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Archived This topic has been archived. Information and links in this thread may no longer be available or relevant. If you have a question create a new topic by clicking here and select the appropriate board.
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Have had the HP Photosmart 3310 for a couple of years and all of a sudden the same not-printing-black-ink problem has arisen here too. All other colours print fine.  Replaced the black cartridge 3 times and ran all sorts of troubleshooting techniques but to no avail.  But there's more... 

 

I really needed something printed so I copied the word doc onto a mem chip and took it to my parents who have another HP printer (an old one - can't remember the model) and that has stopped printing in black ink too - both printers were fine 2 weeks ago.

 

The file printed when tested on a third HP printer at a friends house.... but how come so many HP printers have stopped printing in black so suddenly???? Dodgy software update or something??   Anyone coming up with a reason or solution?  GarenT - any news?  

 

Thanks in advance. 

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Hi,

Was suggested that you try the printing cleaning methods contained within the driver. Try out the steps within  “Setup” à “Tools” menu of control panel or within the drive menu. There are some maintenance routines to clean out the Printer in general.

 

Let me know what you find.

 

GarenT

I worked for HP.
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Hello GarenT, I wrote back on Dec 30th & mentioned that I've already done all the cleaning that can be done - cartridges and carriage.  I'm tired of doing without a printer.  Is there still something else that can be cleaned that is not mentioned on the printer or on the online user guide???  We did purchase an extended warranty but we don't really want to go that route if possible.  Also, I'm starting to agree that the fact we're all suddenly having a problem must be with a recent HP update, perhaps even an automatic one.  Think about it - some of us have printers that are about a year old, one printer is two years old and there are several different models mentioned.  The HP update is all that makes sense.  I am not going to run any HP updates on my old computer with the HP 7700 printer attached because we need that printer, even though it doesn't fax or copy or scan.  What is HP going to do about this?  Someone there needs to look at recent updates & see what could have caused all this grief for so many users.
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I must have the cleanest print cartridges/printerheads in England, as I have run this process many times; I believe I have the most aligned printer/print cartridges in Europe (awaiting confirmation!) as I have aligned my printer several times; I have tried every possible user serviceable process available but nothing.  The black ink cartridge, or something to do with it, is not having it.  I can't Calibrate Colours as the background is clear (probably needs black ink!)

 

(By the way - it's a nice touch when after running the clean printerhead procedure it prints out 6 colour squares: red, green, purple, yellow, magenta and cyan on a bit of paper.   It all looks v nice - apart from I am trying to get the black to work!! :TongueOut: ) 

 

Is it destined for the repair shop, or the little printer heaven in the sky?  Still slightly suspicious about the reason a lot of people are suffering all of a sudden. 

 

GarenT - could you list the possibilities of why this would happen (something that may have gone wrong that cannot be repaired by a procedure in the solution centre) so at least we can try to get a specialist along the right track to repair?  If it is not software-update related then what could it be - a blockage (if so how does one rectify it), a malfunctioned printer head (how does one replace it?) etc etc?  Please help.... you may be our only hope! :Surprise:

 

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 I have the same problem with my Photosmart D1750 - and have tried all the same stuff, cleaning printheads, changing to new HP ink cartridge, etc etc.  Have not yet tried reinstalling software and drivers - is it worth it do you think? Get the same 6 lovely little square coloured boxes on the sheet after printing test page with some light cyan lines and some dark cyan text but all the diagnostic info is printed very very faintly, you can't read it.  And more coloured boxes after the printhead cleaning. Hope someone comes up with answer to this problem.  Had the printer about 18 months and works fine usually.

 

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I have a Photosmart 7280 and up until today I have been thrilled with the performance.  Mind you I am not thrilled I have yet to figure out how to refill the ink carts, but the the quality of the printed documents up till today has been outstanding.  Today my black ink printed BROWN.  I replaces ALL the ink carts and had to run the print head cleaner 6 times to get a 45 page mixed text and image documant to print.
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Could this be re
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GeneF - I fear you will soon have no ink at all.... Mine went from black to purple/brown to nothing fairly quickly...
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To my extreme frustration I am having a similar problem - printing in black results in letters only partially printing - there are horizontal white streams through each line of print. Why am I frustrated? Because I recently ditched a 3310 All-In-One because this started happening and then black stopped printing altogether. I bought my C7280 to replace it 3 months ago and replaced the black cartridge with a genuine HP one a couple of weeks ago (expiry date 21/5/2010).

 

I'm really surprised GarenT has not heard of this issue before - if you Google "HP Black not printing" you'll find many many frustrated HP owners, many of whom have contacted HP. GarenT said he would contact friends in HP - what did they reply?

 

At least mine is still under warranty.

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I also have this problem now with my C7280 that I bought last february. I have tried numerous black carts and have used the tools to clean printhead and then align the printer but always get the mesage Print cartridge alignment failed and no black ink is being used.  As I have not had the printer a year yet should I take it back to the store where I bought it?   Unless someone can come up with a solution? 
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