HP Photosmart B8550 - Not Printing Black, Alignment Failed

[wannabegeorge]

My printer recently stopped printing black. I was printing a large document and it slowly faded to a faint grey. I checked the ink status and it reports that both black cartriages have plenty of ink remaining. So I tried:

-printing a sample page - colors look great, but the blacks are a muddled grey

-cleaning the printhead

-replacing regular black cartriage

-replacing photo black cartriage

-aligning cartriages - the printer reports that this process failed.

Has anyone else observed this problem and found a solution?

Thanks for your help!

[Wixma]

Hello.

Could you please include a scanned copy of the problem you are having and the alignment printout?

Regards,

[wannabegeorge]

Of course. Here is the test page:

and here is the alignment page:

I adjusted these a bit to try to get them close the the actual appearance of the printed pages.

[Wixma]

Hello

Thank you for posting these images. It seems ink from the black cartridge is not coming out at all.

To provide you further assistance, I would like to see the Extended Diagnostic report, which can be printed by following these steps:

1. Press and hold Cancel button and press UP arrow. The display of the printer will show Mfg Commands. Then press these buttons in sequence:

• Print Photos - Print Photos - Red Eye Reduction, your display will show Service Menu.

2. Navigate with the arrow RIGHT/LEFT buttons until you select Service Test, then press OK.

Navigate again to select Tap Test. Press OK.

3. Use arrow buttons to increase (RIGHT/UP) and decrease (LEFT/DOWN) the number until you reach number 10.

4. Press OK to print the Extended Diagnostic Report. The printer will print 2 pages.

It would be a great help if you could please scan and attach these pages to help us diagnose what is happening with the black cartridge.

One more question: You stated you already replaced the black cartridge, are you using original & non-refilled HP cartridges?

Thanks and regards,

[wannabegeorge]

Thanks for all your help Wixma.

I replaced both the regular and photo black cartriages with new, official HP 564XL cartriages. The cartriages I was using when my printer stopped working were also official HP cartriages and they worked correctly for a few weeks before I had this problem (I don't recall precisely when I replaced them).

Here is my tap test:

[Wixma]

Hello.

I'm sorry for the delay.

In this case, you might need to replace the whole printhead. The issue here is that the nozzles responsible to deliver the black ink to the paper are obstructed and no ink at all is coming out.

Regards,

[wannabegeorge]

Sadly, that didn't solve my problem either. I replaced the printhead and have gotten the same results ...

[wannabegeorge]

I have a new symptom: my printer says:

"Printhead Problem - The Printhead appears to be missing or damaged. Remove any Ink Cartriages, then remove and re-install the Printhead."

Is it possible that after 2 years of using my printer some electrical component has worn out? Who can I contact for servicing?

[wizos2net]

I have exact same problem. What was the final result? Junk printer? After this who did you contact?

[goboo]

I'm having a very similar problem except the black ink just stopped coming out all together. I'm using brand new ink cartridges and the ink levels are indicating full. I even swapped out the new black ink cartridge for another new one and it's still not working. I've reinstalled the driver. 

Over the couple years I've had this thing, it's caused more problems than it has solved.