Photosmart 309a - 5 HP cartridges installed. XL Black cartridge won't take over for everyday use

[twobook]

Photosmart 309a

Windows 7 64 bit

"ink is low"

I have 5 cartridges installed.

HP Solution Center shows black cartridge is low, (does not show XL black cartridge) and intructs to click on the cartridge for alternatives

I clicked on the black cartridge, and the XL black cartridge appears on the screen, it's almost full, and "Usage" says "High Volume"

What can I do to make the printer use the XL cartridge?

[Daniel_L]

Hello twobook,

From what you are describing the solution center shows that the black ink cartridge is low but when clicking on the XL cartridge it is almost full.

The smaller black ink cartridge is dedicated to photo printing while the XL slot is for standard/text print.

What type of print settings are you using? (fast draft, best, high quality, etc)

Do you print photos frequently?

[twobook]

Paper type:  Plain paper
Paper source:  Automatinc
Print quality:  Normal
When I open Solution Center, it shows  black is low and black XL is three-fourths full

When I click on the cartridges icon, Soution Center shows black is low, and suggests selecting it "for alternatives"

When I select black, XL appears at the bottom, but does not show any ink level for XL
I have not printed photos in a while

[Daniel_L]

If you scroll down there should be one more cartridge shown in solution center.

The first item should be a black ink cartridge and at the bottom it should say photo ink cartridge (which is photo black)

[twobook]

So nice of HP to make the whole window black, so one can barely see the scroll bar.
Both cartridges say "Ink Cartridge"
XL is mostly full, other black is nearly empty.
I'm printing in greyscale.
The print is very faint because black is almost empty.
It's as if the printer is ignoring the fact that there is another black cartridge installed.

Are you saying that XL is for photos?

[Daniel_L]

The XL cartridge in that slot is designed for documents and large amounts of black printing, whereas the photo cartridge is for depth and black 'color' for photos.

[twobook]

You know that, I now know that, but the printer doesn't seem to be in on the secret.  I can't print documents now because they come out very faint, apparently because the black cartridge is nearly empty, even though there is plenty of ink left in the XL cartridge.

[Daniel_L]

I appreciate you working with me on this.

If we can set the print options to grayscale to prevent color ink from being used the XL cartridge will be the only option available to dispense ink from.

You can find steps on how to set printing to grayscale for Windows 7 (all editions) here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Choosing-print-options