My printer declines to fill black boxes

Vorpal

I'm not sure what to call this problem, so I'm not sure how to check in. I've done things like nozzle checks and head alignments on my printer and everything seems to be ok.

Or rather...the printer prints out everything in red/yellow/blue correctly and the black doesn't print.

The black cartidge is full - newly replaced in fact.

When I try to print something that is both color and black and white, it seems to print fine. I if I print something that is ONLY black and white then I only get the 'outlines' of any black area and the inside is not filled.

So a barcode, foe example, is a series of empty white boxes instead of alternating white and black stripes.

It's not smudgy or spotty or anything like that...which makes me think the printer believes it's doing the right thing. My question is...I have no idea what settings I should be looking at to change this?

I have an Epson 600. Windows XP.

Pantshandshake

First, I would say to check that your drivers are up to date.

After that, I would ask you if you're telling the printer to only use b/w when printing a page that is only b/w.

Gihgehls

Is this coming from all programs? Is it a PDF? Does it do this with text as well? I'd try printing from another program.

Cambiata

I'm wondering if this could be part of some "ink saving" setting for the printer? Or a "draft" setting?

Vorpal

I don't have it set to draft. I set it to 'fine' to see if that fixed it, which it didn't.

I have tried it with the 'black ink only' setting as well, which didn't seem to change it.

I took a screenshot of what I wanted to print (I was printing a shipping label from ebay) and put it in paint and that also printed funnily.

I'll try pasting it into word next.

Essee

Yeah, you might want to check the all the print quality settings (I haven't had EXACTLY this happen, but the Draft setting in particular tends to be a little wonky on most printers). And yeah, try printing from a different program as well (but check your print settings first). I gotta say though...

Vorpal wrote: »

I have an Epson 600.

I think that's your problem right there, haha. I'm not gonna tell you that you HAVE to go out and buy another printer, but... really... Epson products have been causing headaches like this for years. I don't like HP much, for example, but I HATE Epson for their printers causing weird things like this to happen, and I never really hear anything good about them. If you're going to be spending money trying to fix this anyway, you might want to think about this stuff, though. When I next get a printer I'm just gonna go with a Brother laser printer and hopefully no longer have to hate my own printers, just other people's. Plus I'll probably save massive amounts of money due to buying toner instead of ink and not having to worry about it drying out.

Pantshandshake

I have to say this because I'm employed by them: Buy a Ricoh printer!

That being said, if you spill toner, don't clean it up with a liquid. Clean it up with a vacuum cleaner.

Essee

Pantshandshake wrote: »

I have to say this because I'm employed by them: Buy a Ricoh printer!

That being said, if you spill toner, don't clean it up with a liquid. Clean it up with a vacuum cleaner.

I will happily take this under advisement. :P

supabeast

+1 to get another printer. On the off chance that an Epson works right the quality cannot be beat. But for the most part all they do is drive you crazy. Unless you need to print in gorgeous color a B&W laser printer will save you lots of time and money.

Vorpal

Thanks for the tips guys. I do not need to print in gorgeous color. I just need to be able to print shipping labels

Cabezone

The best thing for BW is a cheap laser.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828113690

These brother printers are very good for the money.