After reading the responses, sounds like I am one of many having printing problems in black ink from my HP Photosmart Plus printer. I've already tried new cartridges---not cheap. I think I'll follow others' suggestions and toss it and never buy HP products again.

You need to replace the Black cartridge, as it appears the colour one is fine. Look in the printer options on your PC for a display of ink levels, and you'll probably find the black down to zero. If you've used generic cartridges, not genuine HP, you may find the printer can't actually read the ink levels.

I am afraid that Dennis (Writing below) is correct, When you have smearing it is a print head problem and they need to be replaced, If you have had this printer for many years (HP GOOOD Printer) you should check prices on a new machine, the reason for that is that HP has discontinued support on many machines as of 1 Jan 2013, If you can find a print head for your system it may be half the price of a new machine, Also; if one print head is going it may not be long before you see the same problem on the one or more color print head. It is probably not what you were hoping to hear but right now HP has several really good systems on sale,

ALWAYS USE HP CARTS....HP IS REAL FINNIKY ABOUT AFTER MARKET CARTS...

I just had this exact problem on my HP 5514. Black won't print after running out of black ink. New cartridge no good.
I tried everything-no good. I suspected the pinholes in the printhead were clogged with dried ink because I didn't change cartridge in time.
The fix that worked perfectly was when I hacksaw top off old black cartridge & removed all foam wicks so now I had a funnel(can see clear thru). I installed the cartridge & filled it with alcohol, printed page & did head clean; then printed few more pages. Problem cleared almost immediately. I then soaked up extra alcohol inside cartridge with paper towel. Removed modified cartridge & installed good one. I guess this could be done for colors as well. I don't know if this is a proper procedure, but it sure worked well for me.

This happens regularly in some models when the alignment of paper is not done correctly. If the cartridge does not have a good print quality, the scanner can not correctly read the alignment and alignment repeated several times until you get it right.
Check the alignment with cartridges in excellent condition.

Depending on your printer software there are two different methods to set grayscale and black ink only.

1. Inside printer preferences, you switch to the Features tab. Here you should see grayscale in the bottom left corner. Once grayscale is selected you may switch quality to black ink only. Then press ok.
2. In printer preferences, you click on the Advanced button. You should see a "Print in grayscale" option set to "Off" switch it to grayscale or black ink only and press ok.

As for with a Mac when you open the print dialog depending on the application there may be a link at the bottom left for the system print dialog. Here you should see a preset option. There is a fast draft black ink only preset. Save that preset and it should become the default option.

For more help, Give me a call at 1800-204-4427. I can help you out via phone.

Black printer ink in HP Printers may fail to be recognized by the printer. Sometimes the printer may accept to print with the black ink, but the printouts may have horizontal lines and very illegible letters. Even though you've run the cleaning utility on the printer, a manual cleaning of the print head should be carried out. In doing the manual cleaning, one should spray Windex heavily on paper towel and wipe off the surface of the print head.
http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-40171-printer-not-printing-black
I hope this response helps you out.
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There is dust & ink build up on the printer head. Take it apart. Wipe it off by hand with print head cleaner & lint free cloth.

it sounds like the printer heads or nosles may need cleaning you could even try to re-install it hp printers can be a bit tempramental if you are not using hp cartriges this could be the probem as well.

To customer of HP deskjet 990cki: I purchased the HP photosmart Plus B209 ~ January 2010. 3 months into, I have learned that when the color ink that you don't use evaporates, the black ink will not work at all, no matter what you adjust or clean.To make it work you have to purchase more color ink...on & on & on..$$$$. Neither HP nor Best Buy will refund my investment. Spoken with HP customer service reps. in the Philippines & Canada both being outside of the US. NO customer satisfaction. No refunds. I suggest Boycotting both corps.