HP Photosmart C7280 Black Ink won't print

[grahamt]

Using third party cartridges has nothing to do with this problem in my case.  At no time did I use anything other than genuine HP ink cartridges right up to the moment when the C7280 finally failed to print anything black at all.  During the final month before it "died" it had started printing "stripey" black output, especially on documents with a lot of black print.  None of the solutions proposed have worked in my case other than to fool the printer into thinking it was printing on photo paper, when it prints only using the colour ink cartridges, not the black.  In view of the entry above from an HP Administrator, denying the claim that HP designs its printers to "throw a wobbly" if non-HP ink cartridges are used, would he like now to confirm that the ink delivery system using HP363 cartridges is faulty in its design and that it is inevitable that as a consequence a very high proportion of these printers will fail?

[dmusselman]

I too am having the same problem with black ink not printing .... I have all HP ink cartidges and full at that... still will not print in black... Does any one have any suggestions.... I will NOT buy another HP product.... I have had several issues with this printer .... and now it is saying alignment has failed..... I am so disappointed with HP... Please some body help

[Czysczon]

I have a C7280 All-in-One HPPhotosmart -  My email messages come out in black ink but when I try to print a picture on HP Advanced 4x6 cards I get no black ink. Everything that is suppose to be black comes out green. Help!! I've only had it for 1 year and a month.

Thank you

[Bob_Headrick]

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@Czysczon wrote:

I have a C7280 All-in-One HPPhotosmart -  My email messages come out in black ink but when I try to print a picture on HP Advanced 4x6 cards I get no black ink. Everything that is suppose to be black comes out green. Help!! I've only had it for 1 year and a month.

Thank you

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This would indicate your magenta is not printing correctly.  The pigmented black is not used when printing on photo paper.

[SKSwindon]

Perhaps if GarenT (HP Employee) spent less time defending his Company’s reputation (post on 08-03-2010) and more time fulfilling his promise (11-10-2008) to investigate why so many of us are experiencing the same problem with his Company’s products customer satisfaction would increase. Simply ignoring the issue will not make it go away.

HP have offered not a jot of help or advice on this topic – I’ve had two models, both of which exhibited the same issue and both of which I only used HP inks. Since switching to a non-HP continuous ink system I’ve had no problems at all and saved a heap load of money as well.

[grahamt]

Now, here's a complete mystery!  After 18 months of refusing to print black and having tried every recommendation here, yesterday, out of the blue, my C7280 suddenly started printing black again!  It's not like I was cheating by defining the paper as photo grade even.

I had switched it on just to print the daily Sudoku out of Metro and it started making all sorts of strange whirring and clunkng noises.  This went on for about 5 minutes.  There was nothing evident that would indicate why.  Eventually, silence, so I sent the print to the printer (it's wired network attached).

When I went to retrieve the output, low and behold, all the black bits were boldly printed in their rightful colour. 

As I say, complete mystery.  We'll just have to wait and see how long it lasts.  Watch this space.

[sbenjamin99]

HP SUX. Their products are poorly designed and tech support sux. I have an 'ink status failure' pop up every week. HP says you can only reset it once. BS. I reset it every week and works until the system fails again. The most they would be wiling to do is credit 1/2 of the purchase price toward a new one. They suck. I have gone thru 3 HP printers in 5 yrs. Not anyore. I'm done with them.

[pfarrell77]

My second C7280 just stopped printing black.  No other printer is as good when it works with the duplexing and document feeder, but this is ridiculous!

[Chenderle]

I'm having the same problem with my HP Business Inkjet 1200. It started after having nto used the printer for several months. Has any reproducable solution been found to this yet?

[johnjriii]

I just took a new Photosmart Plus out of the box and tried to set it up.  The first alignment page had very dim black print and wouldn't scan.  Then nothing.  I tried reseating the cartridge, looking for tape that I may have forgotten to take off, examining the contacts, etc.  I was going to take the cartridge back and exchange it just in case it was bad.  Fortunately, I found this string.  I'll be taking the printer back and buying a Canon.

This is my fourth (and last) HP printer.