my hp all-in-one printer will not print black when I have lots of ink

Does the printer correctly print black when you run the printer's self-test/cleaning routines?

Read the user manual that came with the printer and/or contact HP tech support. You may need to update it's drivers if you have not already done so.

If the diagnostic/test page doesn't show black, then you have a hardware problem with the printer. You'll need to discuss that with HP support.

Regards.

sallyaa wrote:

Reloaded the driver. Didn't help. Finally put in a new cartridge - didn't help. Black does not show up on diagnostic page.

Did you repair permissions and restart your computer after the installations?

Repairing permissions won't help if even the printer's test page won't print black, BB, which is the situation unless I misunderstand what Sally means by "diagnostic page".

Regards.

I found a solution to this! It's a little bit of a workaround but it works so solidly that I have to recommend it. Just follow the steps and your HP OfficeJet 6500 will be able to use only it's black cartridge without any hassle on your Mac.

1. Start a virtual machine and VMware fusion, virtual box or Parallels and begin a virtual machine with Linux Mint. (Note: I know it's a bit much for one step but it's totally worth not having to pay for another printer or only using color ink for every black page that is printed.)

2. Connect the virtual machine to your network.

3. Open "Software Manager" in the start menu and install "hplib-gui"

4. Open "hplib toolbox" in the start menu and search for your printer here whatever connection you're using for your virtual machine (you don't need to search term to find it).

5. Once you're connected to your printers you will be provided with extensive controls that we would prefer to have on the mac that will be able to completely control everything that you need for your printed document including more layouts than the Mac had.

6. Now go to the "General" tab and then "Output Mode" select the option "black only grayscale".

7. Unlike the Mac's grayscale mode this one actually will force the printer to use only the black cartridge for the printing operation.

8. Hit "Print File".

9. Now get back to work and wasting your time fussing over a printer that should've been built like this for all operating systems.

🙂 Have a nice day.

I am in the same experience, and have been without my printer for over a month now! I have MacBook with an HP Officejet 6700 Premium with was sent to me as an exchange when my Officejet 6500A failed (2 years of Tech Support!). The 6700 is (2013) and I1st got an Error Message that paper was stuck. Then, an Error Message that the Scanner was not functioning. Now, I'm bombarded with Ads and Messages fromHP that my Color Ink cartridges must all 3 be replaced to resume printing. I replaced a BRAND NEW Black cartridge, but printer won't print Black. Unable to locate Presets, but wonder:

POSSIBLE SOLUTION: if we can change the Presets to "Black Only" perhaps the printer would then print Black. Perhaps some else who can find the Preset can try this, or share Presets Location with me? (I used to see them with the 6500A, but don't with this 6700 Printer).

I suspect they're rigged to force us all to replace ALL the cartridges in order to 'allow' us to print. It's very frustrating, because I used to conserve my color ink cartridges for printing photos, didn't have any to print the past 7 months due to illness, and my color cartridges dried out with almost no use, went completely dry on their own! So I wouldn't wasted money on XP (extra large) cartridges in the future.I hope someone finds a way for us to control our owned HP printers, but their software is highly suspect, insofar as 'controlling' the user and as a result, their Bottom Line...

Abycat Alisa, Mountain View