Won't show any ink when it prints. comes up ink system failure.

There's a pretty good chance the printer can be recovered. I have had this issue before and I think I know why these printers clog so much. From what I have seen, there's 3 design flaws with these printers.

• Poor printhead design, poorly designed service station.
  • The bad pad design pushes waste ink onto the head and accelerates the rate at which the printers clog, or error out. As they age, the frequency increases accordingly. It also likes to deposit waste ink on the rear electrical contacts.
  • If the head is bad or does it a lot and you're cleaning it every few weeks, that's the end of the printer -- cleaning the pads sucks.

It sounds like you're dealing with both issues: The waste ink pads are filling up (accelerating the problem), and the head is likely somewhat clogged. Fix both issues at once by taking the printhead out to clean it.

IMPORTANT: While you can go further and clean the service station internally, I don't recommend even considering it; it's tedious, and makes a horrible mess. On the two dead ones I opened for motors (25k on one; don't ask how much they spent on ink, even I don't want to know, let's just say they now use a laser) and one from the trash with 10k with lots of head cleaning), I needed gloves and a protective surface. You also have to deal with a waste ink counter in most (if not all) printers. Even IF you clean it, the printer will still think it's still full without resetting it. Not only do you need to reset the counter , but it's also very messy. You can sometimes blot it with a throwaway towel and eliminate some of the ink, but that's as low as I'd go if I got a 3rd one.

Follow this guide on how to clean it: HP B210a printhead cleaning. This method is the best since you take care of both problems at the same time and you won't need to worry about it for a couple of years. My approach is NOT MEANT to be a permanent fix; once the pads fill up, it WILL GET to a point they error out so many times the best ending for it is to pull it from service and recycle it. Clean it and see how long it lasts; if that doesn't work, replace the printer. Brand new heads that are not NLA as a new part are ~$80 from HP, as much as a new one.