Does not print black even though cartridge is full and ink seemingly flows out of the cartridge when touched with a paper towel. All other colors work OK

Although you are only trying to print a B & W picture, the color print cartridge/cartridges must also contain ink in order for the printer to work. All print cartridges must contain ink for printing of any type to take place.
Load the color print cartridges and the B & W picture will print.
If you were trying to print a color picture and the B & W cartridge was empty, the printer also, would not print.
I hope this helps you out.
Good Luck

Hi,
I would like to share with you my personal experience with printer issues. I have canon i455 printer which has black & blue color clogged. Here is the solution:
1. Buy Ethyl-alcohol/ethanol solution (70% or more). You can purchase this at any drug stores. Isopropyl alcohol may work as well.
2. Remove both cartridges from the printer head. Unplug the printer head from the printer body. Pour the alcohol liquid into paper towel layer (use more layer/thick to avoid ink from being drop into table).
3. put the printer head on the top of wet towel - with the face of HEAD touching the towel.
4. rub the head to the towel until you get rid of built-up ink on the head.
5. Pour some alcohol liquid into the printer head container (ink-receptacle area where the ink cartridge normally sits (there should be a little hole down in there where the ink actually flows from the cartridge into the head). Be careful do not touch the electronic parts. Let's dry overnight.
6. repeat step 2-5 if necessary.
7. Install the cartridge back to the printer and run several head cleaning maintenance, print nozzle check, repeat until no more dead nozzle shown.

good luck!

Need one plastic plate that you don't care much about, or a plastic disposable plate.
Tear off one section from a paper towel roll and roll it up into about a 1-inch diameter roll.
Flatten the roll
Soak the flattened roll in warm water
Lay the flattened roll down on the plate
Place the nozzle area of the ink cartridge directly against the wet paper towel
Fold the flattened roll as needed to support the ink cartridge so it stands upright.

The trick here is to make sure the cartridge is supported upright so the nozzles come in full contact with the wet towel surface.
The wet towel acts as a wick to soften and draw out the ink.
After awhile, you shoudl see a kaleidoscope of colors on the paper towel. This indicates the nozzles have been opened up and the ink is flowing. Try to print and see what happens.
Repeat as needed.

Your print head is clogged or damaged. Press the print head into a paper towel. You should get a nice block of black or three stripes of color. If not, try placing print head on paper towels soaked with warm water to get the ink flowing (ink may soak through paper towels, so beware of where you do this). Then try pressing the print head onto dry paper towels as before. If you can't get the ink flowing, you need a new cartridge because the print head is clogged with dried up ink.

Sounds like your black cartridge is either empty or clogged. Take out the black cartridge and press the print head against a moist paper towel. You should see a nice black rectangle, if you don't you could try placing the print head on a wet paper towel for a few minutes to wick out the ink (ink may seep through the paper towel so beware what surface you do this on). If after this there is still no ink flowing, buy a new cartridge.

A technique to improve print quality is to try and clean the cartridge nozzles. You may clean the cartridge by following the steps given below:

1. Go to the "Lexmark solution center." This can be done by clicking on "Start," go to "Programs" and Lexmark printer group. Click on the "Lexmark Solution center." Next click on the "Maintenance" Tab.
2. Select "Clean and Fix Horizontal streaks." Click on "Print". This will produce a printed page.

The colors that you should see here are black, yellow, magenta (a reddish purple) and cyan (a dark sky blue). You should notice the diagonal lines above and below the solid horizontal lines. These diagonal lines should be solid from left to right with no gaps.

If there are gaps in the lines or the print diminishes across the page, you should run the "Clean Print Nozzle" page a couple more times to try and clear it up. If you still have gaps at the top and bottom, you should "wick" the cartridges by following the steps given below:

1. Please open the "Solution center" again and go to the "Maintenance" Tab.
2. Select "Install color/black cartridge" and remove the cartridge or cartridges from the printer.
3. Get a damp paper towel.
4. Set the ink cartridge right side up on the damp paper towel so that the ink nozzles are against the towel and hold the cartridge in this position for about 15 seconds.
5. Now wipe the print head (on the bottom where the ink comes out) across in one direction only (left to right) until it looks clean.
6. Next dab the cartridge on the towel to make sure that the ink is flowing.
7. Snap the cartridges back into the printer.
8. On your computer, select "Old Cartridge install."
9. Repeat the "Clean Nozzle Page" one more time. If this fails to address the problem the entire procedure may need repeating.

Next, try this printer self-test by following the steps given below:
1. Power the printer off.
2. Press and hold the "Paper Feed" button.
3. While still holding the "Paper Feed" button, press and release the "Power" button. Continue holding the "Paper Feed" button.
4. When the printer starts pulling paper, release the "Paper Feed" button. It should print a test page at this point.
5. Power the printer off, as this test is continuous.

The self-test should at least print out a set of either a solid black or solid color bars, if not both (if you have a printer with both color and black installed simultaneously). Should this test fail, please try it again without cartridges installed. If the self-test still fails to take paper in and make sounds like the carrier is moving across the paper, this is a hardware issue, and the printer will require service. If the self-test completes without any cartridges installed, run the self-test again with only a color cartridge installed (If you have both black and color cartridges, after this test, run the test again with just the black cartridge installed). If you find that either cartridge causes the self-test to fail, please let us know.

If the self-test prints, but has lines or smudges or other print quality issues, please let us know.

To solve the printing problem..


# Hold the cartridge upside down, with the bar-code label facing you and take a damp paper towel.
# Use the towel to wipe the printhead of the cartridge on the bottom (where the ink comes out). Wipe the printhead horizontally in one direction only (left to right).
# Continue doing this until it looks clean.
# Then dab the cartridge on the towel to make sure the ink is flowing.
# Next, look inside the printer and locate the carrier that holds ink cartridges. Caution: Make sure the cartridges are not installed at this point.

1. Look for a shiny piece of metal underneath the contacts at the back of the carrier.
2. Take a damp cotton swab (use water only!) and wipe along the bottom of the shiny metal piece. Note: You may need more than one swab.

# Reinstall the cartridges, making sure you snap them correctly into the printer.


Hope this help. Please Rate My Response! Thanks!

The print heads on your ink cartridges have dried up. Ink printers need to print in black and white and color once a week. Doing this will extend the usable life of your cartridge because the ink will not dry on the print head and clog it. You can try and get the ink flowing yourself by resting the print head on a warm moist paper towel until you see ink on the towel (ink stains most surfaces so be careful where you do this). To check your progress, press the print head into a dry paper towel. You should see three entire distinct colors for the color cartridge and one black line for the black cartridge. If you can't get it flowing again you will need to buy new cartridges. You can get Dell refills from Cartridge World if you would like to save some money.

The Z715 needs a #50 black ink cartridge and a working color cartridge to print. To check if there ios ink coming out of your black or color cartridge touch the bottom of it to a paper towel and if you see a solid black blob or 3 blobs of Yellow, blue and red for the color then your problem is else where. If U are printing stuff from the internet sometimes the printer will try to use the color cartridge to print this so even though the black is working it comes out blank if the color is dry

How may times did you use the printer to print befor this happened? If you used it a lot then you may need to buy more ink. My printer showed full ink and it turned out that they were empty.