Photosmart 6510 won't print black

[joeyb4]

Replaced the black ink cartridge and now printer won't print black--other colors print fine. Went through all the troubleshooting steps, test pages either have no black or some of the black is barely visible, like a ghost. "Clean Printhead" goes through the first stage, but then there's no prompt to go to the second stage. Align Printer ends with the message "Alignment failed. You may continue but Cartridges are not calibrated for best print quality." Tried another new ink cartridge but got exact same results. I posted this once before and got a response from HP, but the printer is no longer under warranty and they didn't come up with anything that helped. I'm hoping someone else has a suggestion. Thanks very much.

[Bob_Headrick]

The troubleshooting steps in the document here may help resolve black not printing on your Photosmart 6510. 

If the standard troubleshooting did not resolve black not printing I would suggest removing the black cartridge.  Turn it over and examine the area around the ink port.  There are four orange plastic spots, left over from the protective cap.  Make sure these are flush with the cartridge body, if not carefully trim them flush.  If the plastic nubs protrude they can prevent the cartridge from seating properly.  Before replacing the cartridge in the printer dribble a few (maybe four) drops of hot water into the ink port in the printer and two drops into the ink port on the cartridge then snap the cartridge back in position.  

It may also help to manually clean the printhead as described in the post here.

I have also seen cases where leaving the printer overnight after the cleaning cycles allows black to recover.

If none of the above restores black printing your printer will likely require repair or replacement.