Printer has single print cartridge - black comes out greenish

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Frank_Cora

My Dell (A810) all-in-one printer has only one cartridge. When I went
to refill it I was surprised there were only 3 holes for the colours
and no 'Black' tank.

Black comes out as a dark greenish grey - which is fine for general
home stuff but not so good for letters or work documents.

Any suggestions or perhaps I've done somethng wrong?
 
Frank_Cora said:
My Dell (A810) all-in-one printer has only one cartridge. When I went
to refill it I was surprised there were only 3 holes for the colours
and no 'Black' tank.

Black comes out as a dark greenish grey - which is fine for general
home stuff but not so good for letters or work documents.

Any suggestions or perhaps I've done somethng wrong?
Click to expand...

Your information about the printer is at the least cryptic. Are you
suggesting that the 3 holes are where color cartridges should go? Is this
supposed to be a color printer? Have you had the printer long, checked its
manual (if you had one) and contacted Dell for some advice?
 
sorry if it was cryptic. It is a colour printer, with only one print
cartridge. I refilled cyan, yellow & magenta but there is no repository
for black ink - looking on the internet at one of the 'refill'
specialists, that is all there is meant to be, so presumably black is
supposed to be made up by a mixture of the 3 colours.
Unless of course I've got it wrong
 
sorry if it was cryptic. It is a colour printer, with only one print
cartridge. I refilled cyan, yellow & magenta but there is no repository
for black ink - looking on the internet at one of the 'refill'
specialists, that is all there is meant to be, so presumably black is
supposed to be made up by a mixture of the 3 colours.
Unless of course I've got it wrong
 
sorry if it was cryptic. It is a colour printer, with only one print
cartridge. I refilled cyan, yellow & magenta but there is no repository
for black ink - looking on the internet at one of the 'refill'
specialists, that is all there is meant to be, so presumably black is
supposed to be made up by a mixture of the 3 colours.
Unless of course I've got it wrong
Click to expand...

So you refilled your ink cartridge? What brand ink did you use? Did you
remove any remaining ink before you refilled? Did you have the color
problem before you refilled?
 
Frank_Cora said:
sorry if it was cryptic. It is a colour printer, with only one print
cartridge. I refilled cyan, yellow & magenta but there is no repository
for black ink - looking on the internet at one of the 'refill'
specialists, that is all there is meant to be, so presumably black is
supposed to be made up by a mixture of the 3 colours.
Unless of course I've got it wrong
Click to expand...

In a round about way your saying the original black ink was OK but now it
has a greenish tint.
Ink is patented. Refills can only come close. If you have an option to
adjust color output then I guess you'll have to try doing it. But you do
realize once you find the right color combination it may not work for
different paper.
mark_
 
looking on the internet at one of the 'refill'
specialists, that is all there is meant to be, so presumably black is
supposed to be made up by a mixture of the 3 colours
Click to expand...

It sounds like a cheap freebie printer that makes black from 3
colours. If you refill, the aftermarket generic ink might not match
the OEM's. So the black has a colour cast.
Not much you can do to correct it for text, other than be
ripped off buying Dell ink. You might find filled cartridges,
but if they are not Dell you could stll have the same problem.
For colour you might be better off because a lot
of photo editing/correcting software lets you set colour
profiles, which you can fiddle with, until the colour is
acceptable.
Colour profiles let you match the on screen with the printed,
so a light european pink skin tone doesn't come out
mid-green in the print.
 
mark_digital© said:
In a round about way your saying the original black ink was OK but now it
has a greenish tint.
Ink is patented. Refills can only come close. If you have an option to
adjust color output then I guess you'll have to try doing it. But you do
realize once you find the right color combination it may not work for
different paper.
mark_
Click to expand...

I don't think until your question I've ever heard of an inkjet printer that
didn't have its own black cartridge. I presume the refill kit is not the OEM
stuff that Dell would sell you, so it's probable that you won't get the same
"black" results using someone elses ink.
You may be able to start playing with the software to see if it has
ability to accent different colors to get a good black but my base thoughts
are that if you intend to do decent black and color printing you may want to
start doing a little research into purchasing a better designed printer and
send this one somewhere far away (preferably back to Dell, so they will stop
foisting this kind of product onto the consumer).
 
sorry if it was cryptic. It is a colour printer, with only one print
cartridge. I refilled cyan, yellow & magenta but there is no repository
for black ink - looking on the internet at one of the 'refill'
specialists, that is all there is meant to be, so presumably black is
supposed to be made up by a mixture of the 3 colours.
Unless of course I've got it wrong
Click to expand...

Do you printing in dark blue, it looks smart.
 
Jan said:
I don't think until your question I've ever heard of an inkjet printer that
didn't have its own black cartridge.
....

send this one somewhere far away (preferably back to Dell, so they will stop
foisting this kind of product onto the consumer).
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, I posted in June about an HP printer that I saw at
Big Lots for $20.

"Hewlett-Packard 3740 printer for $20. Brand new.

It even comes with a #28 color cartridge.

Now for the fine print -- you gotta look for it on the box:
A black cartridge is "optional." It's said to speed up the printing.

The #28 color cartridge contains a whopping 8ml of ink.
The "optional" #27 black cartridge will give you, once you purchase it,
a more generous 10ml."

But, yes: it does at least have a place for that "optional" black
cartridge to go.

Richard
 
Your printer doesn't have a black cartridge it mixes all the colors together
to get near black.

Per Dell web site "Single cartridge design helps ensure replacing cartridge
is easy" i.e. we made a cheap printer even cheaper by only having one tank
also you will probably use more ink in the long run and since you can only
get ink fro us well you get the picture.

My first printer (10 years ago) did this but you swapped out the black to do
color.

The ink that you refilled the cartridge with isn't exactly the same so when
it mixes the ink to get black the shade is off.
 
One of the first color printers was an HP (I don't recall the model -
seems as if it were a 610c) but it only had one cartridge capability.
If you wanted to print color, you put in a color cartridge; if you
wanted to print black, you put in a black cartridge(or it would mix
colors for a "nearly black"). It was the latest technology at the time!
It even came with a handy little "box" to store the cartridges that were
not in use, so they wouldn't dry out. Worked great for years, but was a
pain to have to change cartridges. I resorted to using it for documents
only, (with a black cartridge) and refilled it many times.

BigJohn
 
Frank,

Why not try refilling the three color cartridge with only black Ink? If
that works, you can use two cartridges interchangeably, one for color
printing and the other for your text and document printing.

Harry
 
My Dell (A810) all-in-one printer has only one cartridge. When I went
to refill it I was surprised there were only 3 holes for the colours
and no 'Black' tank.

Black comes out as a dark greenish grey - which is fine for general
home stuff but not so good for letters or work documents.

Any suggestions or perhaps I've done somethng wrong?
Click to expand...

Your printer does not have a black cartridge, or has one cartridge spot you
occupy with a black or a color cartridge.

I suggest you go buy a printer that has a separate black cartridge.

If you are in a pinch right now, I'd just put the black you have in the
color cart.
 
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