No black printing on Photosmart Premium C309g

[JLCh]

My regular black ink stopped printing completely.

I changed the cartridge and it still won't print or black copy.

The printer also gives a failure message on attempt to align cartridges.

Thought the cartridge may be faulty but tried a second with no change.

Otherwise, the printer responds to commands and prints with the colour inks but no (non-photo) black.

Please help!

[Ciara_B · Accepted solution]

If the printer is out of warranty one thing that might be worth a shot is soaking the printhead as described below...

1) Get a pan and put 1/2" of very hot (not boiling) water in the bottom.
2) Next remove all the ink cartridges, then remove the printhead assembly.
3) Gently put the printhead nozzles down in the water and let it soak for five minutes.
4) Remove the printhead and gently dry the electrical contacts.
5) Put the printhead back in the printer and then reinstall the ink cartridges.

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Other-printing-questions/Photosmart-Premium-c309a-Black-prints-out-gree...

Can you let me know if this works?

Thanks, Ciara

[JLCh]

I removed the printhead and performed the procedure you described. There was a lot of black ink in the water.

When I reinstalled the printhead I got a message that the printhead seemed damaged or something and was instructed to remove the cartridges and printhead and reinstall them.  I had to do that twice.

Finally the printer went through a long initialization and alignment - the alignment failed.

I have tried telling the printer to clean the printhead several times to see if that helps

I can get it to print the quality and status reports and to clean the printhead but there is still no regular black ink printing. Alignment keeps failing.

Interestingly though,  when I check the estimated ink levels, the black ink seems to be going down with the rest of them.

[JLCh]

Can't believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After my last reply (above)  I waited a bit and did one more "clean printhead" on the printer screen.What a surprise when it started printing black again.

Thanks so much for your help.

[Big_Dave]

@Ciara_B 

Good tip on the water soak.:smileyhappy:  I ran into the no black issue yesterday after printing six pages of heaving print.  I also ended up doing a second level clean to order to get the black to print again after the soak.

[Ciara_B]

Glad it worked!

🙂

[verrymommy]

After having no problems with my photosmart premium c309g, last night my black ink just stopped working. I looked through the forums and  found no good advise. I went to hp support and ran all the cleaners and alignments, etc. the alignment failed. I cleaned the contact with alcohol and a q-tip. I went and bought a new ink cartridge, hoping that that was the problem.....it wasn't. So.....I went to my control panel on my laptop and uninstalled all of my printer related programs. I restarted my computer and then re-installed my printersoftware from the cd. MY PRINTER IS WORKING PERFECTLY AGAIN,  and I couldn't be happier. I love that printer and was very sad at the prospect of having to replace it.

So, to all of you that are experiencing this same problem, try uninstalling and re-installing your printer software and, hopefully, you will be as lucky as I was.

[Essex]

HP photosmart Premium

My issue was the dreaded print stop. Not black but all printing stopped.

After two and a half hours of reading I surmised all I could do was clean the print head.

Now Im not recomending this buuuuuuuuuuuuuut..............

I took the whole print head out and ran it under hot water for at least five cycles. From every angle.

Didint take care for anything!!!!!!!!!!!!! Figured it was junk anyway,

Had to clean the electronic strip where the print head meets the troley three times.

After i was done i gently blew it clear with a can of air for cleaning keyboards and used the hair dryer on cool for half an hour.

I also swung it violently to make the water leave the recesses and dabbed what I could with a paper towel.

I replaced it yesterday and it would not print.

Unplugged it and left it.

Today i came home , pressed print. THEN plugged it in.

It ran a head allighn, then printed without trouble.

The screen says the head allighn failed but I hit ok and its working without error messages.

Clearly, the head fills with ink and dries out.

Im not suggesting you submerge yours but it worked for mine. Just remember you have to try a lot of drying methodes to clear the water.

Hope this helps someone.

After reading all this Im hoping to keep my LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HP printer allive a little while longer.