HP PRINTERS ISSUES

Hp printers I purchased a 6500hp Office jet, and it lasted less than a year......won't print black....reloaded new cartridges, and it won't print black. Bought a HP 5520, and after the first cartridge won't print black or colors. Is there a way to clean heads? They are both a POS, can anyone recommend a solution? I am using factory cartridge, no refill. Kinda frustrating!


TIA

Jim W

I'm not familiar with those exact printers but you can clean the heads by pulling the cartridges and wiping the bottom with a lint free rag dampened with alcohol.

Wipe the heads dry and replace.

If that doesn't do it make sure that they are seated firmly in place.

OK you need to know that the print head is separate from ink cartridges.  Replacing the ink cartridge won't fix your problem if you don't look at the print head.  I don't know what is wrong but if you have separate print heads and ink cartridges problem could be in printhead.

To clarify a point inexpensive printers combine ink storage and printhead in one throw away unit. The units Jim mentioned are officejets and separate the ink from the printhead for a variety of reasons and these units cost more and are made for office work. Cheap AIO units will have combined ink and printhead.

Thank YOU, JRM and Zed. The 6500 HP and the 5520, have the same issue, won't print in black and neither printer made it thru it's 2nd set of cartridges. We will give the alcohol a try. For me, printer performance gets worse every year. My 1st HP lasted 6 years, crashed in MX in 2009. I've had a Kodak, purchased in GDL., it died while under warranty.....good luck on that one.

Zed, Looks like we are rapidly moving to use the ink, throw away the printer era.......LOL

Jim W wrote:Thank YOU, JRM and Zed.   The 6500 HP and the 5520, have the same issue, won't print in black and neither printer made it thru it's 2nd set of cartridges.   We will give the alcohol a try.    For me, printer performance gets worse every year.  My 1st HP lasted 6 years, crashed in MX in 2009.   I've had a Kodak, purchased in GDL., it died while under warranty.....good luck on that one.  

Zed, Looks like we are rapidly moving to use the ink, throw away the printer era.......LOL

Actually, you are not far off. They will give you a printer to sell you the ink. When you figure out just what a gallon of that ink costs you, you will have a heart attack. Probably the most expensive liquid on earth.

Some of the printers now have a chip so you can't just refill the cartridge without resetting the chips.

I have an old HP Laser Jet and buying cartridges from HP cost 50% of what I paid for the printer. Luckily, they can be refilled in Guad.

jrm30655 wrote:

Jim W wrote:Thank YOU, JRM and Zed.   The 6500 HP and the 5520, have the same issue, won't print in black and neither printer made it thru it's 2nd set of cartridges.   We will give the alcohol a try.    For me, printer performance gets worse every year.  My 1st HP lasted 6 years, crashed in MX in 2009.   I've had a Kodak, purchased in GDL., it died while under warranty.....good luck on that one.  

Zed, Looks like we are rapidly moving to use the ink, throw away the printer era.......LOL

Actually, you are not far off.  They will give you a printer to sell you the ink.  When you figure out just what a gallon of that ink costs you, you will have a heart attack.  Probably the most expensive liquid on earth.

Some of the printers now have a chip so you can't just refill the cartridge without resetting the chips.

I have an old HP Laser Jet and buying cartridges from HP cost 50% of what I paid for the printer. Luckily, they can be refilled in Guad.

   

Right on jrm, I have donated 3 printers so far, cause they don't work and in Mexico, warranty, can be a nightmare.....

Jim W wrote:Thank YOU, JRM and Zed.   The 6500 HP and the 5520, have the same issue, won't print in black and neither printer made it thru it's 2nd set of cartridges.   We will give the alcohol a try.    For me, printer performance gets worse every year.  My 1st HP lasted 6 years, crashed in MX in 2009.   I've had a Kodak, purchased in GDL., it died while under warranty.....good luck on that one.  

Zed, Looks like we are rapidly moving to use the ink, throw away the printer era.......LOL

Understand what you are saying but my six year old L7590 runs and runs and runs. I don't know what I will do when my beast stops running. Buy a throw away I guess but I would miss the features of the officejet like duplex printing and such.

Z

If yooou cartridges were bought in a different country than your printer, chances are they will not work. In other words; cartridges of the same number bought NOB, won't work in a printer bought in Mexico even though the numbers are the same. There is a way of resetting your printer to take out of country cartridges, but you have to call H.P. and have them walk you through it. My source? Direct communication with H.P. upper level people.

You CAN refill ink cartridges, including HP with a syringe/needle. It's always best to top off the cartridge w/5ml ink rather than let it go dry.

As for the chip, the memory in HP printers honly holds 2 or 3 codes showing the cartridge is used; if you put some old cartridges of the same # in and change them 2-3 times, then your latest cartridge will show as new. My source: You tube.

When you refill a cartridge, let it sit overnight so the ink will "settle" and any air will rise. You may have had air introduced into the cartridge somehow. My sorce: Ten years of refilling cartridges.

You can clean the print head of a cartridge with a utility that's built into the software. Google it for your printer.

My solution for me at least: I'm getting a LASER printer (not an H.P.) since in 98.6% of the time, I only need black and LASER cartridges are reasonably easy to refill.

FYI: Most HP cartridges are chanbered so they look larger, but in reality and as an example, in an HP 122 cartridge, there are 2 ml of ink, at the most in the sponge. And if you want to know how much 2 ml is, check a 5 ml syrenge. My source: The cartridge box and having dissected several HP cartridges.

About the above, I'm not clueless.

Thank You all for your recommendations. The HP5520 photosmart heads are not easily removed and not recommended. I took the black cartridge out and saturated the head with alcohol and left a q tip in the black head soaked in alcohol over night.........all is good.

The HP office jet 6500a has removable heads and is a piece of cake to remove......soaked them overnight and all is good both printers work.

Now I discovered a network issue with the 6500. Both are wireless, the 5520 works, but the 6500 won't connect to the wireless modem, or connect to the computer. ( We just switched to cable) Any suggestions? TIA, Jim W

The printer probably wants you to re-enter the modem password or number for the new modem. We had to do that recently, even though the modem had not been changed. Sometimes they ‘forget‘. We had to find ‘wireless‘, then the setup wireless wizzard and follow the prompts on the printer‘s tiny screen. They do not make it real convenient.

You correct RV....nothing is ever simple. I've done all that and NADA. I am wondering if I remove the printer and re-install. To the next question, since we lost our disk, how can we do this?

Jim W wrote:You correct RV....nothing is ever simple.  I've done all that and NADA.  I am wondering if I remove the printer and re-install.   To the next question, since we lost our disk, how can we do this?

google
HP printer (Number) + Driver and it should take you to the HP service center where you can download everything you need

I had the same problem Jim.
Removed the black cartridge, reached in to the printer and wiped off where the cartridge rests, and all was OK.
Sometimes the simple things work.

Post on the HP facebook page if you can't resolve the problem. A technician will contact you really, really quickly.