Officejet 6700 Premium

[familyp22]

Can this unit print with 2 empty color cartridges and a full black one. I select "print in black and white" but error message keeps telling me I must replace color cartridges befor proceeding. i see no option anywhere to override this. Thank you

[banhien · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Your AIO printer needs ink to protect itself therefore you can not print with empty cartridge(s) even the black ink cartridge is full.

Hope this helps.

[familyp22]

Thank you Dean

[engineer157]

This answer does not make any sense. The printer needs to protect itself? Against what?

Sounds like a bug in the software that HP doesn't want to fix.  Or maybe they want to stop complaints of low print quality when people don't realize that one of the colors is low.

My older HP printer would work fine when one of the color cartriges was low on ink.

If I'm not printing anything too important, then I don't mind printing in grayscale or black only.  Or sometimes I would not mind if I print something in color and its too blue or red ....etc. due to one of the colors being low...    There are many times that I want a printout, but am not so concerned about perfect colors. 

I now wish I never purchased this new printer.

I was wrong to assume that the newer printers do everything better than the old ones.

thanks.

[engineer157]

I've got windows 7.

The printer is a HP Officemax 6700 Premium

[JBSAILOR504]

I agree, shame on HP.   Most of the time I  want to print in black only. Now out of colored ink, printer will not print anything. Why force your customers to purchase over $90.00 of colored ink just to use black, I get it, screw the customer, help HP's bottom line.  Nothing in the instructions related to this, only that you can replace a cartridge when out, nothing says you have to replace all.

Now ink costs more than the printer, just to use black only.  Had other HP printers, long lasting, no problems.

If there is a HP solution to this, please post it.

[Shirlzz1]

To assist with the answer that Banhien provided, I would look at this document here. It explains the different ways that the printer uses ink not only to print, but to maintain the printhead. The article then goes on to cover different aspects of maintenance that the ink assists with as well. Printers that take Individual ink cartridges (IIC) need to have all the cartridges installed to make sure that the printhead does not dry out. If one has a printing preference of "black ink only" listed in their print options, they would need to turn this feature on prior to running out of ink in the color cartridges. I hope that this helps.

[JBSAILOR504]

This was explaned to me and I read how you designed the printer.  Still, you only get 300 copies from a cartridge and you can not save costs by using black ink only.  The only explanation is that HP designed this printer to use a lot of ink. When I purchased the printer I only anticipated limited use. Now the usage will increase and any economy there was in purchasing an inexpensive printer is lost.

Buyer beware if you are considering an HP or any printer.  Shame on HP for not making this known before a purchase it made.

[HPscreenname45]

I have read all the complaints and solutions about color cartridges needed even when ALWAYS printing in Black only. When originally purchased I set up Black only and yet I get color cartridge requires replacement. Why was a  ink from a color cartridge used? I just recently replaced the thin Black cartridge and now the Magenta comes up and I never used color at all!

[jjsmitty]

Old but new complaint.  I just replaced all the cartridges and the printer still says no ink in two of them.  I barely used this printer in the two years that I have had it, and have replaced the cartridges 3 times with the XL versions. This is the last HP inkjet printer I will be buying.