Officejet 6500 will not print black ink from Macintosh

[gilbertriley3]

I did finally get a response from HP about my J4680, and the response was....

You can't print without the color cartridge, EVEN if you choose ALL BLACK or BLACK CARTRIDGE ONLY.

I fired back a response of some 4 letter words.

Disappointing.  I will not be considering HP for further printer purchases.  They don't seem to understand my needs.

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gilbertriley3 wrote:

....

I have a similar problem with my OfficeJet J4680.

I have my printer set up to print GREYSCALE - BLACK CARTRIDGE ONLY, yet lately, my color cartridge has been low, my black cartridge is full, and when it goes to print it prints half the page in black, then switches to color (greyish red), after which it let's me know that color cartridge is low.... What's up with that? 

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[sultaana]

I had the same exact problem and could only print with the Black Ink cartridge when I was able to change the "Format For" under "Page Setup" to "Any Printer."

What they told me to do and actually fixed the problem was:

1) Uninstall the HP software completely (I ran the Uninstaller first, then put the HP folder in the Trash and then emptied the Trash).

2) Restart your cpu.

3) Open your Disk Utility application.  When in there, select Mactintosh HD drive then click on the Repair Disk Permissions button.  Let it run to completion (may take a while...15 mins or so).

4) Restart your cpu.

5) Download the latest HP Officejet 6500 driver from HP website & re-install the software.

6) Once it's installed, restart your cpu

The printer should work normally now; at least it did for me.  Hope it helps!

[Indigo56524]

Not certain if this will help in this thread but so much frustration was solved for me today with the following knowledge I wanted to share.

My 6500 suddenly quit printing with black ink. It also suddenly told me all of my color cartridges were low and after replacing all color cartridges, was still being told the magenta was low. After hours of searching the web I found a solution for my problem which I hope can help others.

Reset your printer using instructions on this page:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&docname=c01302031&product=379...

Here is the text in case that page does not load for you:

Introduction

This document provides basic instructions for performing a partial reset. A partial reset resets the following settings:

All user menu settings are reset to the default values.

All telephony parameter values are reset to the default values.

Country and language user interface is reset to the default values.

Fax memory is cleared.

Performing a partial reset of the All-in-One

Follow these steps to perform a partial reset of your product.

Unplug the power cord from the product, and wait 20 seconds.

Press and hold # and 3 while plugging in the power cord to the product.

Release the buttons after the product starts up. The product will now be reset to factory defaults.

Note from Indigo56524: be prepared for the printer to go through all sorts of gymnastics internally & then print out test pages. It even just sits there for a while half-way through (before the test pages print).

[Indigo56524]

My 6500 suddenly quit printing with black ink. It also suddenly told me all of my color cartridges were low and after replacing all color cartridges, was still being told the magenta was low. After hours of searching the web I found a solution for my problem which I hope can help others.

Reset your printer using instructions on this page:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&docname=c01302031&product=379...

Here is the text in case that page does not load for you:

Introduction

This document provides basic instructions for performing a partial reset. A partial reset resets the following settings:

All user menu settings are reset to the default values.

All telephony parameter values are reset to the default values.

Country and language user interface is reset to the default values.

Fax memory is cleared.

Performing a partial reset of the All-in-One

Follow these steps to perform a partial reset of your product.

Unplug the power cord from the product, and wait 20 seconds.

Press and hold # and 3 while plugging in the power cord to the product.

Release the buttons after the product starts up. The product will now be reset to factory defaults.

Note from Indigo56524: be prepared for the printer to go through all sorts of gymnastics internally & then print out test pages. It even just sits there for a while half-way through (before the test pages print).

[mthusi]

Got a solution to mine. Maybe you can try. Take the Printhead  from the printer and run in on water to clear the sticky ink Get turpentine, the one used for cleaning paint brushes and pour a little in a bowl. Place the printhead with the nozzles first, (just the nozzles)  and leave it for some time. Take it out and shake to dry the turpentine. install it back to the printer and insert your cartridges. mine worked. all the best.

[akrav]

RETURNING THIS piece of JUNK.  So frustrated by all that we had to do to get this printer set up.  The no black in was the last straw.  HP products are typically good but I spent 90 minutes on the phone with tech support because my husbands computer would not print... and the reason why... McAfee was blocking the spooler... this is a KNOWN problem yet they did not direct me to it and forced me reinstall, etc (even thought I had done that six times, I am not an idiot!) and THEN, they told me they could correct the blocking problem but that would take anohter THREE hours on the phone.  I said "No thank you" and a friend fixed the spooling problem within FIVE minutes.  

The black ink problem as put me over the edge.  Bye HP... you have LOST my business.  Get with the program!  

[Gk2Me]

I've heard someone suggest that a borderless page size might be selected that is leading to the selection of a photo media type. This would, in turn, cause the print system to select a different color matching scheme that would look less than accurate when not actually printed on photo paper types (grey vs. black, fuzzy, etc.).

Try explicitly selecting a normal (non-borderless) paper size and "plain" paper type, if necessary. Hope that helps.

[helproz]

Thanks for all the posts. My new HP Officejet Pro 8500 A910 all-in-one has the same problems. Sure hope I can do this myself. So much for HP. Will not buy HP again, after 15+ years with them.

[BernardPB]

I had the same issue, Black Ink Cartridge not working all of the sudden after 2 years working fine.  I tried cleaning the print head but it still did not work.  Finally, I noticed some black ink had spilled where the Black in Cartridge makes contact with the print head.  I cleaned that area with CRC QD Contact Cleaner.  Printer is now working fine.