I had an almost full black cartridge in my ESP-3 and it stopped printing any black. I put a brand new cartridge in and it printed for half a page and then stopped. I went out and purchased another and it did exactly the same thing. Help! Thanks, Nancy P.s. The color cartridge works perfectly.

there must not be as same as you are saying but it may perhaps happen that, live cartridge doesnt perform due to improper heating of that printer. its heating mechanism may have failed, go to its care center and get treated...

I'm having this same problem with both black and a color cartridge. I see the small scratches, so looks like they are connecting all right. The new cartridges are Kodak brand, so that's not the problem.
I'll try calling them about the print head if that might be the problem.

Inkjet printers need to be used frequently to prevent inkdrying out in the print head nozzles.
If the print head cleaning maintenance routine does not clear the blockages,then print head needs replacing, but it may be expensive.
It may be more cost effective to buy a later model and better printer thanreplace the print head.

Cleaning the print-heads is the correct action to take -- if the ink-jets are clogged, then the ink (in either old or new cartridges) cannot be sprayed onto the paper.

Note that the print-head has multiple jets -- like painting across a wall with a wide paint-brush.
So, if you don't have paint on the top half of the brush, then only the bottom half of each row on the wall will get painted.

Try some more head-cleaning cycles.

Probably a factory defect. Return the printer and get your money back.

Sounds like print head needs replacing, try the troubleshooting guide on Kodak website, appears to be a common problem with these Kodak printers, if new it should be covered under warrenty although if not they are expensive

Inkjet printers do not like being left unused.
The color print head may be blocked. Try several deep cleaning of the print head to see if it can clear the blocked print nozzles.
If none of this works then the print head needs to be replaced. A new cartridge will not solve this problem.
NOTE the print head is not a cheap item, you may consider putting the money towards a new and better printer.

I am having this problem too! prints color but not black, brand new cartridge, sorry I am no help, but looking for help myself!

We are going to attempt to do a "power purge" to get rid of any clogged ink nozzles. Note, this will probably eat up about half of your ink, but that is the price you must pay in order to attempt to fix this bad boy.

1) Get into maintenance mode. Press these keys: Menu -> Black Start -> Scan x4 (hit it four times). A number pad should come up. If not, do it again.

2) Hit key 7, then key 6.

3) Press the right key until you get to "CLEANING BLACK."

4) Press 3.

5) Press Black Start.

After it purges and gets back to the main maintenance screen, press keys 9 and 9.

Let your printer start back up. If this does not work, try the above steps up to three times. If it does not work then, you need a new print head, which is not a user-replaceable part on this model.

Good luck.

Some of Epson's cartridges went bad that way. It may be a bad cartridge. Get a new one, pull that one out and see what happens. If it works, call Epson for a refund. They had a class action suit for that type of thing, they lost and paid off. I would think they will help you right away.
C