HP Officejet 6500 E709n printer - black ink not printing

[EmilyGud]

Mine is not printing black ink either!! Was just working fine last week! Frustrating as I really need to print something right now! What could the problem be? Never had an issue before this.

[chacha523]

I found the SOLUTION that worked  for me.  It was a hard reset, as detailed by user bassergitz on 10-31-2011 (http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-All-in-One-Software/won-t-print-black-even-after-cleaning-heads... It almost seemed too easy, but after trying everything, it did actually work. Hopefully it stays that way!

Hard Reset – While printer is powered ON, pull

the power cord from the printer then from the

wall. After 30 seconds reconnect power to wall

and printer. This will trigger a ‘dirty power up’

and restore the printer to a known good

condition (if it is possible). No user settings are

lost with a ‘hard reset’.

This ‘Hard Reset’ is one of the most powerful

tools to use when the printer hardware is not

functioning properly!

[dpic44]

I was so excited to see that there was a solution, but unfortunately it didn't work for me.  I'm at my wits end with this printer.  It's about to tossed out the window, ugh!!!!  It prints everything but black.

I found some black ink that leaked onto the part that holds the cartridges and cleaned it.  But even with that, no luck.  If anyone else has something to add I would really appreciate it.  I can't afford a new printer right now.

Thanks to all who posted!

[Bob_Headrick]

The procedure in this post may help.

[chacha523]

That's odd that you found black ink inside the printer. The same thing had happened to me. It was only the black ink, and it looked liked it had exploded and splattered in the back right hand corner inside the printer (if you're standing in front, bent down, peeking in.) I had replaced a cartridge while I was troubleshooting it, so I think the splatter was from the old one. Not sure if that had anything to do with the issue.

[Bob_Headrick]

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@chacha523 wrote:
That's odd that you found black ink inside the printer. The same thing had happened to me. It was only the black ink, and it looked liked it had exploded and splattered in the back right hand corner inside the printer [snip]

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This is normal, the printer "spits" some ink into the service station on the right to keep the nozzles from clogging.  The ink looks black because it is made up of black and then all the color inks which mix to look black.  See here for some information on how ink is used.

[bmongilio]

I am having the same problem as others here and occurring in a similar fashion - black was printing and now doesn't. I saw Bob's solution but haven't tried yet. Doesn't it seem odd though that we would all have the same issue at abut the same time? Or are there just that many owners of this particular printer that it's just a coincidence?

[dpic44]

It does seem strange.   That's why I asked about a Windows update and the color profile.  Maybe it's some kiind of virus.  I've never seen anything like it.

[elktonbrant]

Add me in on the conversation on the 6500 e709 and black ink issues. 

I'm running Windows 7, 64-bit with service pack 1 on a Lenovo purchased 9 months ago.

I had to replace an ink cartridge this evening as a normal part of the office life cycle.  It worked for about 5 pages then disappeared.  I have run 3 cleaning cycles and a hard shutdown as suggested above.

Has HP put out a bad batch of cartridges?  The one I just replaced is stamped "China OCT 2013".  I pulled the box out of recycling to check this, and I plan to hold it until I know of a better solution.

At least I have a laser printer that I can also use (Though it's more expensive per page)...

Thanks to Bob for all of his ideas. 

[EmilyGud]

I had also just replaced the ink about a week prior to it not working...