HP 7740 Will not print with "empty" cartridge

[pbyhistorian]

Yesterday was the first time I've run out of ink.  Went to the store and bought the 952 XL (Black) replacement.

I'm not complaining about the high price of the replacement cartridge.  HP is using Henry Ford's business model: sell the printer near or below cost; make profit on parts.  I popped the cartridge in, and the printer informed me it would not print with an empty cartridge - this time, the cyan catridge.

Now I'm upset.  Why didn't the pop-up warning tell me about both cartridges and save me a trip to the store?  Dumb programming, HP.  On top of that, I could have bought all four cartridges for a few dollars more than the price of two.  "Did HP do that intentionally?", I wonder.

I set the greyscale setting to black ink only, and set the printer preferences to black ink only.  Printer still refused to print with the empty Cyan cartridge.

This time, I check the status of all the cartridges before going to the store; yep, magenta and yellow are fine.  I go buy the 952XL Cyan replacement and pop it in.  Again, the pop-up says the printer will not print with an empty cartridge.  Incredulous, I check the cartridge status again: magenta and yellow now show bone-dry.

HP, it's been more than 10 years since I've bought one of your printers.  Your calculators were the Cadillacs back in the 1970s but everyone else has been smarter than you when it comes to printers.  I took a chance on the 7740 and am disappointed again.

This is clearly your mistake HP, and it's costing me money.  Please get better programmers and fix your (our) printers.  If not, I'll never forget that you fooled me twice.  I'm going to Amazon (where I bought it) to post a lackluster review.

EDIT: The warning dialog box just popped up, telling me both the magenta and yellow cartridges were empty, so the software would have saved me multiple trips to the store, had the cartridges really been dry.  It's very unlikely that all four colors happened to run dry simultaneously, however.  Rather, it appears that swapping a cartridge confuses the printer about the other cartridges, leading to wasted ink at our expense.  HP should discount their ink until they fix their bug.  I'd like a $50 coupon for ink HP, for making me buying four cartridges for $170 rather than as a set for $118.

[sandytechy20]

@pbyhistorian

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 Community's private message capability works, you can learn about that here.

Thank you for visiting the HP Support Community.

Cheers.