HP Officejet Pro 8100 - Printing with an empty black ink cartridge. It works!

[Robert M]

HP Officejet Pro 8100 - Printing with an empty black ink cartridge. It works!

Hi everyone,

I recently posted in a thread that my Officejet Pro 8600 all-in-one can print in black and white, even when one or more color cartridges is out of ink. My office’s Officejet Pro 8100 , the printer-only version of the Officejet Pro 8600 can do the same thing. However, something I pondered is if the printer can still print in black and white when the black ink cartridge is out of ink by creating a composite black from the color ink tanks.

The Officejet Pro 8100 had been informing me the black ink cartridge was low for a couple of months. Today, it finally ran out of ink and flagged me on my computer and on the printer itself when I attempted to print a UPS label. But, for giggles, instead of replacing the cartridge, I tapped the “page” button on the printer. Low and behold, it printed label. The output was noticeably lighter than the normal output and the color was a tad off. But, the printer printed the label despite an empty black ink cartridge. I printed another label the same way just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.

It could be the printer found just a touch more ink in the black cartridge or it could have created the composite black from the color inks. I don’t know. I would have pulled the cartridge out entirely and tried printing but time and circumstances didn't allow since my employees are crunching invoices and shipping labels at the moment. I also can’t say whether other HP printers have the same feature nor can I say if printers from other manufacturers have it. You’ll have to see for yourself with your printers. All I can say is that it worked and it'll probably work on the Officejet Pro 8600 all-in-one since they are siblings.

Robert

[GuyGene]

Well Robert, I'll be a suckeggedmule!! That's what I've been looking for for years! A color printer that still prints in black even with color cartridges are empty, or even out of printer! Great! I found a … Brother color laser that does this in Japan, but don't know if they are selling that model in America yet.

Thanks a heap!

[Robert M]

Guy,

This is the first time I've had a color inkjet printer that can print in black and white even when the black cartridge is empty. In fact, I was positive it wouldn't work. That's why I was astonished when pressing the button resulted in a label and printed a second copy of it just to make sure it wasn't my imagination.

Admittedly, the printer might have been trying to get the last few drops out of the black cartridge instead of creating a composite black out of the color inks. Again, I don't know. I couldn't do more testing since my employees needed the printer operating at full capacity. Still, though, I thought it was pretty cool.

Robert

[pdq]

My old 4600 Color Laserwriters (yeah, plural) will print in "diagnostic mode" regardless of the cart status.

(from 2006!) wrote:
The solution I have just found, at least on the 4600, is to go into the
menus on the front panel and under the "Diagnostics" menu, select
"Disable Cartridge Check". Although that menu option is mentioned in
the user manual, it is never once mentioned as a way to get around the
cartridge limits...

[DCrunch]

That beats the hell out of an Epson that won't print at all if one ink cartridge is empty. I'll never buy an Epson ink jet.