Officejet Pro 8600 Plus says ink is empty when it is not

[HPmakepain]

Each time I have to change one cartridge on the Officejet Pro 8600 Plus I check how full the other cartridges are.  Typically the yellow one is 75% full and the other colours about 50%. 

So I buy and install one cartridge.  It doesn't matter if it is a black one or a colour one.  I replace it with a genuine HP cartridge.  That goes fine and comes up as now being full.  But immediatly after this it tells me the other cartridges need to be replaced too.   I go through all imaginable fixes (including a hard reset of course) but nothing changes - it still insists that the other cartridges are also empty.  Of course it now won't print (unless I want to print in black only). 

This means that every time I have to replace one cartridge I end up replacing all four.  So now I have a stack of old cartridges that are at least half full but cannot be used  - what a waste of money!    How did HP design a printer like this?

[Bryan_P]

Hello,

Understand that you  are facing with replacing cartridge even though they still have ink.

Let me direct you this troubleshooting guide to clean the cartridge contact.

If you're still encountering the issue after cleanin, please refer to the below link to check if there is any  out-of-date or missing drivers.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-Officejet-Pro-8600-Plus-e-All-in-One-Printer-series---N911/43...

Please let me know how it goes.

-Bryan-

[HPmakepain]

I can try that.  But I have had this problem since the very first change of cartridge.

[Bryan_P]

Please try that and let me know how it goes.

-Bryan-

[mwillkehr]

I had the exact problem.  Only one color was emply and the others had about 1/4 left in them.  But when I replaced the dead cartridge, it now indicated the other two were also dead and won't work unless these are replaced.  The reason I bought this printer is that each color is in it's own cartridge.  If I wanted to waste money and replace all colors at once I would have selected a cheaper printer.  Please advise how to reset thelevel.  If there is no fix for this, then this is a scam.  I will be forced to buy the china refils with the reset chip instead of going to costco and spending $75 on genuine refills.

[Bryan_P]

Hello mwillkehr,

You're right that the cartridges in your printer is on its own color. You do not need to replace all the cartridge at once unless all of them are depleted.

Kindly note that the ink level shown on the screen is estimated and might be differnet from acutal ink.  Also, some of the ink is used to service the print head to keep the print head healthly.

Let me direct you to th below link to understand more abou the ink usage in inkjet printer.

http://h10060.www1.hp.com/pageyield/en-019/articles/howInkIsUsed.html?cCode=us%20target=

-Bryan-

[dclaudew]

Why would anyone give the above suggestions a thumbs up?  I purchased a HP8620 for my wife in December 2014.  I bought extra cartridges from Office Depot.  By the time the starter cartridges had emptied, HP had modified its chips so that Office Depot ink would not work.  OD was nice and replaced our cartridges for free with the new chip.  Now it is time to replace the first OD cartridges, and once again the chip is causing trouble.  My wife only prints in black.  Yet the HP8620 refuses to print unless she replaces the cartridges too.  We did that, and of course the printer now works, until the black cartridge once again empties.  There is nothing wrong with our printer that needs a fix as suggested above.  What needs a fix is the HP chip, so that it measures capacity on volume rather than on time.  We are so unhappy with this printer.  Print quality is excellent, but as others have noted, the cartridges are in no way "independent" of each other.

I will be calling HP for free color replacement cartridges.  If they send me three new color cartridges [Personal Information Removed], I'll post something complimentary.  If they say my cartridges are defective and need replacement, you will know because I won't post again.

[dclaudew]

Why has no one posted a thumbs up to the above reply?  It is because the reply is an HP lie.  There is nothing wrong with HP printers.  There is something very wrong with the chip in HP printers.  The chip seems to be based on time rather than on ink capacity.  When one cartridge fails, the cartridge's chip seems to send a message to the printer to zap the chips in the other three cartridges.  That is, 1 empty cartridge = 4 empty cardridges.  Wierd math, but HP math is what it is.  Don't buy these printers unless you intend to buy 4 expensive ink cartridges at every replacement interval!

[dclaudew]

Why has no one posted a thumbs up to the above reply?  It is because the reply is an HP lie.  There is nothing wrong with HP printers.  There is something very wrong with the chip in HP printers.  The chip seems to be based on time rather than on ink capacity.  When one cartridge fails, the cartridge's chip seems to send a message to the printer to zap the chips in the other three cartridges.  That is, 1 empty cartridge = 4 empty cartridges.  Wierd math, but HP math is what it is.  Don't buy these printers unless you intend to buy 4 expensive ink cartridges at every replacement interval!

I just reinstalled the HP Software, as suggested by Bryan.  The software has a date of December 2015.  This is the second update since I purchased the HP 8620 Pro printer in 2014.  Each "update" invalidates all the new cartridges that I have in my inventory.  After the first update, Office Depot was kind enough to replace my "updated" cartridges.  These "updates" are a sham, since the real purpose is not to "update" but to invalidate.  My current three color cartridges are full (wife prints only in B&W), yet the "update" zaps the chip with an "empty" code.  So I have installed four new cartridges, giving me one truly empty black cartridge and three almost full color cartidges (ie, since my wife prints only in B&W, these cartridges are 100% full other than some evaporation.)

Dear HP and Bryan; You owe me three color cartridges for the perfectly good ones that you just zapped.  Please send three color cartridges for an HP 8620 Pro to [Personal Information Removed].  Thanks!  I agree that the empty black cartridge is my responsibility.

[danny-r]

@dclaudew

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 personal information (serial numbers and case details).

If you are unfamiliar with how the Forum's private message capability works, you can learn about that here.

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