new, barely used photo cartridge is showing as almost empty already

[Serenity1930]

too bad we all can't file a complaint against HP and make them refund all our money so we can buy a better product.  I just replaced all my cartridges just so I won't keep getting those annoying alerts that I need to replace them!  I'm afraid to even use the printer in fear that when i get another alert, i may throw it thru my window, and it's freezing out!!!  I've been using an hp printer that I got years ago that actually works like it should!!!  those were the good old days when companies didn't try to rip people off.  Ahhh, the memories!

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@SGamgee wrote:

Exactly the same problem with an 18 month old C310 - I replaced two cartrdiges last night and printed two pages. Got up this morning and its telling me that the same two cartridges are almost empty!! Appalling ........

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[Dunidar]

Hello Everyone

I am sorry to hear that you are going through so much ink. I am going to give you a brief explanation and a solution to help you use less ink when printing.

First, I find that when some consumers purchase a printer they shop by price and this is not necessarily wrong, nobody wants to pay more for something then necessary, but it can end up costing you in the end. What the customer ends up getting for that good price is a printer that may not necessarily be what they need. Printers are designed with specific uses in mind and the use of one printer may not be what you need. So here is how printers are basically setup. Photosmart printers are for people that print photos and the odd document. The reason for this is that for the quality you need to print a nice photo you need to use a lot of ink. This means the printer is designed for quality not quantity. The Officejet printers are made to print documents at a low cost and can print a satisfactory photo. These printers are made for quantity not quality.

Now I am not saying you purchased the wrong printer I have no idea how you are using it, I am providing a bit of education that may come in handy the next time you go looking to purchase a printer.

Now for how I can help. I would recommend that you ensure that your printer settings on your computer are set to Fast Draft as this uses a lot less ink to print (reducing the quality). To do this on Windows 7 I am providing you with an HP Support document Changing Print Settings in Windows 7, simply read through the document and follow the instructions and remember you are looking to set the printer to Fast Draft.

I hope this helps you save on your ink usage. Thank you for your posts in the HP Forums. Have a great day! 

[njenkinson]

Hello Dunidar,

My printer settings are always "Fast Draft". The ink cartridges are going down faster than any other HP printer I've owned.

The question I think many of us would like answered is why the PHOTO ink cartridge is going down when we're NOT printing ANY PHOTOS...only documents using the rest of the cartridges. I got my new Photosmart 7520 only a few months ago and my Black Photo Ink is half empty...for no reason - I haven't used it.

I'm reading a lot of complaints about this and hope someone can give a good explanation or solution as to why this ink is being used/wasted.

Thank you,

[Dunidar]

Hello njenkinson

What you are describing is different from what I posted above. You have a slightly different issue and again I will give you an explanation and solution for what you are experiencing.

Now when you print any document even just a black and white document by default you are using ALL your inks. This is because if you use just black ink on a stark white paper it can be hard to read so the small use of the other colors (this includes the Photo Cartridge as it has greys in it as well) are used to soften the images (or letters) on the page. Over time this adds up and even if you are printing black and white you notice the other cartridges going down and wonder why.

What you can do is set your printing to Grayscale or to Black Only and this will enable you to print ONLY grey or you can choose black and. To do this follow the instructions I have posted below:

Step 1. Go to Start>Control Panel>Devices and Printers.

Step 2. Right click on your printer and select Printer Properties.

Step 3. Select the Advanced tag and click on the Printing Defaults button at the bottom of the screen.

Step 4. Click on the 'Color' tab and check the box that says 'Printing Grayscale'.

Step 5. If you want to bring Black Only and not gray, you can choose that instead.

*** NOTE: What you can do as well is add another printer queue in your computer for this type of printing and you will have two instances of the same printer only one is Color the other Black and White. This will prevent you from having to go through all the steps each time you wish to change back and forth.

I hope this is the explanation that you were looking for. Thank you for your post on the HP Forums. Have a great day!

[njenkinson]

Thank you for the quick reply. I should have mentioned that I'm on a Mac, but I know how to access the settings.

There are other community threads with complaints about the Ink cartridge being mysteriously depleted.

My printer IS set to Fast Draft - Black & White Only - yet the Photo cartridge is still going down.

[Dunidar]

Hello again njenkinson

I am happy to respond as quick as I can and I appreciate your quick responses as well. I am going to provide you with a link to an HP Support document designed to explain the situation we both are conversing on. If you would review the document Ink Usage in Inkjet Printers you will see a very thorough explanation on how inkjet printers use ink. The part that pertains directly to you would be under the heading "Some color ink may be used when printing black text-or-graphics". Keep in mind your Photo cartridge is considered a color cartridge as it is not just black ink in it.

I hope this answers your questions. Thank you once again for your posts on the HP Forums. Have a great day!

[Serenity1930]

That explanation is just not true.  I have never turned my printer off, so leaving it on makes no difference.  I have set my preferences to black only, and that makes no difference.  HP should just give everyone free ink, because if we have to keep buying new ink, these printers will end up costing us the price of a new car!

[njenkinson]

I will review the article when I get a chance. Your explanation that the Photo cartridge is considered a Color cartridge explains a lot, and I don't think many users are aware of that.

Thank you!

[SGamgee]

Absolutely correct. My new cartidges went on at 7pm one evening. I printed two pages of a letter, yet in the morning the brand new cartridges were showing as almmost empty and in need of replacing ....... if this is caused by turning the printer off and on again once then it is scandalous on HPs part.

Dunidar, if you represnt HP as your signature suggests then please provide a full explanation as to why this can happen, and do not just suggest that the people on this forum are folls and no nothing about inkjet printing? This must be a fault and is certainly NOT due to 'the way printers use ink' - if gthey use it like this then they should never be sold on teh retail market.

[Serenity1930]

Bravo!!!!!!!

I have an office jet and same problem.