HP Officejet Pro 8600 - Now won't print in Black Ink Only!

[-PSi-]

Hi ErinB23, You did notice that Bob said "-- The above are speculations --".

Bob says he is not employed by HP. His answer is as much a speculation as mine. HP has not responded by explaining why the printer can survive printing without black ink but not without any of the CMY inks. The case is not closed nor solved.

pekka

[Bob_Headrick]

The part that was speculation is the statement that it CAN work without black.  I do not think that is the case based on the documentation.

As for my credentials, I did work for HP for nearly thirty years, and spend a dozen of those in the inkjet world.  I have designed printheads and understand how they work and how they can fail if mistreated.

[UNC666]

Bob - Is this a technical limitation or HP intentionally designed this printer to work this way to boost their profit margins from Cartridge Sales?
No doubt your credentials are stellar. Having said that please give us some practical solution.

[Michael--D]

The problem isn't the technical design of the HP8600, it's that it printer was sold in a way that left it's buyers with a crucial misunderstandings about when and how often they would need to replace cartridges in the printer.

There is a well established concept in the market that inkjet printers with separate black cartridges will print in black if the color runs out.

From the [HP official] Officejet 8600 Series Features Guide:

[page 3,top]Top features
Professional color for less than lasers
[Second sentence:] Print more pages, avoid interruptions, and increase ink savings with high-capacity, individual ink cartridges that can be replaced only when one cartridge runs out.

[page 4, top]Print at up to 50 PERCENT LOWER cost than lasers

[second subheading:]Print more before replacing cartridges with economical individual ink cartridges
HP’s ink-delivery system features four individual ink cartridges, as well as specially designed printheads, so you replace only the ink cartridge that runs out.

HP's own marketing material for the HP8600:

A) does not disclose this important divergence from market norms about how 'individual' the ink cartridges in the HP8600 really are; and

B) provides statements that, in the absence of contrary information, are reasonably interpretted as being consistent with the normal market practice for inkjet printers (i.e. can print separately in black). 

In short, this is a marketing fail that directly affects customers of this product at the most crucil time: when they want/need their next printout.

[UNC666]

In a nutshell HP deceived people by saying " individual cartridges that can be replaced only when one cartridge runs out" this is totally a LIE.

[Bob_Headrick]

---

@Michael--D wrote:

[snip] There is a well established concept in the market that inkjet printers with separate black cartridges will print in black if the color runs out. [snip]

In short, this is a marketing fail that directly affects customers of this product at the most crucil time: when they want/need their next printout.

---

There are some printer technologies that will print in black if color is out.  These are generally Integrated Printhead (IPH) printers.  The tradeoff is that you are paying for a new printhead with each cartrdige replacement.  You cannot please everyone - when HP only sold IPH desktop printers the complaint was that if one color in a tri-color cartridge ran out that the cartrdige would need to be replaced, wasting the ink in the other colors.  This was also a bit misleading and misunderstood, but widely said. In reality the ink colors run out very closely for most printing.  

As for a fail at a most crucial time - this just happened to me last week as I printed Christmas cards.  I was given a warning some time before that my color cartridge was running low and would need to be replaced.  It was a few days later that the cartridge was finally depleted and needed replacement before printing could continue.

[Bob_Headrick]

---

@UNC666 wrote:
In a nutshell HP deceived people by saying " individual cartridges that can be replaced only when one cartridge runs out" this is totally a LIE.

---

Your statement is incorrect. There are inidividual cartridges, and they can be replaced individually when one runs out.  There is nothing misleading there.

See the document here for information on how ink is used, the Officejet Pro 8600 series printers are IIC printers in the terminology of that document.