Lexmark Z22: Black & White Option Disabled

[Neil G]

I have an old Lexmark Z22 which used to work fine. Now, when I put a new black and white cartridge in, nothing prints. The page comes out blank. (I can hear the head moving, as though it's printing, but the page is completely blank; not a single speck of ink on it.)

If I go into printer properties, cartridge maintenance, it shows the correct cartridge (black, 17G0050) in the right slot, and nothing in the left slot where the color cartridge would be. This is correct. And it shows that the cartridge is full.

If I go into printer options, Paper/Quality, Color, then the Color option is select, and both the Color and Black and White options are disabled. So I cannot change the option to Black and White. They're both disabled, with Color selected. This seems to be the problem.

Note that I used this printer for years with no color cartridge, so the missing color cartridge isn't the issue. I'm baffled as to why Color is select, and both Color and Black and White are disabled so I can't change the option.

I'm running Windows 7, 64 bit. And I have used this printer with this operating system before.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Neil