Black ink stops printing about 1/4 of way down page

Did you refill the cartridge? If so, then you will need to reset a chip on the cartridge somehow. Usually epson doesn't sell "refill" ink unless it is an EcoTank series printer.

Make sure you are inserting genuine Lexmark cartridges.
Try to clean the cartridge nozzles. Refer to the steps below:

Cleaning the Print Cartridge Nozzles:

1. Open the Lexmark Solution Center. Click Start > Programs or All Programs > Lexmark 1300 Series. Select Solution Center.

2. From the Maintenance tab, click Clean to fix horizontal streaks.

3. Click Print. A nozzle page prints, forcing ink through the nozzles to clean the clogged nozzles.

4. Print the document again to verify that print quality has improved.

Using the control panel

1. Press Menu.

2. Press the down arrow button until you highlight Clean Cartridge.

3. Press Select. A nozzle page prints, forcing ink through the nozzles to clean the clogged nozzles.

4. Print the document again to verify that print quality has improved.

If the yellow ink is not printing here's what you can do:

Clean the Printhead & Print a test page by doing the ff:

1. Press the Ink Management button press the Up or down arrow key to select Test Print, then select Print Quality press OK and press Black or Color START. Check all the colors including the black & check if there are any missing dots and if there are any colors not printing correctly.

2. Press the Ink Management button on the control panel and select cleaning press ok

3. Press the up or down arrow key to select Color press ok and press Black Start.

*After the cleaning process the printer will ask you if the quality is OK, press up or down to select yes or no, and it will ask you whether black or color is ok, once you have selected you're answer press Black or Color START to print another test page. Compare the 1st and 2nd test page if it's improving, you may need to do this 3-5 times or until you get a better quality

Hope this helps.

Rate if it worked Thanks!

I have a brother MFC 3240C. My Black ink stopped printing(initially printed horizontal faded lines and gradually got worse), the other colors were printing fine. I tried cleaning numerous time( 50 -100 times over 1-2 weeks ). Still no improvement. The way I print now is:
1. I go to Printer Properties
2. Change Media type from "Plain Paper" to "Inkjet Paper".
3. Change Quality to "Photo".

This takes a long time to print 1-2 minutes per page. However, this works for me since this is my Home printer and use it for printing only few pages here are there.

Good Luck
RK

I have a brother MFC 3240C. My Black ink stopped printing(initially printed horizontal faded lines and gradually got worse), the other colors were printing fine. I tried cleaning numerous time( 50 -100 times over 1-2 weeks ). Still no improvement. The way I print now is:
1. I go to Printer Properties
2. Change Media type from "Plain Paper" to "Inkjet Paper".
3. Change Quality to "Photo".

This takes a long time to print 1-2 minutes per page. However, this works for me since this is my Home printer and use it for printing only few pages here are there. Better than throwing the printer.

Good Luck
RK

Print a self test diagnostic page to check the status of the black ink and print heads.

To print the self-test diagnostic page

• Control panel: Press (Configuration Page button), or press and hold the (Cancel button) for 3 seconds.

For models that support networks: Press (Configuration Page button).

If these are all showing OK then clean the printheads

To clean the printheads
If printed characters are incomplete, or dots or lines are missing from printouts, ink nozzles might be clogged and you might need to clean the printheads.

NOTE: Cleaning uses ink, so clean the printheads only when necessary.

The cleaning process takes up to 3.5 minutes. Some noise might be generated in the process.
• Control panel: Press and hold (Power button), press (Cancel button) two times, press (Resume button) one time, and release (Power button).

If this fails then replace the black cartridge and run a clean cycle again and then a self test diagnostic then try printing again.

HI since you tried replacing the cartridges and cleaning the printhead, try the steps below.

1.Print a Demo Page.

a.Press the Menu button of the printer.
b.Use the down arrow key and select Print Demo Sheet.
c.Press OK button.

If demo page doesnt have black ink or faded prints,the printhead on your printer require replacement. Call 1.800.421.6699

Thanks.

Regards,

Neerak21

Firstly I suspect you are not using genuine cartridge or you have refilled the cartridge.
To fix this you need to disable the ink checking procedure.

Do you know that low ink or ink has run out message appears once cartridge empty. If you want to use refill ink in that cartridge then you need to deactivate ink level to get your printer run as usual. Check the following tips to fix low ink error message in case of refill ink usage. Below some methods to deactivate ink level detection function for some models due to its similarity.
METHOD I:
Press RESUME/CANCEL button once

Related models:
BJC series: bjc3000,8200,etcS series: s400,600,800,6300,9000etc
i Series: i255,320,350,355,450,470d,550,560,850,950,6100,6500,9100,etc
Pixma series: ip1000,1200,1300,1500,1600,1700,2000,2200,3000,4000,etc
METHOD II:
Hold down RESUME/CANCEL button for 5 seconds or more

Related models:
Latest models of Pixma series: ip1880,1980,3300,3500,4200,4500,5200,6700d,pro9000,9500,ix4000,5000,etc

METHOD III:
Press START button once, select COLOR button for colour cartridge; BLACK button for black cartridge

Applicable models:
Pixma MP150,160,170,180,450,460,475,etc


METHOD IV:
Hold down STOP/RESET button for 5 seconds or more

Applicable models:
Latest models of Pixma MP/MX series: MP145,228,245,520,800,850,970,MX308,318,7600,et

It sounds like you have a black ink leak and it is smearing onto the paper when you print. I don't know any reasons for this except if you topped the black ink up yourself, and didn't re-block the hole you made. Then I guess the ink would gravity drip onto the paper tray while you weren't printing. Otherwise I would suggest changing the print head, but this might be expensive.

Your balck ink printhead is clogged with buit up ink. Manually clean it with cotton buds and proper cleaning solution, right doen where cartridge sits and the contact area the ink part of cartrigde contacts. Try printing now. Did you reset ink levels too?