Toner runs out too quickly on lightly used printer

[kmpres]

Hello All,

I have a lightly used two year old HP Laserjet Pro M203dw printer that runs out of toner much too quickly.  Yes, I know about the 5% rule and that coverages will vary, but when an authentic HP cartridge advertised as capable of printing "up to 3,000 pages" only delivers 500 pages of very light print, that doesn't make me a happy customer.  It makes me want to go buy a competing product.

I need to figure out how I can get more mileage out of my printer.  In the two years I've owned it, it has only had two cartridges; the first being the demo CF230A cartridge that came with the printer and the second an authentic HP  CF230X cartridge that I bought at the same time from the same store.  The total page count in the printer stands today at a little over 600 pages.  It works perfectly otherwise and is spotless inside and out.  I've made no settings changes other than simply connecting it to my home network, and I only print documents or circuit diagrams - no heavy graphics or photos at all.

HP Smart tells me my printer is "very low on toner", but interestingly, it also tells me "your software is capable of authenticating your toner cartridge" but gives not means of doing so.  HP's Support pages don't even mention the M203 printer in this regard and the generic instructions it gives for toner cartridge authentication assume that I have a touch control panel of some kind which this printer does not have.  HP Smart also suggests there is a way to bypass the low toner alarm and simply print until the toner runs out, but it fails to give an "OK" button with which to invoke that option (see attached). 

So, I'm dead in the water until I can purchase another $100, 3,000 page -- ahem -- 500 page cartridge.  Just so you know, at that rate the toner alone is costing me 20 cents per page -- a pretty high price to pay for a lightly used home printer.

Can you help me out of this dilemma?  At least tell me how I can bypass the low toner alarm so I can get maximum use out of all the toner in the cartridge.

Thank you.