hp 7515 photosmart won't print black

[wallykent]

I have tried all recommendations I could find to no avail.  Cleaned head and followed instructions in printer tools.  I know many have had this same problem and have found some way to resolve the problem.  Any recommendations?

[Bob_Headrick · Accepted solution]

The troubleshooting steps in the document here may help resolve black not printing on your Photosmart 7515.  Be sure to check the vents as shown in Step 4.  

If the first four solutions do not resolve the issue I would suggest soaking the printhead as shown in the post here before considering replacing the printhead.

[wallykent]

Followed Bob Hedrick's suggestion for cleaning the printing head and it worked perfectly. However, always use the TOOLS cartridge cleaning instructions and do it two or three times.
Thanks for your help.

[Babstx]

I have had this happen twice.  I went through all of the steps, nothing worked and then, all of a sudden it would after the umpteenth time I removed and replaced the black cartridge. Today, I figured out the problem. Turn the cartridge over and you will see two little orangish dots of plastic near the top of the cartridge and two near the middle.  Scrape them off and return the cartridge to the printer head.  Run a test page . . . it should work.  Those little dots are preventing the area which distributes the ink from connecting with the printer head.  They raise it just high enough to prevent engagement.

Hope this keeps people from replacing their printers.  

Note: the plastic dots are from the little orange cover that you remove when you replace the cartridge. Just make sure you get them scraped off completely. Works like a charm.  

[jmunro]

This worked for me!  I bought all new cartridges and couldn't get my printer to print black.... I looked at one of the cartridges where the orange cap comes off and there seemed to be a little bit more of the orange cap left on the 2 tiny dot areas.  I scraped them off with scissors & TADAA!!!!!  Thank you!  I was ready to go buy a new printer!

[bryoderWLS]

Thank you!!!!! I was already searching for printers that use the same cartridges as my C310.  I was really close to purchasing a new one, $250 and then ran into your post.  Thank you SOOO much for finding the solution.

[ddice]

What do you mean Solution Three?

"...Be sure to check the vents as shown in solution three... " 

[rick-s]

@ddice

Hello,
Thank you for posting in this thread. Unfortunately, based on when the last response was made, I have closed this thread to help keep comments current and up to date. I recommend starting a new thread for your issue by clicking here: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/forums/postpage

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Thank you.

[Bob_Headrick]

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@ddice wrote:

What do you mean Solution Three?

"...Be sure to check the vents as shown in solution three... " 

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The document had been updated in the years since my original reply, "Solution Three" is now covered in "Step 4".  I updated the post above.