hp photosmart 6510 won't print black.

[swindco]

amp36

You are a genius.  Your fix did it.   Thanks so much!

[ImPrincesspooh]

---

@amp36 wrote:

I found a fix! My printer was also not printing black, but I knew it wasn't an ink problem because it was a new cartridge, I cleaned the printhead using every suggestion I could find, and on the test pages it was printing black brackets around the colored lines. It was a software problem.  Another post suggested using alternate drivers for a paper size error. Please see the link below on how to choose alternate drivers....

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-All-in-One-Software-Drivers/How-to-Assign-Alternate-Print-Drive...

I chose HP Photosmart 3300 drivers because that printer had similar features including wireless printing. It worked! Hope this helps!

---

Do you have the same 6510 series printer? I also attempted to download the 3300 driver (the only option that I could find on the HP site here is the entire suite), but wasn't able to install it to my 6510. 

I used a printer cable to attempt to download the software directly as I couldn't locate the actual driver in the plethora of stuff they download in their 3300 printer suite, and while it said it downloaded, it said it couldn't locate the device.

Looking at the printer properties for my devices, it still shows the same 6510 driver for my printer.

I hate to sound like a dumb blonde (which I really am not), but is there something I might be missing in this process?

I actually disassembled my entire 6510 printer yesterday just to remove the "so-called" non-user replaceable print head assembly to give it a proper cleaning (I've done this multiple times with my old Canon PIXMA multi-function and it runs like a tank still), and even cleaned out the waste dump tank, regreased all sliding components, but I still have exactly the same results... color only, ZIP black.

One thing I might note (for those who may be curious) as to why they refer to their print head assembly as non-user replaceble/removable... there are three ribbon cables attached directly to the top of the printer cover which require removal, and two large, two small ribbon cables which also require removal (and reattachment) on the print head assembly itself in order to remove it. The larger ribbon cables are easy to remove, but the smaller ones are not so easy because of both size and tight tolerances/spaces... so if one is not really patient, those cables could be easily damaged.

Anyway, I digress... I've wasted the better part of a brand new (genuine) black ink cartridge trying to get black to print, so the ink is obviously going somewhere (I suspect right into the waste dump tank).

My sincerest apologies for rambling... any ideas about how I might go about getting my 6510 to recognize the 3300 driver?  I'd appreciate any insight (as I am a lot better at the mechanical aspect, but have no problem with software/firmware provided I know what I should be looking for, or where I might find it).

Thanks in advance!

[swindco]

Make sure you have admin rights to make the change to a different driver.

To use an alternate print driver for HP printers in Windows 7:
1. Click on the Start menu.
2. Click on Devices and Printers.
3. Right-click on your printer--6510.
4. Select "Printer Properties" 5th one down the list but  not Properties which is last.
5. Click on the Advanced tab.
6. Click on New Driver button.  if it is greyed out you don't have admin.
7. Click Next on the wizard.
8. Select HP from the first list.
9. Select HP Photosmart 3300 Series from the second list.
10. Click Next.
11. Click Finish.
12. Click Apply.
13. Click OK to close the window.

[ImPrincesspooh]

Thank you for your response.

Actually, I had planned to post back that I was finally able to download the 3300 driver to the printer, but it took several attempts to the get the process to proceed as outlined.

I "believe" my issue was that in the drop down, there were both HP and Hewlitt Packard listed separately. Both showed the presence of the Photosmart 3300 driver, but only one appears to actually install the driver (the other downloads an executable file with tons of unnecessary bloatware).

Unfortunately, while my printer is now running on the 3300 driver, it still suffers from the NO black ink disease. Looking into the dump well, I can see what appears to be the majority of my newly replaced OEM black cartridge ink filling it up.

I guess I will just chalk this up to a lesson learned about both HP printers and their lack of complicity in the print head assembly flaw.

May this be a lesson learned for HP as well, as to why their company is tanking and why the office of the CEO appears to be a revolving door.

Perhaps the latest CEO (and board of director changes) from earlier this year can turn things around for what was once an industry leader.

[CR2004]

Thanks to all who have posted their issues and recommendations.  After a hard reset did not work for me I went to one of my old school, ink jet tricks as I had nothing to lose and it worked.  Even though you cannot see the print heads without fully disassembling it, I had reason to believe the black was clogged with dried ink.  Here's what you need:

• isopropyl alcohol
• cotton balls
• plastic kitchen wrap (A.K.A. Saran Wrap)
• 10 Minutes of working time, 12 hours of wait time

Since this involves putting a liquid in the printer, I recommend this as a last resort (basically you'd be throwing it out otherwise).

What you need to do:

• Open access door to ink cartridges
• Remove cartridges (do not close the access door)
• Unplug the printer
• The carriage that holds the ink cartridges should now slide freely, work a piece of plastic wrap under the carriage (this is the underside with the print heads you cannot see).  It does not matter where the carriage is when you're done, just work it left and right so you can get the plastic wrap underneath it.  I used tweezers to help fish it through.
• Saturate a cotton ball with isopropyl alcohol work it in between the plastic wrap and the underside of the ink carriage so it's in alignment with the silver mesh screen you can see from the top side.
• Saturate a second cotton ball with isopropyl alcohol and let it sit on the silver mesh screen.
• Let it sit like this for approx12 hours.
• Remove the cotton balls and plastic wrap (cotton balls should be dirty with old ink)
• Install the ink cartridges
• Plug in the printer
• It will likely give you an error message and will require a restart to clear it.
• Once restarted, go into the tools menu and run a print clean cycle.
• This restored my printing to about 80%, it was a little streaky because there was still alcohol in the print carriage / print head
• I printed a 20 page document to flush it out and after about 6 - 7 pages it was printing razor sharp.

 Please post if it helps you so others can possibly benefit from it.  Thanks and good luck!

[hafnerich]

I used the HP 3300 driver and it is pretty close to black, finally.  It worked the best.  Just a point of imfortion I would like to share.

I had a problem scanning a photo from my HP 6510 printer to my computer so I called HP service and some how I got transfered to IYOGI computer company which was trying to help me with my problem. So they wanted to patch my computer to there computer teck to see what the problem was. The charge was $119.99 for one year service. They now had full control of my computer. They were telling I had alot of virus mal-ware issues with my computer and that was the problem. I was with them for hours and they really messed up my computer and that is when I couldn't print in black. At this point they had to get the next level of teck service and I had to wait tell the next day for that to happen. Problem never got fixed so they patch me to HP serice tecks and that turned out to a nightmayer. HP  couldn't address the problem either. They told the computer was broken and they would sell me a new one. I said good buy. I called back IYOGI and requested my money back.  So in changing the driver I now know it's a software problem not a hardware. Very good info from this site and be aware of these teck services out there and don't patch your computer over to them unless it's nesserary.

[matterest]

The fix could not be more simple.

Run a damp paper towel over the strainer (in the printer) that meets up with the cartridge's ink-hole. Yes, I just wrote the word "ink-hole".

Repeat this a few times. Put the black cartridge back in there and run another cleaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OjJDeRuJ10