HP Photosmart C7280 Black Ink won't print

[retiredfireman]

I have the cure for the wont print in black ink, and can fix the problem.

P.S. The more printers i repair i find that the user either recently replaced the black ink cartridge or alot of them tried to refill their origional cartridge

[Bob_Headrick]

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@retiredfireman wrote:

I have the cure for the wont print in black ink, and can fix the problem. [snip]

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Would you care to share the details?  This forum is for users helping users.

[manny676]

OK - I don't know if anyone here tried this solution, but here's what worked for me:

I own an HP Photosmart C3100. It uses the HP Cartridges # 92 for color ink, and #93 for black ink.

Some time ago, I decided to replace my ink myself to save some money. (Yes, I replaced all the ink

in the black and color cartridges)

After about a week, the black stopped printing. I tried the usual steps - "cleaning" the heads with the HP

software, etc etc. Nothing worked.

Here's what worked for me: I filled a small dish (about 3 inches wide) about half way with 1 part hot

water and 1 part rubbing alcohol. I then placed the ink cartridge in the solution. Just to be specific,

I placed the cartridge in the solution with the copper strip and printer head into the solution. basically,

it was oriented the same way it is when its sitting in the printer. I wiggled it around a lttle, and the water

turned dark as ink fell off the head.

I then took it out of the solution (after about 10 seconds maybe) and wiped it dry with a paper towel. Placed

it back in the pritner, and WHAM! - she's printing again.

I know this may not work for you, but if you've replaced your ink with another brand, my guess is that

maybe the brand of ink you've used clogged the printer head area. &#@*^ happens. Anyway, you will

notice a huge difference in how the head looks once you've cleaned it this way. What do you have to

lose? Try it.

Manny

[retiredfireman]

The problem is an air pocket trapped by a vacuum in the cartridge. The fix: take the cartridge out, clean up the surface and place the cartridge in a 45 degree angle and let stand over night then place back in pronter and go to town. Every now and then give the cartridge a shake and place back into the 45 degree position.

[grahamt]

Manny,

Interesting to hear this but this particular thread relates to the C7280 printer family, which use the different 363 ink cartridge delivery system.  The solution you describe is not likely to be appropriate as it is our experience that the problem relates to the ink delivery system "plumbing", not the ink cartridges themselves.

Suggest you might want to open an issue related to those printers that use 92/93 ink cartridges and post this information there.

[hpdisappointed]

I am so disappointed to find out that the problem I now have with my HP C5180 printer goes back so far!  And just my luck, this printer won't print black problem has to surface after my 3 years warranty is over.  Funny thing, there's no problem printing documents in pdf but not MS Word. I will try the various solutions mentioned and hopefully it will save me a trip to HP service center  (plus time & $).  For the record, I only use original HP ink  cartridge from day 1.

[GAMS]

Thank you for this post. I found it the most helpful of them all. Printer technician told me that printer was probably not repairable, however after pumping isopropal alcohol via a syringe (multiple times) and printing multiple pages of mostly black, then pages of text, and many cartridge cleans and alignments (via system tools), the black is nearly back to normal (some fine lines visible, but these may disappear after a bit more cleaning and use). My belief is that this printer is prone to having the black ink dry and cake in the feed to, and/or on the printhead. Aggressive cleaning and regular use appear to be the only solution.

[KeithFoy]

OK...I've posted this before but gotten no responses.  HP help is lame.  I'm no IT wiz and they know about as much as me. 

To clarify...my C7280 all-in-one printer has a screen that shows ink levels.  It shows that the ink is full.  My Solution Center shows ink is full.  So I was surprised when I tried to print and the print command told me my new blk cartridge was empty. 

Sadly, I needed to print ASAP so I chose the us color option.  Ran out of yellow...replaced that with HP ink Cartridge and got a message that now the yellow is out but the blk is ok. 

Saw the message line that this is a known problem with this printer.  Wish I knew that before buying 2 years ago. 

So is this a printer issue or software issue?

[KeithFoy]

HP 363 ink system? 

Don't know...I buy the HP 02 cartridges but as I've asked...is this an issue with the ink cartridges?  I don't think so. 

My printer will print (off another PC wireless to the printer)...just not off my slimline. 

Suggest anyone else who has this problem hook up their printer to another PC/laptop and try to print.

[PattonJR]

I have an OfficeJet 6500 that suddenly quit printing black.

I will change the cartridge in the next couple days, but something is not right.

Yesterday I tried to print a picture for my daughter and it came out looking like a negative.  I figured out that it was not printing black, and only printing the colors.  I just wanted to print it quickly, so I didn't tell the printer it was printing a picture.

If I print a text document, I either get nothing, or some faint letters consisting of colored ink.

All that would lead you to believe that I'm having an issue with my black cartridge...

HOWEVER, if I tell the printer that it is printing a picture, everything works fine.  I can get it to print a text document in black if I tell it I am printing a picture.  The text quality is a little low, but it works.

I tried the "reset to factory default" thing, and it printed one page fine, and then it went back to not printing black.

I will try uninstalling and reinstalling drivers.

Any other suggestions?