Help-HP Officejet 6500-Won't print Black text

[EllenShuman]

My printed will print any color text on a page, but nothing that requires black ink. Black cartridge was full when this started. No error messages. Troubleshooting, I changed to a brand new HP 920 Black cartridge. Still nothing that's black is printing. Any help appreciated!

[Indigo56524 · Accepted solution]

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.

[Indigo56524 · Accepted solution]

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.

[tomj83969]

Thank you very much!

[ebber1]

This happens to my 6500 all the time.  It is a total RIP OFF!  HP used to be the best in quality - now their machines are built to suck down ink and suck down your dollars!  I am so upset that tech support has never bothered to give me a better answer other than, we need multiple colors to print black.  Such a rip off!  I may do something crazy like buy a Kodak.

[tjmtjm]

it worked perfectly - thank you so much

[keysappr]

Thank you SO much. It worked just like you said.

I HATE this printer! I've been a loyal HP user for over 20 years and I cannot wait to trash this thing. Eats ink like crazy and rips the paper at the top almost 80% of the time. Thank goodness I just usually print stuff for myself and send all my reports via e-mail. I would be embarrassed to print out anything for a client.

All the All-In-Ones out there appear cheap - keep waiting for somebody to come out with a superior machine!

I need it mostly for scanning multiple pages, so I must have the feeder. I've weaned my clients from faxing, so really don't need that anymore....

any suggestions?

[Seadance]

I couldn't make this tip work but later found a YouTube version of the same tip, and it did resolve the issue of not printing in black ink.  The YouTube version spelled out that you are supposed to unplug the printer while it is still on, then wait the 20 seconds, press the # and 3 keys and then re-plug it in.   I turned off the printer, then unplugged it, etc.  Obviously some people got the directions clearly, but I didn't, so I thought I'd post this in case anyone else misreads the info as I did. 

[GMarin]

Add the printer with the driver of HP Officejet 6100 Series.

[Ang_S]

Thank you, I actually really like my office jet, it's my 7th or 8th one. This fix worked for me, though access door hinge is still binding up when I go to close it.

[Raybishop1]

Spoiler

This is great, we had cleaned the unit and changed all the cartridges and it just continued to print everything in every color besides BLACK.  Some had changed their text to print in another color just to get it to print.  I undertook the challenge and looked up "HP 6500 wont print in black" and you came up.  This is SOLVED! Thank you