I just got a new black ink for my Lexmark X6150 printer and when I did the alignment test, it turns out a like dark grey instead of black. The printer also said to remove tape from ink but all the tape has been thoroughly removed. What should I do?

If prints are coming out fuzzy this is likely to be an alignment issue. I would recommend doing some alignment tests from your printer/printer software.

No, that's not what it means.
If printer heads are not aligned, CMYK colors (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK - the usual colours in a printer) will not print in the correct place.
Assume a dark grey dot is to be printed. For this C, M and Y colored dots have to be placed exactly on the same spot. But if heads are not aligned, the three color dots will not be exactly in the same place. Therefore you will see Cyan, magenta and Yellow dots adjacent to each other instead of one dark grey dot.
It is always a good idea to align the print heads every time a new cartridge is installed.

If the problem continues even after re-seating the black cartridge and cleaning its nozzles, then it could be a faulty cartridge issue. Replace it with a new genuine Lexmark cartridge.

Just try to put scotch tape over the hole and put back in.

It's possible that your printer has an automated alignment process, that may need to be completed beofre it will accept "jobs" from the PC. Check the printer display for instructions (perhaps a menu for "aligning cartiridges". Also, some have a self-scan process... when you powered it up, did it print a page with a bunch of little lines on it? If so, you re-insert that page into the scanner, and hit "scan" to complete the process. It should then be ready to go!

Hope this helps!

-- RT

Check to make sure you have removed the plastic covering on the new ink cartridge contact.  Run a calibration/alignment test on your printer. (If you're not sure how to do this, Google "how to align cartridges on----- your modle printer).  Finally, you may want to do a "hard-reset" on the printer. Turn it off, unplug it for 30 seconds and try again. Good luck!

Must use a new cartridge.

I fixed my friends printer, Lexmark x6150 which had the same error and symptoms. The registration strip might be out of its so called slot but I doubt it.

Get several cotton balls and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. Turn off the printer. Soak a cotton ball, not dripping or saturated with the alcohol. Clean the paper path ( area underneath where the print cartridge carrier travels back and forth over the paper. ) This area becomes coated with ink and gets sticky, Clean the area until all ink is removed, you will use many cotton balls, continue until clean. Check the carrier parked area. You will note 2 rubber boots, 1 for each ink cartridge, make certain they are clean as well. They seal the cartridges so they don't dry out.

If you havent tried this already......try to reprint several times......this has worked for me in similar situations......you may just need to give the ink a chance to do its thing

I had the same problem and used Solution #3 (above) from a "Guest". Since I was only immediately concerned with printing in black, I took out the color cartridge and the printer is now working fine!