HP Officejet 6500 Wireless will not print with black ink

[dasaborner]

I seem to recall from previous printers that water is the way to go for cleaning this ink, not alcohol.

[djmj]

It works!  I had exactly the same problem and tried everything everyone else tried before coming to this forum.  Seeing the suggestion to remove the printhead, washing and drying it I had nothing to loose.

Tried it last night, removing the printhead and rinsing it very thoroughly under running water, put the printhead on a heater vent from the furnace (blowing air but not too hot) for 24 hrs. and tried it today and it worked!  Thanks for your help everyone!

[cintrix]

I have a solution.  It has happened to me twice where the black ink stops working with a new cartridge.  Both times this happened I was able to fix it by doing a RESET.  Keep the printer power on ON and pull the power plug out of the back.  While the plug is out wait about 15-20 seconds and press the #KEY and the Number3 key at the same time  and hold them down. While holding those two keys down, plug in the power cord.  The printer will come back on.  You will lose any customized settings.  It will start the realigning process. It will take about ten minutes.  I did this again today and the black ink is now printing fine!

[christina046]

I just had the WORST customer service experience ever. The guy I spoke with did not even speak English and kept me on the phone for an hour and half but did not solve my problem. He wanted to charge me $25 - $100 to troubleshoot and he couldn't even guarantee a solution.

This company gets a 0 for customer service, and a 0 for all of their products. I have never had any luck with their products.

[Tharsaile]

Thanks very much PokerChip, your solution is still working.

After the HP Repair processes had failed to work, I resorted to their website forum to try to fine a solution that worked.Thank you very much for your posting - it worked a treat for me too.

Regards,

Caoimhin

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PokerChip wrote:

I've got it!!!

I searched all over the internet for a solution to this problem. Some people had the right idea but not how to implement it. 

Problem: Black ink does not print but all colors print

Reason: Print head for Black is clogged. 

Solution implementation: 

The 920 ink jet cartridges set into the print head cartridge that is  held in place by the little arm on the right side of the ink cartridges.

1. Remove all of the ink cartridges. I didn't want them to dry out so I wrapped them in plastic wrap.

2. Lift up the little arm and remove the print head cartridge.

3. Rinse THE ENTIRE PRINT HEAD thoroughly under a stream of water. I know this sounds crazy but it will work. I figured it was better to rinse all of them (not just the Black) because if I didn't then the ink left in any color would dry up and clog it anyhow! 

4. I let the print head dry out for about an hour BUT THAT DID NOT WORK. When I put the print head back my 6500 gave me an error message that it could not find the print head or something like that. I thought I ruined it which was the risk I was willing to take. I went online and searched for a cheap replacement. I immediately ordered it. But I left the old print head out to dry just in case it was the water that rendered it useless. 

5. Four days later I received a new print head. Before I opened the package I tried the old one again AND IT WORKED! First, I installed the old print head cartridge and then each of the inks. After doing this the 6500 did the rest. It went on a very long print head cleaning and alignment. It gave me the message, "Please wait. Printer preparation occurring." 

6. When the cleaning and alignment finished it printed a test page automatically. It didn't look perfect the first time but it was close. The message I got was, "Success. Alignment successful. Recycle or discard the page printed. Press Ok to continue." The problem was that the ink cartridges were drained from this whole process even though they had about half of the ink left when I removed them. I changed the ink cartridges and did a cleaning, a level 2 cleaning and an alignment. It worked! 

7. Since I couldn't return the new print head I'm keeping it in case the print head fails for another reason. 

I don't know how long it will take to thoroughly dry the print head after rinsing it but I know 4 days works. Maybe a couple of days would have been enough. If someone does it in less time please let others know here. 

If you don't have success using my method at least you know a new print head will solve it. I paid about $35 for a new one. 

Good luck!!

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[BigDsBees]

OK...so after having enjoyed the success of a month ago (removing the print head, cleaning with water and drying) the printer stopped working once again.  Rather than going through the cleaning with water & drying, since that was done so recently, I decided to try the reset procedure that was suggested and the printer is now working again.  Hopefully this solution will be long lasting.  Time will tell.

[Ekerö]

I tried your method. It was successful. Just 3hrs dryingtime in the sun.

Thank you!!!!!!!

[cintrix]

BigD's my guess is that the next time you replace the black ink cartridge it may occur again. It has happened to me the past two times I have replaced the black ink.  Both times th full- reset worked.

[linda3835]

Thanks so much for your detailed fix on your printer problems.  I really appreciate it!!!   I tried all that you  suggested, and used my hair drier on cool to blow it dry.  I am so impatience. Anyway. It works.  The black is printing, but for some reason, I have a black streak down the left side of my paper about an inch wide.

 I will wait a couple of hours to see if letting it dry longer will clear that up. Unbelievable on how many other people are having that same problem!  I am now afraid to purchase another HP printer!!

Thanks again

linda3835

[Bnv96]

Thanks for the print head cleaning advice!   It worked.  Only took us 15 minutes from removing to using again.  Pulled out the print head, soaked it in 70% isopropyl alcohol for a couple minutes then used Qtips to clean off all the caked on gunk.   Went through about 1/2 bottle of alcohol and a dozen Qtips as we cleaned and rinsed.  Towel dried it off and immediately put it back in the printer and ran the Clean Printhead utility.  No error messages (as the others say they received) and I have black ink with hardly any down-time.