DELL Color Printer 720 not printing black

When you don't use your ink carts for a while, when you get new ink carts that have been stored in warehouses for a number of months, or when you have refilled a slightly too dry ink cart, the print head nozzles on the bottom of the ink carts get clogged with dried ink. The printer head cleaner menu will not dissolve the dried ink. Water will. Try this. Soak the bottom of the clogged ink cart in 1/2 inch of hot water for 15-30 minutes. Blot dry with clean paper towel (you should see the ink color on the towel). Retry.

i read about soaking it in water on another post and tried it. miraculously enough it printed great. that is it printed great one page! the second one was seriously fadding. i took it out again and wiped it underneith and printed again. again it worked fine. since then i have discovered that the only way it will print is if i take it out every time i print a page and wipe it clean!!! give me a break!!! i bought the computer (and the printer came free with it ) in april of 2005 and although i don't use it much, i do print once every couple of weeks. the color portion seems to work fine. it's just the black. i had the same issue with an older printer but this one is new and there is no excuse for this to happen.

 

It is possible that your black ink cart is out of ink or at least too low to work. The 720 ink carts get about 250 pages. Some, if not all, of the free 720 come with what is called a starter ink cart which only will print around 50 pages, depending on what you are printing. Ink carts work better when they are used daily. With my 922 I print daily, about 2000 pages a month, and in one year, 24,000 pages, and have only had 1 or 2 head slight head clogs which were immediately cleared with a hot water soak. I use my original ink carts which I have refilled around 50 times for $2.50 per fill. The more I use them the better they work but when they finally do die, which they will, I will replace them.

Buy the way, the printer ink level indicators are not very accurate.

Message Edited by william_the_scot on 12-11-2005 10:00 AM