HP Printer 5510 - No Black Ink Printing

[hanknjoycew]

My 4-year-old HP Photosmart 5510 All-in-One suddenly won't print in black. It will sometimes print black text if I select Color. I have tried all the tricks on the printer menu, the HP Users Forum and a couple YouTube video's. Also tried new ink cartridges. Communicates well with wireless router. Before I get mired down with HP Tech Support (or just buy another printer) has anyone experienced this issue? I am 50 miles from any computer support store.

 

Hank

SKP 67414

2005 Mandalay DP

2012 Honda CRV

At home for the summer in Custer SD

[Barbaraok]

We faced the same problem with another older model. It is ink not flowing from the cartridge to the print head. A clog in the line or something - but it will be expensive to get it looked at. At this point it is easier and cheaper just to go buy a new printer at Costco. That's what we did - when we can get a new printer for under $100, why spend that amount to get an old one fixed only to find in a few weeks that one of the other colors doesn't print. 4 yrs is about the limit for most electronic tools - at least that is what it seems to be for us.

[docj]

I'm with Barbaraok on this one. Usually, a failure to print in a single color means that the print head is clogged or there's a clog somewhere in the line from cartridge to print head. Occasionally, you can run a "clean print head" cycle and it will work, but that is best for situations in which you get at least some ink of that color coming through. With a completely blocked head I've rarely been able to salvage the printer.

 

Like Barbara, I consider these printers to be "consumables" knowing that they have lifetimes of ~2-4 years, at most. As long as they only cost $100-150 I can live with that. I have toyed with the idea of going with a laser printer, but even the smallest of those won't fit on the shelf where our Photosmart is today. Our printing needs are limited and I can live with replacing the ink jet when necessary.

 

Joel (AKA docj)

[RV_]

I agree with just getting another, and instead of another inkjet ask yourself igf you really need color printing. We did and decided we did not. So we bought a Brother DCP-7065DN laser printer that has no wireless but is a network printer with an ethernet connector in addition to the USB port. When set up as a network printer connected to the Wireless router with an Ethernet cable it prints wirelessly from anywhere in the house with all our Windows tablets and All in Ones. We just load the complete Brother PC software on each of the computers and it just works. It also has a sheet feeder and does duplex printing automatically sucking each page back in and printing on the reverse. We bought Rosewill large capacity Toner cartridges on sale for 14 bucks each. I got two and after a year of flawless printing had to replace the toner once and bought another two on sale so I have three toner cartridges.

 

Here is a basic one that connects via USB and does automatic duplexing for $68.11: https://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-L2320D-Mono-Laser-Printer/dp/B00LEA5EHO/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1467510834&sr=8-12&keywords=brother+laser+printers