I have the worse luck with printers....

[Glenn]

Seriously...ever since college these thing have always broken my stones.

About a year ago, we picked up an Epson Workforce 500. Fax, scan, printer all in one. Nothing really fancy, but it worked...and that's all we cared about. Fast forward to Sunday night...I'm trying to print something...one of the color inks is out. No problem! We'll just set it to black and print that way...won't let me. OK, let's change mode...won't let me. Who the F engineers a printer that won't print...or do anything one one ink cartridge is out? I mean, it won't even go into fax or scan mode. POS. :angry:

Looks like I'll be getting non OEM ink from E-Bay.

Cliffs: My day off yesterday was "meh".

 

[SkiDork]

if you have a costco near you, they refill ink cartridges for like 5 or 6 bucks

 

[bvibert]

Do what I do when a print cartridge runs out; buy a new printer.

 

[MommaBear]

Glen, had the same issue with my old HP laser color printer - if one cartridge was out, nothing would print. Most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen. After a bit of googling and browsing, I found how to set the "overide" on it to allow me to print anyway (black, if colors were out). Do some digging, it may get you going again.

 

[wa-loaf]

My Cannon (MP450) lets me print in just black.

 

[Geoff]

Actually, I do the same thing Except last time I think I found a keeper with the Canon MP620, great printer.

I have a Canon MP470. I normally use "print grayscale" so I go through maybe 3 black cartridges before I need to replace the color one. I just bought ink cartridges from B&H Photo. A 2-pack of new ones from B&H was just about the same price ($36.09) as the cheapest eBay or web site refills ($30). I figure I'm willing to pay $3.00 extra per ink cartridge to run new ones rather than refilled ones that may or may not have problems.

In retrospect, I should have gotten a printer that had a FAX modem in it. I can usually scan and email if I need to send something but I keep running into occasions where I need to receive FAXes. I think that when I burn through the ink cartridges I have, I'll upgrade from the $60.00 printer to the $70.00 printer that has a FAX modem in it.

 

[Glenn]

Good call on the work around. I didn't see anything...maybe I'll try posting on a tech board.

Also, I have a spare blue cartridge I think. Maybe I'll jam that in the red spot.

Seriously, who engineers these things? It would probably be more cost effective to just get a new printer. What a wasteful design. It's like designing a car that you junk whenever it needs and oil change.

 

[billski]

I've gone through a lot of printers in my life. Inkjet printers are sold, for the most part, at cost. They are selling cartridges.

I bagged inkjet printers about 10 years ago. My 10 YO b&w laser is still ticking. Prices have become quite reasonable, per copy costs. We keep a inkjet around for color, but don't use it much. Frankly, I don't need to print all that much any more.

If I needed color, I'd go with the color laser. Even all in one laser-based would be very economical on a per page basis. As far as I'm concerned, overall reliability/longevity is much greater on a laser printer.

 

[playoutside]

Ok, maybe a dumb question...you don't happen to have a crappy color inkjet that can only produce black from using the colors do you? They made those PoS for a few years..that was the dumbest thing ever. If you have one with a black cartridge and the colors, then I agree next dumbest thing ever is that it won't print with one of the colors out.

Good luck.

Are you near a library...you can always email what you need to print to yourself and then go login at the library to print. Guess it depends how desperately you need to print.

 

[Glenn]

I still have the old Lexmark up in the attic. It had one cartridge in it...color or you could get a black only. It may be making a return to the home office.

 

[ZYDECORICH]

Not real happy with my Epson CX4200. works ok and makes good prints but the cartridges are sooooo expensive. i cringe when the kids say it's run out.. and to run just B&W is a chore. Are those low cost Kodak ones they been selling lately any good? It's really about bulk with all the kid school stuff. Anything I or my wife want I print at work.

 

[SkiDork]

see my post above about Costco. Worked out OK so far for me.

 

[bigbog]

job still in the print queue when you tried to change print prefs?....$.01

 

[Glenn]

For a few bucks less than the cost of two OEM Epson inks, I bought 4 full inks...along with refills. Thank you e-bay! $28 delivered. I installed them last night and they work great. I figure with the refill bottles, these things should last a good long time.