Printing Errors or Lights & Stuck Print Jobs

Suddenly one day the black ink stopped printing, (good at the top 1/3 of the page, then spotty-intermittent in the middle 1/3, to no black in the bottom 1/3.)   I tried all the remedies in the archived threads regarding this problem for a C309a.

1.  Hard reset (hold 3 plus # key for 25 seconds, press the power button to power off, disconnect from wall current, hold 3 plus # keys for 25 sec, power the printer back on holding the 3 plus # keys for another 25 seconds).
2. Manual cleaning of the printhead (remove, wipe gently until no ink on wiper, soak in hot water for 10 mins, dry elec contacts, dry upside down for 15 mins, re-insert, run 3 printhead cleaning cycles).
3. Replaced printhead with new prart purchased from HP parts store.

#2 done 6 times now - no change except photo black also stopped printing.

#3 The part number HP provided is apparently incompatible with the printer.  (Mechanically fits fine, appears to be identical to the old one, but immediately fails initialization with "ink system failure 0xC19A0013 turn printer off then on".  Power down / up leads to same error as does hard reset.  Can't access the menu to do a factory reset with the new printhead in place.

I replaced the old printhead after yet another cleaning, and I am back to printing with no black or photo black. 

Is it possible that the new print head requires a printer firmware upgrade that is not available from support downloads?  (Printer reports firmware version VAx2FN0933AR.)

Any other ideas on how to get black printing again?