Poor print outs of black ink - color is fine - I change the cart. and it stills gves me poor quality prints- I've tried the cleaning process from the menu - now what?

hello, you are using the photo color ink cart, have you tried running a cleaning cycle or test print, the reason why i ask, is that maybe 1 of the colors is not printing, the test pages would prove what color is missing, if black not printing, it would print possible blue, or no black at all. i know you have put in new inks, but since the volume of ink in these cartridges run out according to usage, one color might run out before the others, and since black and yellow are the most used colors, without them your prints will show color faults.

First hardly reset the printer and the system

hi, i have one of these to, mine is still running on the "test" inks as well but i have all colours in mine, anyway i digress, you can try, going to print something , when the chose printer box apears, choose cpl300 then choose properties ( to the right ) then choose graphics thumbnail, on quality choose best, then at the bottom you will see advanced options, then just click print all txt black, and click darken txt, and that should give you nice black txt....hope this helps

the messages you get for cartridges other than the original are not trustful. You will get the right reading for original(from Brother) cartridges. Some ink is poor for printing photo quality.

not any refillable ink is right for printing photos, sometimes too dark, sometimes you don't get the right mix of colors.

if you replace the black ink cart with an original one then it's the print head
Solution: Cleaning the Print Head - C555 / C560 / C635 / C530 / C545

Untitled Document Follow this procedure to clean the BJ cartridge print head:
1. Press 2. Press 3. Use or to select the [HEAD CLEANING]..
4. Press .
The MultiPASS cleans the print head.

Did you use generic carts?

Do use only original brother ink carts!
Only these have special cleaning fluids mingled with the ink.

There are several advantages, too:


You can run a special cleaning mode (DO insert original carts at first!!!)

Press menue then start bk copy then fourtimes arrow-up.
machine should switch to maintenance mode (buttons will flash).
press 7 then 6 then 4 then start bk copy. machine will refresh ink within the tubes and the print head and run a special cleaning routine. when finished press 7 then 6 then 3 then start bk copy to run a power cleaning. leave the maintenance mode by pressing 9 then 9.

The machine should print without proböems. If there is a poor quality left, the printhead is affected by bad ink and cant be fixed anymore.

This problem is very simple for printers like these. In normal situations problems involving 2 cartridge (Black & Color) prints degrading in quality involve a failure of the print head nozzles or a calibration error.

It is also possible that you have "cleaned" your cartridges out, as cleaning forces ink through the nozzles at high pressure to force out dried particles, then rubs them off into the stopper sponge.

The beauty and only advantage to two cartridge printers is that if you ever have a print head die or lose print quality, you simply replace the cartridge, since the print head is installed into it.

Print heads and their tendency to fail increase by triple if you use cartridge refills or remanufactured cartridge sets. It is true that 2 cart systems have more expensive ink, but that is the price you pay for convenience. The heads on these cartridges are designed to have a set job life, between 250-600 prints, or the estimated maximum prints in lowest quality ink saver modes, and refilling it causes those heads to keep using the same tiny, high pressure bursts of ink, even after the pumps are wearing and deforming, causing leftover ink in the nozzles, leading to a popped pump or clogged heads.

Thinking in the long term, the next time you upgrade to a new printer, look at a 4 cart or more system, with a dedicated print head. Although the printers can cost an extra $50-$100, these can often times pay themselves back the difference after you have changed each cartridge twice, since you arent throwing away 2 thirds of your color cart when only one color runs out.
I just got a hold of the MP530 by Canon, which yea, compared to the 130 is very expensive.. but the cost per page of printing is about 27 cents lower! I can also bring these removable print heads back to life so easily that I taught a 5th grader how in 5 minutes, so its just a thought!

1. Took out the color ink cart and clean the copper contacts of the ink cart with cotton swab, make sure that you do not touch the silver nozzle .
2. Try new ink color ink carts as someime this issue came up when the ink carts are about to finish up.
3. Replace the ink carts and do not us a refill ink.

Unplug machinepowercord. Open printer and take all carts out. Plug in power. Machine demands carts. Put new one in: Replace with original ink carts!. When asked push 1 (yes New cart). If you have used thirdparty carts, there could be a prob due to construticon or ink quality. In case there is no bk after 3x cleaning cycles anymore, the head is clogged: This happens because the filter in front of the nozzels is clogged by pigmented ink. DO USE ONLY DYE INK for all types of brother inkjet machines!!!

Hi denzirelli, Apparently several reviews of this printer say it is known for poor print quality when dealing with graphics AND the tubes can become blocked. As far as troubleshooting goes if you haven?t done so already purchase a new set of official Brother ink jet cartridges, black and color. The newer ink jets are a lot smarter and remember the last couple of cartridge serial numbers. If that doesn?t work then try running the nozzle cleaning utility a couple of times. If that fails call the Brother and let them walk you through the troubleshooting process. I don?t suggest you lie, just don't volunteer the fact that you were evil and tried to deprive them of their profit. Worst case they won?t do a warrantee replacement, best case is you?ll have a working printer. If you don?t want to pursue the above option or if tech support won?t help then we?re back to troubleshooting again, when you say it doesn?t print black does that mean colors do print? If that?s the case then I suspect the black tube or the nozzles are blocked. From what I?ve read it?s a little bit of a pain to remove the print head but the key is not to disconnect the tubes. Remove the print head and the cartridge container as a unit. The ribbon cables have to be unplugged from the circuit board. Disconnect the belt and you should be able to take the print head out and clean it. Let us know how it turns out and don?t forget to rate the posting.