Printer printing in gray instead of black

[RebeccaVal]

My HP Officejet Pro K5400 suddenly started printing in grayscale.  Thought I needed to change black cartridge but it doesn't feel empty so I tried cleaning.  No difference in print quality.  Put in a new black cartridge - still no change in print quality.  Help!  I have a windows 7 premium home 64 bit OS on my Samsung laptop that was just purchased earlier this year.

[Shane_R]

I'm betting that someone turned the greyscale option on in your print driver without realizing that it would become the new default. Click on the Start menu. Click on Devices and Printers. Right-click on your printer. Select Printing Preferences. Click on the Paper/Quality tab. Make sure that Print in greyscale is turned off. Click Apply to save any changes. Click OK to close the window. That should get it printing right. Let me know what happens.

[RebeccaVal]

Hi Shane -

No, that's not the problem.  I had checked all the printer preferences previously and the grayscale was not checked.  I looked again after getting your message and, again, grayscale is NOT checked.

So, I am totally clueless as to what the problem is!

Do the print cartridges go "gray" after they reach a certain age??

If you have any other ideas, please share!!

Thanks!

[jasonbyrome]

Hi Rebecca,

I'm getting the same problem with my HP Officejet 6500A Plus. I verified the grayscale but it's not checked.

I tried with the clean cycle but without success.

i figured out the problem after a few months of printer without use so I printed the first page with black characters but it dissolved in perfect ligth gray characters.

Did you fixed the problem ?

[RebeccaVal]

Hi -

No, my problem has not been resolved.

And I didn't quite follow your message - were you able to fix yours or not?

If fixed, what did you do?

[jasonbyrome]

No,  I'm still running into the problem.

it's curious problem in my case where the characters are in ligth gray but well defined.

I don't know if there is a relationship but previously I updated the drives of the printer but I didn't print after that.

I'm investigating in the web but no other info so far.

Renato  

[Shane_R]

If you make a copy or print a page directly from the printer, does it come out in gray-scale as well? I'm trying to narrow down what might be causing the problem. It's starting to sound like both of you might have some sort of hardware problem that's causing this.

[RebeccaVal]

I have tried printing several different things (word document letters, mailing labels, excel worksheet), all directly from my computer to the printer, and they all come out in grayscale.

I changed the font color to a dark blue; that actually printed out a little darker than the grayscale, but then the print was not clear; it was a little fuzzy, so this wasn't a perfect solution, either.

I do have a scanner but I did not think to try copying something to see how that came out.

Interestingly, though, when I first noticed the problem, I was printing mailing labels for Christmas cards - and it is very clear on the one sheet of labels how the printing went from regular black to gray, it just got lighter as it printed the document.  As I mentioned, initially I thought the toner cartridge was empty, but I shook it and could tell it wasn't empty.  I changed it anyway and got the same results with the new cartridge.

[Shane_R]

Try making a copy from the printer, and let me know how that comes out. If it's all grey as well, there may be either a problem with the cartridge or a problem with the printhead. Most likely the printhead, since you already replaced the cartridge.

[RebeccaVal]

If it's the printhead, is there a fix for that - repair or replace?

The printer isn't that old, so I'm going to be really disappointed if that's the case!

I will try that this evening and see what happens.

Thank you,