HP LaserJet 1536dnf MFP Not Printing, Blank Display, and Network Connection Problems

The HP LaserJet 1536dnf MFP can stop printing in ways that do not immediately look like a normal print failure. In some cases, the printer remains reachable on the network, but jobs still never come out. In others, the device powers on with lights active but never reaches a usable state because the display stays blank and the controls do not respond. 

There are also situations where printing returns after reinstalling the full software package, but other functions remain broken, which makes the device feel only partly recovered rather than fully fixed.

That is what makes this model difficult to troubleshoot when it stops printing. The machine may still look present to the network, still be visible to software, or still react to power, but none of that guarantees it is actually ready to print. 

The examples below focus on what happened when the 1536dnf remained partly visible or partly functional while printing failed, and what ultimately changed the outcome in those cases.

Problem: Blank display on boot and the printer will not print

What users observed: The printer stopped printing, and management software could no longer connect. After restarting the unit, the ready, attention, and low-toner lights came on, but the display stayed blank. None of the buttons responded, and there was no visible error message to explain why the device had stopped working.

What was tried: Users tried power-related recovery steps and attempted to break the stuck state through reset-style actions. Those did not immediately restore printing, and the printer remained unresponsive until the power source itself was reconsidered.

How this played out: In the documented cases, the printer came back immediately once the power situation was corrected. The failure pattern was traced to the wrong power cord being used, which meant the problem looked much more serious than it actually was until the power source was changed.

Problem: Printer will not boot 

What users observed: The 1536dnf would not boot properly, the screen stayed blank, and the device never recovered to a usable condition. This was not a case where the printer showed ready status but ignored jobs. It never reached a working startup state at all.

What was tried: A reset attempt was made, but it did not change the blank-display behavior or move the printer any closer to normal operation.

What this turned out to be: The fault was attributed to a failed main PCB.

How this played out: After extended use, the printer was treated as effectively end-of-life, with replacement becoming the practical outcome. In this case, the machine did not stop printing because of a queue or network issue. It stopped printing because it could no longer start properly.

Problem: Printer responds to ping but still will not print

What users observed: The device remained reachable on the network, which made it look healthy from a connectivity standpoint, yet print jobs still never came out. From the user side, this was especially confusing because the printer did not appear disconnected. It simply refused to turn network visibility into actual printed output.

What was tried: The port configuration was changed away from the previous setup, rather than continuing to treat the problem as a total device failure.

How this played out: Printing was described as only temporarily workable after switching the port type. That suggests the new path improved the symptom, but did not clearly eliminate the underlying behavior for good.

Problem: Printer appears offline and wireless printing will not work

What users observed: The printer showed as offline and would not print wirelessly. AirPrint also failed. At the same time, the network utility could still see the printer, and the device would work if connected directly by USB to a computer. That made the failure look less like a dead printer and more like a broken network path.

What was tried: Different physical connection arrangements were tested in order to separate wireless setup issues from printer-side failure.

How this played out: The printer only became usable over the network after it was connected to the router by Ethernet instead of by USB to the router hardware. Once that connection path changed, wireless printing began working across multiple devices.

Problem: Printing returns after reinstall, but scanner doesn’t work

What users observed: After a Windows 10 upgrade, printing returned once the full software package was reinstalled, but scanning still failed with a message saying the scan component could not be found. This matters for the not-printing page because it shows how the 1536dnf can move out of a total failure state into a partial one, where the printer side works again but the device is still not fully back to normal.

What was tried: The full software package was installed more than once. Recovery did not become complete until the connection type selection during setup was changed.

How this played out: Scanning only returned once the printer was reinstalled as a network-connected device instead of being treated as “wireless,” even though the computer itself was using Wi-Fi. 

Problem: Printer works, but the document feeder scan path fails

What users observed: The document feeder stopped working for scanning, and replacing a low-toner cartridge did not change anything. Although this is not a direct printing failure, it became part of the same troubleshooting path because the device no longer behaved consistently across its core functions.

What was tried: A toner swap was attempted under the assumption that the consumable state might be interfering with feeder behavior.

How this played out: The feeder problem remained after the cartridge change, showing that the original suspicion was a dead end. The broader point is that not every failure around the 1536dnf is tied to toner, even when the symptoms first seem to point in that direction.