Photosmart 5520 Black ink not working

[Kelseyirene]

The saga continues...but it is finally over.

Monday night I received a phone call from a very nice man at HP Corporate. He had somehow seen the records of everything that happened with the techs and called me to fix it. I told him the last tech I spoke to said my new printer was on the way (since I did give them my CC and never refused). When he went to check, it turns out all the orders for my printer had been cancelled so I had once again been lied to by technicians (4 times total). He immediately sent out the new printer with free 2-day shipping since I had been waiting so long. It arrived about an hour ago and is now completely set up and the old printer is packed and waiting till we go to FedEx later today to drop it off.

I wish I had been given the option of using my credit card from the very beginning as this way was so simple. I am just happy this is all over and very grateful to the man at HP Corporate who did an amazing job fixing what the technicians had screwed up.

[Pinkthread]

I'm having the same problem and I think it's a software issue.  All other colors are fine and black rectangle does not print at all.  I tried the venting and that appeared to be blocked, but even with the clean, not a hint of a partially blocked ink on printout.

[Zia1]

Fixed it!  I had exactly the same problem with my 5520 and after reading this forum decided not to waste any more time, stress or money on the machine but to use up my stock of coloured ink to print documents that were only for my use and not destined for clients etc. This was going well when I had the idea to bypass the automatic default ie black when printing a document but to specifiacally choose black as a colour. It worked ie it printed black. Whats more from that moment on it printed black when I just relied on the automatic default. Wierd. Haven't tested it when printing off emails or internet stuff yet but was keen to let everyone else have an easy solution before I got swept away with work and didn't get around to posting this. Good luck.

[EDS2HP]

Hi - I tried this yesterday (02/19) and got nowhere with the support person.  They just kept repeating that it was out of warranty and that we could get an upgrade for $70+.  I told them I wanted a free replacement.  I directed this agent to check with her supervisor (pushed on this being a known bug that HP needed to own up to and that it sounded like some agents were doing the right thing).  It didn't work.

At this point we are probably going to proceed with purchasing a new (non-HP) printer and take our chances with that.  I realize that the life expectancy on these things is probably not more than two years, but this unit is being used by a college student (a group that typically isn't known to have much in the way of disposable income).  We purchased what we thought was a dependable product, one that would at least last through the college years.

[MissTeriLynn]

Hi @EDS2HP,

I am so sorry to hear that, and I'd like to help!

I am going to private message you as I'd like to ask a few questions 🙂 If you are not sure how to check your forum messages this post, has instructions.

[Maria_has_HP]

Spoiler

Hello,

I too had the exact same problem.  After reading the last 135 messages spanning over 1 year's time and seeing that as time went on the response from HP seemed to be changing from not our problem, it is an issue with your computer/virus/or whatever to contact HP and even if you are out of warranty, we will do something for you.

I decided to contact HP after running all the diagnostics and standard fixes, copying instead of printing, printing from different devices and printing directly from the machine.  I began my call at 8:30 Sunday morning - calling from Canada.  After only 3 minutes on the phone, I was speaking to a friendly person from the Philippines.  I of course had to run through some of the paces with the tech person, running the diagnostic as directed.  It was determined reasonably quickly that YEP, my printer is not performing its job as intended.  I was then transferred to a supervisor - who did take a bit of time to pick up, but apologized profusely for the wait.  He then told me that they would happily replace my printer and even send it overnight (which is actually 2 days given that we are starting from a Sunday) free of charge.  In addition in acknowledgment of being a loyal HP customer,  he offered to send the exact same printer or offered me a choice of two newer models - one being the ENVY5660.  After doing a quick search - I chose this model - who wouldn't!  2 years newer and currently selling for more than I originally paid for mine! (total time of call - less than an hour)

In any case, I am very satisfied with the service that I received from HP.  I would also like to point out that my HP5520 was already an in warranty replacement once and the unit before that was purchased as an out of warranty replacement for only 68$ (that was a scanner issue).  So yes, HP has some issues with their printers - since 2012 I will now be on my 4th - BUT - I bought the first one, received the second through out of warranty replacement at half the cost and will now be receiving my second in warranty replacement at no cost to me.  So while there are problems with HP, I am sure that one can find faults with the competition too. HP stands behind their product and fixes the problem.  Don't be so quick to bail on HP, their customer support is great!!

[oconnjb]

I am having this exact same issue. Even where the diagnostic test prints back ink, but the test black square is blank.  I have tried is Printer Prints a Blank Page or Does Not Print Black or Color Ink document several times.  I live in the United sStates.  By printer is 15 months old only, and the waranty page doesn't tell me if it is under waranty, but I think the waranty expires in a year. Pleast Miss TeriLynn respond with help.  If not I need to go buy another printer, I hve to get my taxes done and I will NOT buy an hp.

[oconnjb]

Sorry to say this fix did not work for me, I was excited to have something to try, but it didn't work. If I chose the darkest grey it only prints a lighter grey, so I suppose it  is using the other colors? Thanks for the hint, it's more than I can get from HP.

[MissTeriLynn]

Hi @oconnjb & welcome to the HP Forums!

As you've followed the suggested steps and the problem is persisting, you may need a replacement/upgrade.

Contact our technical support team and inquire about a replacement. If the printer is out of warranty then they should be able to offer some assistance in getting an upgraded printer.


This thread will be locked after this post. If anyone else coming across this thread is having the same problem, please create a New Post and include which model HP printer you have, what the issue appears to be, the steps you've tried (include a link to the document if you tried an HP document) and anything else you believe may help the community help you better, thanks 🙂