6520e Not Printing Black

[Russ_Haskell]

Suddenly, printer will not print black.

Have replaced black cartridge twice and replaced all color catridges with HP genuine cartidges.

Supply levels are reported as good. The Print Quality Diagnostics page shows good color blocks for CMY. but just a white (empty space)  block for Black. The Align Printer lines  are extremely faint.

Have cleaned print heads twice.

Have rest printing system in Printers & Scanners Preferences.

Thanks for any advice.

[8lives · Accepted solution]

You will need to use rubber gloves if you attempt the following.
Remove power to the printer.
There is a little mesh filter below the black cartridge. 

Dab it gently with a Q-tip moistened in hot water.
It may take a few tries to get the mesh filter unplugged. 
Do a 'clean' operation in between attempts. 

[Russ_Haskell]

Thank you for that fix. Back in business.

 It worked the first time  – using very hot water and 2  QTips.

I really appreciate your help on this.

Russ

[abqtuba]

I have cleaned the mesh filter three times and cleaned the printheads at least half a dozen times, but the black is still not printing properly.

Incidentally, the instruction said to clean the mesh filter with the power off, but with no power on the cartridges retreat under the cowl and are unreachable.

[8lives]

@abqtuba, take a look on youtube for info on cleaning the printhead.