<!-- from fixya rte -->Just get black ink for copies? - Dell P703w Printer

Check the printers settings. It could be that it is set up incorrectly or you may be out of ink and it only appears to print from your computer because it can use all colors to make it appear black ink is used. Usually when color ink is used to create black print, it isn't a Black Black but with a bit of brownish hue. Try changing setting to USE BLACK ONLY and then see what happens. ALSO TRY my solution vice a versa.

Good luck

Not sure about Epson but I had the same problem and the store where I buy my ink said that a lot of the printer companies require all the color cartridges with ink in them to work. My color use to disappear even if I just pushed black and they said that was the way they were made . They sell printers quite cheap but make their money on the ink. I got rid of mine and purchased a black only ink jet and it hardly uses any ink at all. Its a powder. You can copy many copies on eighty dollars worth of ink where the cartridges I went through several hundred dollars a year.

Yes. You cannot use the printer even in black and white, until the color cartridge is replaced. They are designed to check the levels of the both black and color cartridges.

i've fixed a simular issue recently, it could be your print head has developed a issue\blockage for the nossles for the black ink tank, it could be mixing colours from word but a black white copy will just use the black ink, try removing the head and using isopropol on a qtip to clean the head for the black only.......

You could try this Try placing sheet of black text on copy board, and run many copies black only. I ran 25x12 times still no black. Run head clean after about each 50 sheets. Persevered and finally BLACK ink OK
Hope it works for you. Worked on my HPc6180

the problem occurs mainly due to following reasons


clogged catridge head
*clean it using ammonia solvent

bad contact of catridge terminals
*clean the contacts of both catridge and catridge holder

yes you do, the printer requires both ink cartridges.

When the printer dialog box pops up, click the properties button and you can select Black only there and your copy will print in black ink only.

Something is definately damaged and with the low cost of printers and the high cost of repair I would recommend just replacing it. Hope you find this helpful,
George
I'm also disabled with a broken neck :-(

According to " HP Officejet R, PSC 500 and Color Copier - General Copying Issues and Solutions", under the problem heading "Black is not Black", notes that:

"The unit will perform mono (or black) copies using the color cartridge to create a composite black in Normal and Best modes. This is necessary to create the correct grayscale shades. NOTE: The HP PSC 500 all-in-one product cannot perform black copies. Scan the image in and print it out in greyscale.

The color cartridge may be out of one color of ink. Run a self-test page to verify that all the colors are there. Replace the cartridge if they are not."

In other words, the device only uses the black ink cartridge when used as a computer printer. When used as a stand-alone copier, it uses the color ink cartridge, and all three ink colors must be present and working to give a black and white copy. Perhaps you can refill the color cartridge with black ink in all chambers?