Problem Printer Fixed

I ran out of black ink for my HP Photosmart 5510 printer, so I replaced it. Nothing black printed. Hmmm... tried using the utilities to clean the heads and re-calibrate the printer, but no success. So thinking that the ink cartridge was bad, I bought a new one. Same result. Did some Googling and one guy posted a video about pulling the carts and cleaning head with a damp paper towel. Did that, but no joy. Did some more Internet searching and came across where someone said to disassemble the printer and pull the cart carrier to clean it. So I did this, but it wasn't easy. HP does not want you disassembling this printer. They'd rather you throw it away and buy a new one. Two screws where under the control panel that has to be popped out from behind its mount and another screw is under the name plate (label). To take the cart carrier out, you have to undo two high tension springs. Took a picture before I did it. Pulled it out and washed it. Let it dry overnight and luckily, I got it all put back together without ending up with an extra screw. Fired it up. Nothing shorted out despite a small circuit board getting wet when I washed the carrier. Put the ink in and ran some diagnostic tests. Voilà! It worked! Now I have extra black ink. Oh well, better to have extra than none. I thought I was going to buy a new printer today.

Last word, inkjet printers are so expensive to use, they (HP, Epson, anyone who makes printers) should just give away the printers. Black XL, Cyan XL, Magenta XL and Yellow XL cost about $91 with tax at Staples. That's about the price of a new printer. Oh well, I guess it is cheaper printing photos with inkjet than getting film and prints. Nothing is free.

To JayW on HP's Forum...

I would just add as prep, the lid to the scanner should be taped down so it doesn't fly back if you raise it to a verticle position. Other than that, thanks for the detailed steps. It made all the difference. I disassembled mine, cleaned the cart carrier and printheads last night, reassembled it this morning and it works again.

I thought I was going to Staples to buy a new printer today. This saved me about a $100 and a trip.

Boy, HP doesn't want you openning this printer. I say that because of 4 things:

Hidden screw under printer badge (label).

The difficulty of popping the control panel off. Luckily you described what to do. If it hadn't been for your instruction, I probably would have broken it.

The difficulty in unhinging the top scanner assembly. I tried hard not to break it, but a small plastic nib broke off the shaft that the hinge was hooked on. Oh well, it wasn't critical. Hinge still works.

Hiding 2 more screws under the control panel.

This printer could have been designed better.

Why didn't they just make the printer head like a supply item where it could easily be popped out and replaced? They could have charged $30 for a new printer head and I bet people would pay that rather than buy a new printer. As it is, I thought about switching from HP to Brother had this not worked. HP risked losing a customer just because they think a consumer would just replace the printer with another HP.

HP makes a lot of printers. To me, it creates confusion. I think they need to reduce the number of SKUs considerably and just focus on making a small number of models that last. The days of print are dying. (No pun intended.)