Low color ink problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ron Haaksma
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Ron Haaksma

Does anyone out there have a printer that will continue to print in
black and white when the color cartridge is empty. My Epson 820 is
costing me a fortune to replace color cartridges when I rarely print
color.
 
Ron Haaksma said:
Does anyone out there have a printer that will continue to print in
black and white when the color cartridge is empty. My Epson 820 is
costing me a fortune to replace color cartridges when I rarely print
color.
Click to expand...

In last months PC-Pro mag Epson were reported as admitting that they used
under-printing: which in other words means placing black text over a masking
colour. Ergo, you will use colour to print black text.
But I don't know how you print white :-)
 
Ron Haaksma said:
Does anyone out there have a printer that will continue to print in
black and white when the color cartridge is empty. My Epson 820 is
costing me a fortune to replace color cartridges when I rarely print
color.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you should think about getting a laser printer if you don't use the
color portion of your printer.
 
my wife uses an old canon bcj3000 that we leave an empty color cartridge in
as she does little printing and only does black text. Having read may posts
about this it is probable that the color jets are now clogged and will never
work. Her printing needs are not sufficient to buy a laser printer.
Occasionally the canon balks and wants us to change the color cartridge, but
we have used it this way for two years with no problem. On my computer I do
all of the business printing (HP laser 5P) and photo and graphic printing
(Epson Stylus 900).

If you do much printing there are some very inexpensive laser printers that
you should look into. Under $200, and sometimes on sale with rebates, etc.
 
my wife uses an old canon bcj3000 that we leave an empty color cartridge in
as she does little printing and only does black text. Having read may posts
about this it is probable that the color jets are now clogged and will never
work. Her printing needs are not sufficient to buy a laser printer.
Occasionally the canon balks and wants us to change the color cartridge, but
we have used it this way for two years with no problem. On my computer I do
all of the business printing (HP laser 5P) and photo and graphic printing
(Epson Stylus 900).

If you do much printing there are some very inexpensive laser printers that
you should look into. Under $200, and sometimes on sale with rebates, etc.
Click to expand...

Those "ON SALE" laser printers have a toner cartridge replacement cost
that USUALLY runs as much as 75% the cost of the printer.

EXAMPLE:

On sale at Staples "Laser Printer $189.00" with a "Starter cartridge"
read that as about 1000 pages. Replacement cartridge $125.00 for 3000
pages.

Its not as bad as it seems, as the "toner cartridge" for some of these
cheapies replaces almost everything but the laser, but its expensive
none the less.

I bought a USED Panasonic Laser printer for $50.00, replaced the drum
unit for $100 (which included a toner cart) and now get 3000 to 5000
pages from each $40 toner cartridge. Much better econmics.

I did the same with an Epson Action Laser. Got it for $25 and bought one
discounted replacement kit ($100) and have re-filled it with toner 6 or
8 times so far for $24 a pop. The Epson carts come with a pop-out plug
in the fill point when they are new!

OTOH unless your printer is in a different building, you could network
your computers together and your wife could print with the laser.


Larry
Mystic
 
Does anyone out there have a printer that will continue to print in
black and white when the color cartridge is empty. My Epson 820 is
costing me a fortune to replace color cartridges when I rarely print
color.
Click to expand...


Does this printer have an option to use the Black Cart only? I have
an HP5550 and I have the default set to only use the Black, unless, of
course, I need colour.
 
Tony1that matters said:
In last months PC-Pro mag Epson were reported as admitting that they used
under-printing: which in other words means placing black text over a masking
colour. Ergo, you will use colour to print black text.
But I don't know how you print white :-)
Click to expand...

If you mean "admitting" as in "shock-horror-look-what-we-are-doing" then I
think you have slightly the wrong take on this. If you want the darkest
black possible then underprinting is a valid way to do this. If you want
high resolution grey scale prints then the colour cart is also used to
increase the number of grey levels. The only way to avoid using colour ink
is to select the black only option (if it exists on the 820) and put up with
the slightly lower quality. Even the Epson 2100 (which has a light black
cart) uses the colour carts to improve greyscale resolution. This is why
high res greyscale prints sometimes have a colour tint. If you only want to
print greyscale or B&W you could investigate quad black carts that replace
the colour inks with shades of grey. They give improved greyscale results
without colour tints - but then you can't print color images.
 
My HP Deskjet 930 detects the level of ink and it won't print at all if the
level indicates low or empty. My cartridges are full. Still, it indicates
low level of ink. Any one has seen this before ?

Sylvan
 
Sylvain Santerre said:
My HP Deskjet 930 detects the level of ink and it won't print at all if the
level indicates low or empty. My cartridges are full. Still, it indicates
low level of ink. Any one has seen this before ?
Click to expand...

What driver version are you using? I always use my cartridges until *I* see
fit to change them. I often print months with the "low ink" or "empty"
message coming up.
 
Sylvain said:
My HP Deskjet 930 detects the level of ink and it won't print at all if the
level indicates low or empty. My cartridges are full. Still, it indicates
low level of ink. Any one has seen this before ?
Click to expand...
This is not suppose to happen, I've never seen HP printers refuse to
print when low or empty, they simply give you an alert but still allow
you to print. There must be some other problem. Are you getting any
error messages or flashing lights? If not what, describe what happens
when you try to print.
Try running a self test. Turn on the printer. Press and hold the resume
button for 3 seconds. A test page should print. The resume button is the
one in the middle that has a paper sheet and arrow icon on it.
 
tomcas said:
This is not suppose to happen, I've never seen HP printers refuse to
print when low or empty, they simply give you an alert but still allow
you to print. There must be some other problem. Are you getting any
error messages or flashing lights? If not what, describe what happens
when you try to print.
Try running a self test. Turn on the printer. Press and hold the resume
button for 3 seconds. A test page should print. The resume button is the
one in the middle that has a paper sheet and arrow icon on it.
Click to expand...

I tried the resume button, the low ink light keeps flashing and nothing will
print, not even a test page. I finally tried an old empty cartridge and it
works. My problem was caused by a defective refilled cartridge.

I appreciate your help, thanks.

Sylvain
 
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