Pen Alignment Fail on Deskjet 3520

[ryandrews74]

As the title suggests I have got a pen alignment fail message on my 3520. No amount of cleaning will help. The printer is also unable to carry out the Align Printheads function in the diagnostic tools. Any possible solution for this?

[Jeet_singh]

@ryandrews74,

Welcome to the HP Forums 🙂 I would like to take a moment and thank you for using this forum, it is a great place to find answers. For you to have the best experience on the HP forum, you could also visit our HP Forums Guide for First Time Here? Learn How to Post and More.

I understand that you are having issues while aligning the Deskjet 3520 printer. I will certainly do my best to help you with the issue 🙂

To provide you with an accurate solution, I'll need a few more details: 

Have you recently made any changes on the printer before the issue started.

Did you perform the print head cleaning as suggested? If so, did you notice any colors that are missing or in a bad quality?

Let's start off by updating the printer firmware. If your printer connected wirelessly, make sure to temporary connect the device with USB and then follow the link to install the latest firmware update on your printer from our HP support website. For more details on how to update, please use this link: HP Printers - Updating or Upgrading Printer Firmware. Once done, restart the printer.

If the issue persists, I would suggest here is to do a hard reset on the printer and make sure that the printer is connected directly to the wall outlet and not to the surge protector.

With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer and also unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.

Remove USB cable, if present.

Wait for 2-3 minutes, press and hold the power button on your printer for about 30 seconds to remove any additional charge.

Now plug back the power cable straight to a wall outlet without any surge protector or an extension cord and then plug back the power cord to the printer.

Turn on the printer and wait till warm-up period finishes and the printer is idle.

Let’s perform a print head cleaning to make sure the cartridges all are printing ok. Follow the steps below:

1. Load plain, white paper into the paper tray.

2. On the printer control panel, press the down arrow  to select Settings, and then press OK.

3. Press the down arrow  to select Tools, and then press OK.

4. Press the down arrow  to select Clean Printhead, and then press OK.

   The printer cleans the printhead and then prints a test page.

5. Review the print quality on the test page.

   • If the print quality on the test page is satisfactory, you do not need to continue troubleshooting.

   • If the print quality on the test page is unsatisfactory, perform a secondary cleaning of the printhead. If the printhead is badly clogged, it might require another cleaning cycle. If so, wait 30 minutes to start the first stage of the cleaning process again.

Once done, print a new alignment sheet and check:

1. On the printer control panel, press the down arrow  to select Settings, and then press OK.

2. Press the down arrow  to select Tools, and then press OK.

3. Press the down arrow  to select Align Printer, and then press OK.

   The printer prints an alignment page.

4. Place the alignment sheet face down on the scanner glass to make a scan and complete the process.

For more details, please follow the steps suggested in the support document for - HP Inkjet Printers - 'Alignment Unsuccessful' Error Message Displays

Alternatively, you can also try the steps suggested in the support document for - HP Deskjet 3520 Printers - Black Ink Not Printing and other Print Quality Issues

Could you please respond to this post with the details and with the results of the troubleshooting as this will help me in further assisting you.

Eagerly waiting for your response!

that said, If the information I've provided was helpful, 

give us some reinforcement by clicking the solution and kudos buttons, 

that'll help us and others see that we've got the answers!

Good Luck.