HP Envy 7640 prints smudges and streaks across the printed page

[sassy11]

We are printing from a Dell and a Mac, and we are both having the same problem with our printer.  There  are smears and streaks across the printed page.  I have followed the directions ffor cleaning the cartridges and aligning the printer, and nothing helped.  The color cartridges seem to be fine, but there are black smears throughout the page.

[The_Fossette · Accepted solution]

@sassy11,

Welcome to the HP Forums!

Thank you for posting your query on this forum, it's a great place to find answers.

I reviewed your post and I understand that you are facing a print quality issue.

Don’t worry, I assure you I will try my best to get this sorted.

In order that I may provide you with an accurate solution, I will need a few more details.

• When was the last time the printer was working fine?
• Have you made any software or hardware changes on the computer?

Meanwhile, I see that you have already followed all the correct troubleshooting steps. However, I recommend you follow the steps in the below article and check if it helps.

http://hp.care/2BdKMCk

If the issue still persists, I recommend you replace the cartridge and check if it helps.

Let me know how it goes and you have a great day!

If the solution provided helps, please mark this as “Accepted Solution” as it will help several others with the same issue to get it resolved without hassles. Your feedback counts!

Take care.

Cheers!

[sassy11]

Thank you so much for our help!  I had followed the trouble shooting steps to no avail.  I then looking over the steps you recommended, was to clean the black ink cartridge.  First of all, to prove to myself that it was the black ink cartridge causing the problem, I printed out a project I was working on that only used colored ink.  It printed perfectly.  I then carefully cleaned the black cartridge, and the problem is solved.  Again, thank you!