HP Officejet 3830 will not print black ink

[shalaine1513]

My  HP Officejet 3830 is not printing in black ink, only color. I have cleaned the ink cartridges manually as well as through the printer. I have aligned the printer, cleaned page smears, and still If the document is in color and black, only the color parts of the document prints. I have also replaced the ink with new cartridges, so the ink is full in both color and black.

Any help would be appreciated, as I am on a deadline and have already spent alot of wasted time trying to resolve on my own.

Thank you

[Raj1788]

@shalaine1513

Thank you for joining HP Forums.

It's a pleasure assisting you in finding answers to your technical queries.

To provide you with an accurate solution, I'll need a few more details:

Are you using genuine HP Ink cartridge?

Are you facing the same issue while making a copy?

Were you facing the same issue with the old cartridge?

If you are facing the same issue while making a copy,

I suggest you do a Hard Reset

(1) Turn the printer on, if it is not already on.

(2) Wait until the printer is idle and silent before you continue.

(3) With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer.

(4) Unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.

(5) Wait at least 60 seconds.

(6) Plug the power cord back into the wall outlet.

NOTE: HP recommends connecting the printer power cord directly to the wall outlet.

(7) Reconnect the power cord to the rear of the printer.

(8) Turn on the printer, if it does not automatically turn on.

The printer might go through a warm-up period. The printer lights might flash, and the carriage might move.

Wait until the warm-up period finishes and your printer is idle and silent before you proceed.

Then, follow the steps in the below link:

Use this link: https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-officejet-3830-all-in-one-printer-series/7172321/document/c0...

Keep me posted, how it goes!

Have a great day!

Cheers:)

[JamesMacKaye]

I have done all these things (Windows 7) but it still does not print black. When the first HP test page was printed there was black, but parts of the text was faded or missing. The second page that printed was blank. 

I did clean the heads (including the extra cleaning.) 

[djk111]

After spending quite a bit of time trying to troubleshoot this problem, not to mention wasting a lot of (color) ink printing test documents, it seems that the issue is this; the printer display shows there is still plenty of (black) ink, but changing to a new cartridge instantly solved the problem. The display is now inaccurate in relation to status of ink remaining in cartridge. Extremely annoying.

[JamesMacKaye]

THANK YOU! That did the trick and I'm back in business. I appreciate your research and posting your results.

[miketothed]

Same thing here.  I would appreciate some support.  Tried everything noted in this thread and the others...

I also installed a brand new cartridge as part of my troubleshooting.   I had one on hand as I am part of HPs subscription program.  

[Kumar0307]

@miketothed, Welcome to the HP Support Community!

Try making a standalone copy in Black and check if it works.

Check the estimated ink levels

On the printer control panel, touch the Ink icon  to display the current estimated ink levels.

 Clean the ink cartridges

1. On the printer control panel, swipe the display to the left, and then touch Setup.

2. Touch Tools, and then touch Clean Cartridges.

Print a Print Quality Diagnostic page

1. On the printer control panel, swipe the display to the left, and then touch Setup.

2. Touch Tools, and then touch Print Quality Report.

Let me know how this goes.

If you feel my post solved your issue, please click “Accept as Solution”, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

[miketothed]

Hi Kumar.  Thank you for responding.  Copy does not work either.  I had already attempted the other steps you recommended.   Any other ideas?  Also, I am an ink/print subscriber and at this point I am afraid that the money I'm spending to troubleshoot this in overage print charges is going to cost the same as buying a new printer.  🙂

[Kumar0307]

@miketothed, thank you for the response.

As the issue is related to Instant ink cartridges, I need more information to help you out.

Since the instant ink account details are confidential, please send me the required information via private message.

I am sending you a private message with the information required.

• In order to access your private messages, click the private message icon on the upper right corner of your HP Forums profile, next to your profile Name or simply click on this link: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/notes/privatenotespage  

Keep me posted.

[djk111]

I did all of these steps you mention, in fact multiple times. None of them worked! I finally, grudgingly, changed the black ink cartridge, and then it printed fine. I didn't want to change the cartridge because the display showed I still had plenty of black ink. I AM NOT an ink subscriber. Please let me know if you have resolved this issue. Thank you!