How do I get this thing to print in B&W if i'm out of color cartridges?
493948
In a nutshell... You don't. That's the insidious thing about this printer. It uses colored ink to clean the print heads every time you print anything. When I used to have this printer, there were a couple times where I had to buy new colored ink after having printed nothing but black and white. My advice is to ditch this awful device and get a brother lazer printer before you spend hundreds more on hp ink.
493949
Put tape loosely over the hole of the color cartridge to make the sensor believe the ink bladder is full.
493950
There is an answer to this question. No. The 8550 does not allow for solo Black printing without the "color ink Cartridges". According to HP there is nothing that can be done. But owners of the HP8550A have experimented. See http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Other-Printing-Questions/Officejet-Pro-8500-How-can-you-print-without-color/td-p/124181/page/5
493951
Buy or refill the color cartridges. It won't print black and white without them.
1306153
I don't think this is possible. The printer software needs to detect a color cartridge. But you can use the software to turn off color and print only in black and white.
1834077
Carl! I just did it... took out the color cartridge and it printed a B/W image....hey thank YOU it is good to know just for general purposes. BTW it is darn good little printer and if you can find it on sale as I did (40 bucks) also there is a vendor here that sells both cartridges for under 20 bucks including shipping...they wanted 48 bucks at Staples for the dang cartridges themselves for cryin' out loud........:>}
1357377
Talk the cartage out " black & color " and reinstall again and see if the ink levels are displayed and where the levels are shown . Make sure that the printer window is set on photo print / copy's in color not black n white . I am not fully educated on this printer , check the instructions to make sure you / me are doing it correctly. I hope this helps ..
979939
Unfortunately, Epson, as well as other manufacturers, do not allow you to proceed, even if you have enough ink in the other cartridges to do so. Other than forcing you to buy more cartridges (I would recommend that you buy at least two of whichever is low, especially if you go through it fairly quickly), it makes sense that you may not want your documents to print with missing colors! However, depending on your printer, you MAY be able to select an option (if it exists) that allows you to proceed in black & white (or, possibly, grayscale). Of course, that option is useless, if it's the black cartridge which is empty! (n.b., even when the printer indicates that the cartridge is "empty," there may be enough in it to make a mess, so, when you remove it from your printer, make sure to put it in a sealable plastic bag, immediately, or you may get ink all over the place!) Good luck!
509198
I believe in your print settings you can tell it to print in B&W;, but default will print however the document is set up. when you are copying you can choose B&W; or color.
999433
If you are asking will the printer work without a color cartridge in place in the printer to print B&W; the answer is no. The printer has to detect both ink cartridges to work. However, the printer comes with both Black and color ink cartridges and when the color runs out the printer will still print in B&W; as long as you leave the empty cartridge in place (until the black ink runs out).
1088322
Needs to be printed with a laser printer. It will take color and B&W;, but ink will run if it's an inkjet printer.
1848300
My photos do not print with the correct color if I fail to use the photo ink cartridge.
1437772
Up to date drivers is a good idea. Also, when you click on "print", a square menu comes up. Make sure the right printer is identified and then click on "Properties". then on the tab titled "Main" if you are not already there. You should see a line of pictures suggesting draft, text, etc. Click on "Text and Image". That should work. I had to specify with each printing for a while, then it got the hint that I wanted text and image.Good Luck!
17959
I have an older Epson and was wanting to replace it for that very reason. I can't print anything when any color is out. So it says I need to replace the light blue and won't let me print anything until I do. Since I never use color, I'm guessing the blue just dried out. At any rate, I can't figure how to override that and just use black. Maybe it is just an Epson thing, as you said, to get us to buy more ink. I'm with you, I want to keep going until the ink fades and I can really see it is almost out.
1968041
you can but If you are out of color, it won't let you print until you replace the cartridge...even if you switch it to black only.
339208
I have a great suggestion, know that this feature has been disabled by Lexmark, they will send you a "Firmware update" that will make your printer completely useless. No longer will you be able to print without it drinking up your color ink and then you have to replace the color before it will print in black again. I hope for a class action suit that will help the consumer recover some of their losses from this sabotage!
1855539
Absolutely. You just choose color on the printer options before sending it off to be printed. All color printers can print in black and white. You just need to see if they print black and white separately. Some printers will mix all colors to make black and white printouts, others have a dedicated black and white cartridge or drum. It is more ideal to have a separate unit for black and white as mixing the colors to make black and white eats the levels of ink or toner very quickly. I hope that makes sense.- Damon
1923659
Yes, just check in the properties part to print in "grayscale". That is what I do. And you could have a box to pop up telling you there is not color and ask you about printing in black and white. Just answer "yes".
1315154
When the printer will not let me print due to color ink (yellow) being low - I am able to change my printer preferences to print in GREYSCALE and it works!!
1700074
You're not particularly clear on exactly what isn't working. For example, does the button not respond or does the page come through without anything on it? A good debugging step would be to see if it prints in black/white and gray scale. Then you would know it isn't in the cartridges. Another potentially stupid suggestion...have you tried googling the specific problem to see if others have already solved it?