Printer stopped printing in color

[MrLamb]

Just received this printer. Hooked it up and it worked great. A few hours later it would not print at all, my PC only said that it would not print because of an internal error. I reinstalled it, downloaded all your site's recommended downloads. Started again and now it's only B&W

[Kuroi_Kenshi]

Hi @MrLamb,

Welcome to the HP Support Community!

Thanks for reaching out!

We're thrilled to have the opportunity to assist you and provide a solution.

I understand your printer was printing normally at first, then stopped with an internal error, and now only prints in black & white. Let’s go through a few steps to check what could be causing this.

Check the print settings on your PC

Open the print dialog and go to Printer Properties or Preferences.

Make sure Color is selected instead of Grayscale or Black & White.

Verify the printer’s color setting on the front panel (if available)

Some models have a Color/Mono toggle in the printer menu.

Ensure it’s set to Color Printing.

Confirm all color cartridges are installed and recognized

Open the ink access area and check whether cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges show as full or valid.

If any cartridge is unrecognized or empty, the printer may default to B&W.

Run a Print Quality or Printer Status Report

Print a built-in report directly from the printer.

If the report is also black & white, the issue is printer-side; if it prints in color, the issue is PC settings.

Reset the printer with a power cycle

Keep the printer turned on and unplug the power cable from the back.

Wait 60 seconds, plug it back in, and let it restart fully.

This clears temporary system faults that can cause internal errors.

Update or reinstall the full-feature driver

Make sure you installed the Full-Feature Software and Drivers, not the basic driver.

The full package enables color printing, print profiles, and device services.

Check the Windows default printer type

Windows sometimes switches to the (HP… Series) PCL-6 or Class Driver, which often defaults to mono.

Set the printer using the “HP Smart” or Full Feature driver as the default.

Disable Print in Grayscale in HP Smart

If using HP Smart, open the print preview.

Ensure Print in Grayscale is off.

Perform a Color Calibration/Printhead Cleaning (inkjet models)

Go to Settings → Tools → Clean Printhead or Color Calibration.

This restores color output if nozzles were blocked.

I hope this helps.

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Best regards,