not helpful.

[Sprky19]

How do I find the “print head” - what is that?  I removed and reinstalled the ink cartridges, but I could not see any printhead or nozzles underneath where the cartridges sit. Nor could I remove any more pieces of plastic. Where are the printheads located?  Thanks. 

[ferRX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIIBzUeZ2K4&ab_channel=TricksTipsFix

[Sprky19]

Thanks, I’ll give it a try!