asked on
Printer refuses to print black ink.
I have a windows 11 pc on an older Dell inspiron workstation. I have an Epson XP-446 color printer attached. I refuses to print black ink. IT's not the ink or the printer because from the IPads and phones it prints fine. I've tried to uninstall the driver from add remove programs, but it refuses to uninstall. I've removed the printer from device manager and rebooted, but same issue. I'm stuck. Any suggestions?
ASKER
No it will print color but not black and white. If I put it on grayscale I get a blank page
Interesting - do images sent via Windows that include black and color still print the black component?
Are you connecting to it wirelessly as well or using USB?
It won't uninstall if there are pending print jobs but otherwise the only reason I can think of for not being able to remove it is something corrupted in the OS/Driver. Does it (or any of the Epson utilities) still show in Apps & Features? Maybe reinstalling and then uninstalling might clear out the unistallation issue - or at least get a cleaner removal?
In the meantime the Epson UPD is here - also worth disabling Printer Status Monitor before adding the new driver to see if that improves black performance.
sounds like the black jet is clogged.
try maintenance/print head nozzle check, you may have to run the clean print head routine
@David, it works perfectly if he prints from a non-Windows device
ASKER
Tried the universal print driver same issues on the PC. Can't get the print driver off via add remove programs.. Is there an uninstaller for the driver? Maybe corrupt OS
Epson don't provide a "Driver Scrubber" for their Windows drivers and recommend the Apps & Features route.
You might be able to use Powershell
Get-PrinterDriver | Format-List Name
will grab a list of installed printers - copy the installation name of the XP-466, then
Remove-PrinterDriver -Name "Insert_Printer_Name_Here"
Should remove it (You need the quotes if the printer name contains spaces)
Alternatively try system repair with
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
and if still no removal possible
sfc /scannow
Deleting a printer driver does not remove all the files. You need to completely uninstall the driver, as follows.
Go to Drivers & Printers. First delete the printer. Then click on any other printer and select Print Server Properties from the menu that appears at the top. Click the Drivers tab and remove any instances of the driver from the list.
Now reinstall from a freshly downloaded driver.
you can use Revo to uninstall all printer software : http://www.revouninstaller.com/
If I put it on grayscale I get a blank page
if your iPad and phone can print black with the same printer, then it does mean it is a problem with the printer software on the computer, including the printer driver and utility. therefore you may:
1. print a test page to check the ink status using the printer's control panel.
2. print a test page to check the same thing using the operating system on the computer. for Windows computers, it is Control Panel > Printer.
See: https://download4.epson.biz/sec_pubs/xp-2100_series/useg/en/GUID-F717C942-8BB8-412C-8D9B-BF6B846AE55A.htm
@fred hakim
That mode means that, when printing black text, it will look a muddy brown or purple because CMY never produces a good black. Remember that @WellingtonIS said that black or grey produce white - not mud.
If non-Windows devices can print black, then nothing is wrong with the printer, it has to be a driver issue. Which is why I recommended a full uninstall.
ASKER
this is the strangest thing I've ever seen. If I print a test page on the PC nothing happens, If I print from an apple device all is fine. I can't find an uninstaller the one Revo is for phones. Anyone know how I can uninstall this entire app?
Revo is also for pc 's Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download
My first comment explained how to uninstall without any special apps.
Just a note that Revo have removed Driver Uninstall as an option in their limited free-trial product.
Is it mixing colors to make black or just refusing to do anything?
In your printer settings there should be an options to:
(You may then get a prompt from Epson Print Status Monitor in which case the pop-up should have a "Print in Black"checkbox to confirm)
Once you have a working combination set that as default in Windows Settings.
TBH Epson Print Status Monitor can also be the root cause of this so you may want to consider switching it off to test (also in Printer preferences), and as a last resort switch out the driver for Epson's Universal Print Driver.