There is, but the finale might not be pretty.
The firmware on the printer will not let the printer continue printing if
even one chip on one of the cartridges says says 'empty'. There is no
setting to change this scenerio. One could use a chip resetter to tell the
chip it's 'full' (
http://www.inksupply.com/epson_inkjet_cartridge_chip_resetter.cfm)or it may
be possible to use a Russian piece of software
(
http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml) that claims it can reset the chip of
each cartridge to allow you to go on printing. However for your model it
seems unclear whether or not it's usable. It lists it as C4x. In any case if
you were to reset the chip to show it full again and you continued printing
for an extended length of time with an empty cartridge you would eventually
introduce air into the printhead when the cartridge was really empty and
cause a headclog for that color (in your case -black)). What should be
understood is that everytime the printer is turned on and off it uses a
little ink of every color. It's Epson's way of clearing the heads for use or
shutdown.
Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)