Epson Stylus Photo 830U

[securespark]

This printer has a colour cart & seperate mono one.

Only if one runs out, the whole thing grinds to a halt. I'm a cynical cufker, and believe the mfrs do this to get more money in their greedy mitts.

I only use colour infrequently, most of my printing is business b/w.

I don't see why I should shell out for a new colour cartridge just to be able to use the black one.

Does anyone know of a trick I can use to keep the printer functioning with just the black cart working?

 

[Rider]

I agree with that securespark, such a waste to throw the cartridge out when only one colour tank is empty. I suppose you could look into refilling the cartridges.

I've owned a few Epsons. I'm not sure there's any way to fool the printer but I seem to remember there was an option in the printer software to allow printing using the black cartridge only. This would keep the colour ink usage low.

The thing to watch out for though, is that unless the colour print heads are used once in a while, they tend to clog up with dried ink and then be difficult to get clean. It's best to print something that uses all the colours at least once a week.

All the Epsons I had seemed particularly prone to the print heads clogging up. In the end I switched to a Canon i850. This uses seperate inks tanks for all the colours and it hasn't been so prone to the clogging problem.

 

[Igorian]

Epson printers also use some of the colour cartridge when printing black. I was reading something a while ago, which basically said printer ink is one of the highest priced substances know to man.

 

[2scoops0406]

Don't mean this to sound flippant, but it might be an option to have 2 printers, one Colour and one Mono, this could work out more cost effective, even if less space efficient, in time to come.

 

[breezer]

just a thought, take the cartridge out and put it back again

 

[securespark]

Thanks for comments.

Yeah, Breezer tried that. You get a big window on the screen telling you that you are a penny-piching bsatard, then a mallet flies out of the top of the monitor and cracks you on the noggin.

Not trying that again!

 

[Adam_151]

You could buy a chip re-set-ing tool for the cartridge, but leaving an it with an empty cartridge in (especially if it thinks its full and tries and primes it) would probably screw the print heads, leaving the printer as bin fodder.

You could use the re-set-ing tool together with some refil ink

Or buy one of those cheap samsung laser printers, you can get them for £50 if you shop around sometimes, the toner is refillable for £20 with a refil off the net as well

 

[happytraveller]

Hi Securespark,
I have an epson 830 printer, not u though. If you access your printer through control panel, (windows xp) and select printer preferences, this will give you the ability to change the print quality and layout. It is possible to choose printing with black ink only by clicking "advanced". This will bring up further options, "black ink only" being one of them. Just select then apply. This will also give better quality black ink printing as normally some colour ink is used even when printing a black & white doc', giving a slightly coloured hue to the page. Choosing "black ink only" should elliminate this and also allow you to carry on happily printing even when you colour cartrage is low or empty.

Good luck

happytraveller.