HP Smart Tank Plus 651 not printing black

[cslim]

I have a HP Smart Tank Plus 651. It has full ink in each tank. All colors print fine except for black. Anything with black will not print. I've tried to run the clean printhead function multiple times; however, it still won't print black. I assume that ink has dried or that there is something blocking the printhead. The printhead is not showing any errors. 

How do I replace or how do I get it to move to the center so that I can manually clean it?

Thank you! 

[Kumar0307]

@cslim, Welcome to the HP Support Community! I’m here to help.

I see that the printer is not printing in black. I appreciate your efforts in trying to resolve this issue by performing the necessary troubleshooting steps.

Make sure you have tried the steps mentioned in this document - Color or Black Ink Not Printing, Other Print Quality Issues

It cannot be cleaned manually.

If the issue persists, 

• I've sent you a private message with further instructions to resolve this issue.
• In order to access your private messages, click the private message icon on the upper right corner of your HP community profile, next to your profile Name or simply click on this link: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/notes/privatenotespage

Hope this helps! Let me know how it goes. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click on the YES button to reply that the response was helpful and/or to say “Thank You”.

Have a great day! 

[tscy]

I am having the same issue. Black prints very faded gray.

Cleaning in settings have not worked.

[Kumar0307]

@tscy, Welcome to the HP Support Community! I’m here to help.

Make sure you have tried the steps mentioned in my previous post.

If the issue persists,

• I've sent you a private message with further instructions to resolve this issue.
• In order to access your private messages, click the private message icon on the upper right corner of your HP community profile, next to your profile Name or simply click on this link: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/notes/privatenotespage

Keep me posted for any other assistance.

[jsarracino]

I also have this issue. I followed the steps here and my HP Smart Tank 651+ still has many print errors: https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-smart-tank-plus-650-wireless-all-in-one-series/18695943/mode...

Can you help please?

[cslim]

Ok so, I've taken off the top of the printer and have identified that the ink line that runs from the black tank to the print head is completely empty. The tank itself is full. So there has to be an issue within the line, such as a clog that is preventing the ink from traveling from the ink tank to the print head. I'm assuming this clog is most likely at the actual tank as there is no ink within the line. 

Please advise on if there is a fix for this. 

Thanks!

[cslim]

Ok so, I've been away for awhile on business and haven't had the chance to work on this. I'm home now and began to work through the problem.

I took off the top cover of the printer and traced the ink tubes going from the print head to the ink tank. While looking at the tubes, I noticed that the blank ink tube was completely empty. The black ink tank is completely full, but the tube is empty. I first thought perhaps this might be a clog at the printer head itself; however, after cleaning that end, it did not resolve the problem. 

I then looked at where the tube connects to the black ink tank. It looks like the ink is not clogged. If I open and close the lid to the black ink tank, I can see the ink moving in the black ink tube near the black ink tank; however it does not traverse the entire tube and reach the printhead area. 

Could this be a vacuum issue within the tube itself? I'm doing some more research to figure out how to fix this. 

I've ordered a syringe tool to see if I can pull the ink from the ink tank towards the print head to see if that fixes the issue. I couldn't find a way to "prime" the printhead through the system itself. 

[cslim]

For the communities sake, I'll put where I'm at now in this process. 

I took off the top of the printer and then used a syringe tool to push ink from the tank to the print head. There's a small plastic hole on top of the ink tank, once you take the top off, that allows the syringe tool to push air. After doing so, ink traversed the tube all the way to the print head; however, it then quickly receded back to the ink tank. 

I've ordered a new print head to see if there's a vacuum issue within the print head. If that doesn't work, I'm assuming there's a vacuum issue within the actual ink tank itself. More to follow as I continue to troubleshoot. 

[cslim · Accepted solution]

Well the new print head came and voila! That seems to be what the issue was. Everything looks to be looking good when printing now! 

after install black ink is now working again.

[jsarracino]

Awesome! So you just replaced the black print head and it worked out?

How did you get at the print heads? In mine, they are tucked away in the corner and are not accessible. I read somewhere (I think in the manual) that the heads only move to the middle when the printer thinks that they are damaged/clogged.