HP Officejet 6600 Printer

[Boots_9771-1]

Hi all I hope everyone is well. My problem is I have a officejet 6600 and I can't get it to print in Black and white only when a tricolor cartridge is emptie. I have changed the settings and all but it will still not allow me to print B&W only. The printer seems to refuse to allow me to print at all because of the empty cartridge. Is there any way to fix this so I can print what I need to get done. Thanks and I look foward to hearing back

   God Bless 

                      Chris

[Bob_Headrick]

Short answer:  The Officejet 6600 does not use a tri-color cartridge, it uses a black cartridge and three separate color cartridges.  It has a separate printhead that is not replaceable.  To protect the printhead the printer requires ink in all the color and black.  You will need to replace any depleted cartridges to print, even in black only. 

Long answer: HP and other printer manufacturers have different printer technologies for different needs.  For inkjet printers: 

• Some have printheads built into the ink cartridges, typically one black and one tri-color cartridge.  These printers can typically print with one or more of the colors completely empty, or even with color or black (but not both) cartridges removed. The Officejet 8040a is an example. 

• Other printers have separate ink supplies and replaceable printheads.  An example would be the Officejet Pro 8600.  The printhead in these printers can be replaced if they are damaged by running the printhead with colors out.  Some of these printers will allow printing with a color out, other will not.  If the printer is run without ink in one or more colors the printer may be damaged, but the user may be able to recover without having to send the printer for service.  

• Other printers have permanent printheads.  To run these without some ink in all the colors would risk causing damage to the printhead due to clogs, air ingested in the printhead or burned out printhead firing resistors. The Officejet 6600 is an example of this type of printer. For printers with fixed printheads this could require service to get the printer to print properly again when the ink is finally replaced.   

The document here describes how ink is used.  While the document is written for HP Inkjet printers the same principles apply to inkjet printers from other manufacturers. 

[Boots_9771-1]

Bob thank you for answering but the information is of no help. I realized what i had said about the cartridge. and you are right I was half out when I wrote this. The 6600 uses 3 single color cartridges and a Black cartridge, but my problem was not addressed in your reply. One of the color cartridges is empty and I can't print in Black because it says i need to replace the empty cartridge. I have tried changing the settings and to no avail, it will still not let me print. Is there any information you or someone can give that may help with my problem. Also is there a way to reduce ink usage in this model printer to save ink.

                  God Bless, 

                                        Chris

[Bob_Headrick]

It is not what you want to hear, but my post was a long explanation of why the printer will not print (even in black only) if one color is out.  You will need to replace the empty cartridges before it will allow printing.

When you are printing the printhead is waving around in the air, and the color nozzles would dry out and clog if there were no ink.  At the beginning and end of every print job the printer will "spit" some ink through each nozzle to keep things from clogging.  If there was no ink in one or more colors this could damage the printhead.  Since the printhead on the Officejet 6600 is not replaceable this could result in requiring expensive repairs.

As for ways to minimize ink usage the following considerations may help:

• Always keep the printer plugged into a live outlet.  If an external switch such as an outlet switch or power strip is used to turn off the printer it will lose track of time and at the next power on will do a more aggressive cleaning cycle.  This would use more ink.
• Do not run cleaning cycles from the front panel or toolbox unless necessary - and they are almost never necessary.
• Printing in Draft mode uses about half the ink of Normal or Best modes.  For much everyday printing Draft mode may provide adequate  print quality.  Normal and Best use about the same amount of ink, Best just takes longer.
• For best economy use the XL cartridges.  These have 2.5x the black pages at 1.6x the price.  The color cartridges have 2.5x the pages at 1.4x the price compared to standard cartridges.