Black ink cartridge not printing properly - fading letters at the beginning of each line

[USER_2020110520]

BEFORE YOU RESPOND:
I've cleaned the cartridges; I've cleaned the head; I've replaced with brand new cartridges; I've continued cleaning and alignment processes to the fullest extent possible. I've updated the software, I've tried re-printing with the highest quality settings, lowest quality settings, black-and-white only, different types of paper, and this problem continues to persist. I have only ever used HP-Branded official cartridges purchased at an authorized dealer, and have never attempted to "refill" any cartridges ever.

Things that are not a problem:
Anything in color; anything in the "center" of any black printing. The color cartridge is fine; the quality of print on the color cartridge is excellent. The issue also appears to "go away" when printing pictures rather than text, especially when the pictures involve very little black ink usage.

THE ACTUAL PROBLEM:
At the beginning of each "line" of black text, wherever the line starts, the first letter or two appear "faded". For example, if the following three lines were being attempted to print:
1234567

ABCDEFG

!@#$%^&

The first 1 or two characters would appear "faded". The best of my abilities to render this in text form would be to say it looks something like this:
1234567

ABCDEFG

!@#$%^&

given that the text I'm trying to print is not actually "boldface".

The issue also seems to be less prevalent in the "body" of longer paragraphs. As above, it looks something like this (with the boldface being properly printed text):

1234567

ABCDEFG

!@#$%^&

abcdefg

890101112

*()_+{}|<> 

With another paragraph starting in the same manner (first character or two faded, rest of line looks OK).

Anybody got any ideas? Is there a way to print in "color only" to temporarily resolve the problem?

[Bob_Headrick]

Could you please confirm the printer model?   If this is the HP Envy 7800 series printer the most likely cause of the issue you are seeing would be due to issues with the service station.  Please confirm the model, I may be able to make some specific suggestions to look at the service station.

In the meantime, there are a few things that may help, assuming this is the Envy Photo 7800 series printer:

• Remove the black cartridge and set it aside.  This will force the printer to run in "reserve mode", using the color cartridge to print.  Alternately you could select photo paper mode, this would force only the color cartridge to be used.
• Print in "Best" quality mode (you said you had tried quality modes, this should force bidirectonal printing which should help).

[USER_2020110520]

Every question asked is a question answered.

Yes, as stated above, this is a 7800 series HP printer (the "Envoy" series).

Yes, I have already tried "Best" printing "mode". I've even tried "Max DPI" settings.

I wouldn't be coming here if I didn't already try the most obvious solutions.

As mentioned, there doesn't seem to be any issues when printing in color only. The "black" is less black when I do that, which isn't a major concern, but the point is >90% of the printing I do is with the black cartridge (though 100% of print jobs include some color), so I want this issue with the black cartridge to actually get resolved. I wouldn't consider removing the black ink cartridge and forcing the printer to never print with black ink again a real solution.

I guess I should add that this is an issue that only recently arose, and was certainly not an issue at first purchase roughly 2 years ago.

[Bob_Headrick]

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@USER_2020110520 wrote:

Every question asked is a question answered.

Yes, as stated above, this is a 7800 series HP printer (the "Envoy" series).

For the record, there are a number of "Procuct:  HP 7800 Series Printer" models, which is all the information you gave in your first post I was replying to:

• HP Indigo 7800 Digital Press
• HP ENVY Photo 7800 All-in-One Printer series
• HP Photosmart 7800 Printer series

Now that we have narrowed down the choices to the HP Envy 7800 series perhaps we can make some progress.  For starters let's take a look at your cartridges.  

Open the printer lid to access the cartridges.  Remove the black cartridge and inspect the back of the cartridge.  There will be a date on the back side in the format YYYY/MM/DD.  What is the date?  Are the cartridges genuine HP or third party?  

Next look into the capping station for the black cartridge (you will probably need a flashlight).  Is the cap intact, straight and relatively clean?  Compare the cap for the black cartridge with the color - they should look similar and should be aligned the same front to back in the printer.  It should look something like this:

Please answer the above questions and we can go from there.  It would help if you could post a picture of the top, bottom and back of the black cartridge and also of the service station area.