Experiencing Problems In Printing In Black.

[appreciative]

In the utilities exercises, nozzle check and ink check my HP Photosmart Premium 309 will print black but will not print black text in Word. It is a new cartridge (have never used compatibles) and will print black graphics in Word. Has anyone experienced anything similar please. Thank you in anticipation.

[woofgang]

A friend of mine had this problem a few years ago. She solved it by putting a tiny amount of coloured printing on every document. One letter or even a piece of punctuation would do the trick. It may not be an elegant techy solution but it worked!

[appreciative]

Thank you Wolfgang and I have tried typing 'Trying an answerbank answer' with a red e in answer but it just printed the e. Thank you though for your kind attention. Regards, Appreciative. ps I think I have typed this in wrong place but couldn't find anywhere else

[bhg481]

Have you set the text colour to "black" or "auto"? If Auto, try black and see if it makes any difference.

[Bertrum]

You will probably find that the black that it is printing is from the “photo black” cartridge and there is a problem with the black cartridge
HP have had problems like this in the past one of the best ways to get it to start printing is
Removed the black ink cartridge
Run hot water on a towel
Place the cartridge on the towel ink nozzle facing down on the towel and pressing down on the towel.
Do this about three or four times until the ink start to come out.
Dry it with another towel and try again or you could just try shaking the life out of it

[appreciative]

Dear bhg481 and Bertrum,
Thank you - have tried changing colour instruction as suggested and warmed cartridge in damp towel dried and 'printed' again but with no success - how frustrating? Thank you for your attention though. Most appreciated.

[Buenchico]

A couple of thoughts:

1. I've sometimes been surprised to find that I can't print black text if one of the colours won't print properly. (It seems that some printers create black text by using subtractive colour mixing. i.e. by adding the three coloured inks together). So I suggest trying a test print to see if the coloured inks are all printing properly.

If you don't know how to print a test document, you can usually get there (with ANY printer) by going to Start > Devices & Printers. RIGHT-click on the icon for your printer and select 'Printer Properties' (NOT just 'Properties'). Then click on the Maintenance tab and look for the option to print a test sheet.

If a colour isn't printing properly, use the 'Clean print heads' option to rectify the problem. (You might need to run it several times).

2. HP have a special diagnostic tool, called HP Print and Scan Doctor, for solving printer problems. See here: https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c03286146

[appreciative]

Dear Buenchico,
Thank you. Have tried the tests in printer properties and HP's Print and Scan Doctor - all to no avail.

Thank you all for your attention, most appreciated.