HP Photosmart 6520 won't print black when color cartridges are not installed

[PrintlessLea]

All my ink cartridges were going bad, so I threw them out. I installed the black cartridge and left the other slots empty because I don't print in color.

The printer's display says "One or more cartridges appear to be missing". It won't let me print in black.

I realized that this happens to me every time I change cartridges and I always forget about the nuance. I'm tired of wasting money on colored cartridges I don't use. What do I do? Is there a work around? New firmware that avoids the issue?

Hilariously, I can buy a brand new printer from Canon for less than it will cost to buy the colored ink cartridges, so unless there is a fix, that's what I'm going to do so I don't run into this again.

[ALS-77 · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, printers are designed to require all of the ink cartridges to be installed in order to function/print at all. There is no work-around for it. It is typical that a new printer is cheaper than new inks, and some users go that route, but be aware too that the new printers will usually have starter inks that contain less ink than the replacement inks that you will need to buy down the road. Sometimes you can go online and find cheaper inks from other suppliers.

[PrintlessLea]

Thank you for the response!

[PrintlessLea]

Ran into a second issue after buying all new cartridges:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Inkjet-Printing/HP-Photosmart-6520-Prints-blank-pages-even-with-new-in...

[Ikassa]

my photosmart 6520 will not print black, all new ink cartridges. Quality page show blank where the black should be.

[PrintlessLea]

The videos I posted in my question here actually wound up working for me:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Inkjet-Printing/HP-Photosmart-6520-Prints-blank-pages-even-with-new-in...