HP 934XL black ink cartridges are defective

[dresdenron]

I purchased the HP 6830 AIO printer a little less than a year ago. Less than 5 months later when I put in another black ink cartridge I immediately started having printer problems. I contacted the retail store where I purchased the printer and ink cartridges and also HP tech Support.  They tried to tell me it was print head problem or that I should not use a surge protector or UPS. After wasting my time with them I just went ahead and bought another black ink cartridge and the printer worked fine for the next several months. Then about two weeks ago I put in another replacement 934XL black cartridge and now I can't print in black any more. Color prints OK and the ink level meter shows the black cartridge as well as the color cartridges as almost full.   So buying a $75 multipack of cartridges for the HP 6830 printer is a gamble at best.  I sent a comment to the HP CEO about 2 months ago and the HP Executive Support department responded to me. It took about 5-6 weeks to receive a 934XL printer cartridge as a "one-time only" ink replacement. Of course I had to purchase other black ink in the mean time.  And now here I am after installing a new 934XL cartridge 16 days ago for home use and it won't print in black even though the ink meter says the black cartridge is almost full.

I took out the first defective cartridge in early November and replaced it with a 934 cartridge I purchased that worked fine. Then I replaced that with a 934XL cartridge I purchased and that also worked fine. Now I have apparently purchased another defective HP 934XL cartridge. Not what you expect from the first year of ownership of a HP printer.   

[Bob_Headrick]

The troubleshooting steps in the document here may help resolve black not printing on your Officejet 6830 printer.  

If the standard troubleshooting did not resolve black not printing I would suggest removing the black cartridge.  Turn it over and examine the area around the ink port.  There are four orange plastic spots, left over from the protective cap.  Make sure these are flush with the cartridge body, if not carefully trim them flush.  If the plastic nubs protrude they can prevent the cartridge from seating properly.  

HP Cartridges do have a warranty, see the document here for information.

[dresdenron]

Bob,

The trouble shooting I had already done. Tried the orange pin thing on the bottom but it made no difference.  I took the unit back in to Staples where I bought the printer and ink. I had their tech support guy install and test the new black ink cartridge I had received from HP Support in place of the one that had been in there only about 2 weeks. He couldn't get it to print in black either. He said the black ink print head is gone this time. So since it is still less than year old I had to contact HP support again and speak to someone I could barely understand for 40 minutes. We did all the same testing I did and was repeated at Staples over again. He also concluded that the black print head was bad so he is ordering a replacement. This was April 12th and he said I should receive the repalcement by April 21st and then I send mine back. So much for tax time. I was told there was a 3-5 day turnaround for a repair under the HP 1st year warranty and now I'm told it takes 9 DAYS just to receive a replacement with no repair involved.  I guess they think the people that buy their printers don't really need to use them. I read on the internet that apparently there is a big known problem with the HP print heads and one place even mentioned a 2 year replacement for them but I couldn't get that information out of HP Chat support. So I have had 2 major problems with this printer in 11 months of ownership. Have had HP printers for the last 12 years or so but don't know that i'll continue. 

[Bob_Headrick]

Sorry you are having such trouble, and at such an inconvenient time.  The document here has information on the two year coverage for printhead issues on the Officejet 6830.

If your printer will still print color you could do the following workaround, just to get your taxes printed:  select Photo paper in the driver, even though you are printing on plain paper.  This will force the use of color ink, even to print black text.