Officejet 4500 will not print black ink

[mbknubi]

over 12K persons looking at is and from what I can tell over about a 4 yr period not a solution.  I am NO expert.  I do have 3 HP printers and have had several over the years beyond that.  I would estimate 10.  I have recommended HP printers to so many people and would estimate that I have been responsible for over 20 HP printers being bought because of those recommendations.  The reason I am here at the forum is because there is NO useful help for this problem under support and    all the forum has done is confirm for me that there is an unacknowledged problem here.  

This is not the first time in the last year or two that I have been frusrated by HP.  I help family, friends, and elderly with computer and printer problems and when I endorse a product, it is my reputation, not the manufacturers that I am concerned with.

To put this (and simili aar problems) into perspective, think about that number at the beginning of this thread, greater than 12,000 and add to that similiar threads all having to do with black ink problems.  Now think about how many of us went out , following HP's trouble shooting directions that led us to buy a new ink cartrige and multiply that by about $30.00 depending on the circumstances under which you bought replacements.  Now I don't know how many other problems call for one to buy a new ink cartrige, but at a minimum this problem has had persons spend over a quarter of a million $'s and I would guess closer to a million dollars with a minumum of exageration of worthless troubleshooting.

Just a sample of how silly things can get, recognize that to TS this or similar problems, you are asked to print out a "test-report" to TS.  The problem with that is that printing that report requires black ink!

The simple fact that there have been over  12000 persons on this one thread alone suggests that HP does not respond to design problems.  I have no doubt that they may try to resolve individual complaints, but not problem with their design.  HP if you want to be my recommendation, then  solve your problems, not just satify my complaint.

Mike K

[ohyo101]

Hello,

Just to follow up, my parents had the same problem with their HP Officejet 4500. My dad had been using the large black ink cartridge. A sales rep at Staples recommended a regular sized one instead. This ended up working, so he will use only the regular black ink in the future.

As for the issue with my Officejet 6500, I wrote up the solution in another reply, but essentially, I soaked the printhead in water for 6 minutes and put it back. This didn't work, but after running through the reset process several times it finally started working again. In the future I may only buy the small black ink cartridge as well.

I've also seen a consumer reports article that recommends not turning your printer off as every time you turn it on it goes through a cleaning process that may use a lot of ink (this is not exclusive to HP printers). I hope this helps. It seems like for every black ink problem there is a different solution. I may hold on to my Epson printer in the meantime.

Best Regards.

[mbknubi]

thanks for the suggestion.  My friends printer had the XL black cartridge.  I bought a small black cartridge.  That has not solved the problem.  I have not tried soaking a cartridge in water.  I did try cleaning contacts with alcohol and q-tips.  Though it just seem counter-intuitive to soak a cartridge in water, we certainly don't have much to lose.

[mallar]

Thanks ohyo101,  I have replaced the printer with a new (cheap) one and sold the other one in a garage sale  - which coincidentally was resold in another garage sale about 1 year later.  Your  suggestions are being filed for future reference.

Thanks!

[Ciara_B]

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@JohnNN wrote:

Soaking a brand new ink cartridge does not seem a practical solution for me. The ink cartridges were fine but not printing in black we change to brand new HP ink cartridge this did not help but after a few restarts it started to work. after a week it stopped again.

Please explain why this is happening to these printers I have 4 hp 4500 all-in-one in jet printers doing this. All are brand new.

HP ink system is too expensive per yield to continue to switch or drain cartridges.

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Hi John, as these are new printers I would strongly suggest contacting HP phone support as you may require printer replacements. Out of interest, do the printers sound noisy as they're trying to print?

Thanks

Ciara

[Ciara_B]

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@gubbinhimer wrote:

I have spent the last hour and a half exslpaining to costomer support about the same issue.

    My printer will not print black ink

I recieved this 4500 as a replacement for a c4780 model that was also having ink issues.

I did not get a satisfactory response from the support .

  I think the quality of HP has Dimminished considerably over the last ten years .

It is sad that a company that has been known for cutting edge computers and quality has gotten this bad. 

    Supports suggestion was for Me to purchase a new printer from them , and purchase additional warrenty .

My sugestion is not to purchase any more Hp , until they get there quality standards back .

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Hi, sorry to hear that the replacement OJ 4500 you got is having issues. I'd like to help follow on this for you, can you please tell me which country your based in?

Thanks, Ciara

[DeeAnne]

I want to thank the posters and respondents for the very careful and detailed posts in this thread.

Now I know that this is an HP product problem which has been driving me up the wall for the last couple of months, I can stop buying expensive ink cartridges (I have been using the Black XL), forget about buying the cheaper cartridges because apparently that doesn't work for long either.

Because it has been important for me to generate material in MS Word, I have been typing and then changing the color of the text to "Dark Blue, Text 2, 25%" which is sufficiently close to pass for black text that I could hand it out at meetings without getting strange looks, or questions about having an identity crisis.  lol

Any suggestions on a RELIABLE wireless printer that a not very tech savvy person can purchase, plug in and stand back from with a smile on her face when it starts to work?  I currently have a Dell All In One purchased at the same time, November 2010.  Frankly I'm beginning to wonder if an entire new system is in order, but my computer guy has gone walkabout, and I'll have to find a replacement for him as well.

Sheesh, I hate computers!

But I do thank everyone on this thread for solving the mystery that has plagued me for some time now.  With all of you out there, at least I know (on this issue) I am not nuts.  

[Ciara_B]

Hi DeeAnne, check out the wireless printer buying guide...

http://h71036.www7.hp.com/hho/cache/600943-0-0-225-121.html

[BenLauer]

So the only tech who shows up in the forum is here to remind us that this isn't tech support while we're all having the same problem with your poorly written driver software.. thanks.. this was less than I expected.