Color Ink Cartridges all running out very quickly

[tom19382]

Hi,

  I have an HP Officejet Pro 8600 Premium. I purchased it because the store display bragged at how much more econimical it was to run compared to a laser printer. I mainly print in black, but I occasionally print some color pages here and there. When my black cartridges started getting low, I received a message on the screen saying it will need to be replaced soon. At the time, all of my color cartridges were between 50 and 75% full. When the black cartridge did run out, I replaced it and within a few minutes, the first color cartridge said it was empty and I could not continue printing until it was replaced, even though I was trying to print only in black anyway. 

  I could not understand why it would have ran out when it was still well over half full a few minutes before and I was only printing with black ink. I went ahead and replaced it anyway. A few minutes later, the same thing happened again with the next color and then after that with the last color. I had to replace all 3 color ink cartridges in order to even be able to print just black text. 

  This was a couple of months ago. Today I ran a printer status report and saw my page count. I have printed only 1325 black pages and 312 color pages. That means I went thru close to $100 worth of color ink for only 312 pages?! The number I actually got out of those cartridges is actually even less because I have printed quite a few since then to come up to that number. How is a printer like this anyway economical like their display said? That's over 33 cents per page and I'm not talking about printing out hi quality photos or anything like that....these were just a few flyers with a few small pics and some colored text. 

  I don't understand how if I prnt mainly in black at draft quality, how I can run out of colored ink so fast. I have loved the way the whole machine worked, but if it goes thru ink that fast, I'd be better off having anything I need printed in color done by a professional printing service....it would be cheaper than what I've been paying per page with this! 

  I really wish HP would step up to the plate and either take this printer back or figure out a way to make it use less ink. By the time I get a years worth of use out of it, I'll have spent well more in ink than I have on the printer itself. 

  Has anyone else experienced problems like this, or is there something wrong with my printer? 

[RnRMusicMan]

Hi tom19382,

Welcome to the HP Forums!

I see that your HP Officejet 8600 premium is running out of ink quickly.

I have some questions for you:

1.) What Operating System are you using Windows or Mac? What version? That way I could provide the settings for black ink only.

2.) Are you using regular or XL size cartridges?

3.) Are these cartridges HP Genuine or re-fills?

Hope to hear back, and have a great day.

[tom19382]

Hi,

  Thanks for getting back to me. I am using Windows 8.1. I have been using the XL cartridges for black and regular size for the color. The ones that have run out were all genuine HP cartridges. 

  I did go into the Advanced Preferences and have always had the Greyscale settings set to black ink only and always had the output quality set to Draft unless the rare occasion came up that I needed something in color. 

  I also am now having problems with the colors having horizontal lines going across them when I print in color. I have tried all of the items in the troubleshooting guide for that as well, including aligning the print head, and cleaning the print head on all 3 levels of the process. When I print a test page, the colors do not look right either...the yellow is closer to a brownish gray and all of the colors have blank lines going across them. 

[RnRMusicMan]

Hi tom19382,

Thank you for your reply.

Have you gone through the print quality guide? Fixing Ink Streaks, Faded Prints, and Other Common Print Quality Problems.

If so, please call our technical support at 800-474-6836. If you live outside the US/Canada Region, please click the link below to get the support number for your region. Country-language selector.

Hope this helps, and have a great day.

[Jim7994]

I have almost exactly the same problem with my Photosmart 7525 as reported by Tom on 4/17.  Very frustrating to be constantly replacing cartridges. The cartridge cases should at least be transparant so I could see how much ink is left in each one -- and also to determine which ones are really low since the reporting software is not accurate at all.

[Susan1048]

I have been having the same problem.  I have Windows 8 and now 8.1. 

I print mostly in black, but yesterday tried printing 8 pages on matte photo paper in color.  I replaced both black and color cartridges before I began.  The 8th page came out half red.  Surely a 75 color cartridge should last longer than that?

Before that, I had also been having trouble with printing in black.  That also began coming out reddish, even though I was printing a pure black font.  Replacing the black cartridge (74XL) did not help -- I had to replace the color also before I could get anything.

Am I doing something wrong with the settings?  Could my cartridges be too old?  (The first ones I tried, with the black print, were bought ~ 6 months ago.  The second round, when I was trying to print colored photos, I bought the same morning.)  And why would printing in black and white require color ink ?--- I really can't afford to print much anything at the rate I am going.

[RnRMusicMan]

Hi Susan1048,

Thank you for your reply! I would recommend to go through the print quality guide. Fixing Ink Streaks, Faded Prints, and Other Common Print Quality Problems.

If so, please call our technical support at 800-474-6836 for your warranty options. If you live outside the US/Canada Region, please click the link below to get the support number for your region. Country-language selector.

Hope this helps, and have a great day!

[Mjmartinatlanta]

My 8600 has the same issue but the kicker is, I think I have printed maybe a dozen color pages. It will run some. Leaning cycle for no reason at least 6-10 times a day, I don't know how to stop that either.
I've gone through all the settings and work arounds recommended in the forums and am about to send the printer back.
Btw nobody wants to really call tech support. most of the time the service is in some other country and it takes way too long to resolve. Besides if we can't find an answer here what good will it do to just take more time to call someone else?

[RnRMusicMan]

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post serial numbers and case details.

If you are unfamiliar with how the Forum's private message capability works, this post has instructions.

[Ryan_O]

I have a 6700 series and am having the same issue. I installed new color cartridges about 2 months ago and when it cleaned the printer heads it used about 50% of the ink. Since replacing them, I had only been printing in black and white and yet the color cartridges still ran out of ink, which is a bit of a pain because it wouldn't let me print in black and white until I replaced the color cartridges.