No Color printing needed

Larry1

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I have a Epson Stylus Photo 870 printer. My color ink cartridge shows empty and is not allowing me to print even when I have it set to print only in black. I have no need to ever print in color and I wanted to know if there was any way tweek or fool the printer into thinking that there is ink in the color cartridge so I can print using only black ink?
 

tyamada

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Just buy a chip resetter and reset the chip without refilling. You will probably ruin the color part of the print head by running your printer without ink in the color part of the cartridge.
 

Manuchau

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There is. Buy a chip resetter and a refill kit. The chip will re-set your colour back to "full", and you can refill the color dirt cheap.

Or...just buy a cheap compatible..you can often get them for 2-3 dollars or so from an online retailer

DON'T print at all with an empty cartridge, however, or you will ruin your printer
 

Osage

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To Larry1,

You got good advice from both responces. But if you never need color, you might want to chuck your inkjet and get a monochrome Laser---quite a few good ones on the market for under $100. In a short time you may well be money ahead-----and without the learning curve to be a smart consumer required with an inkjet. The inkjets chief advantages is with color printing and color photoprinting at a low initial purchase price.
 

Nifty

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Osage said:
But if you never need color, you might want to chuck your inkjet and get a monochrome Laser---quite a few good ones on the market for under $100.
I completely agree! I love printing in color, but if I was never going to print in color I'd stick with Laser printers and remanufactured or refilled cartridges (to bring their already low per page cost even lower).

I've picked up some great older model HP laserjet printers at a great price. You could see if a local laser repair shop has some to sell cheap.

Keep us posted no matter which path you take!
 

fish

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Just be careful with power costs. Older lasers are hogs - ink jets are very energy efficient in comparison. I believe you need to factor in cost of electricity to per page $, especially if you leave the laser on all day.
 

hpnetserver

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Lasers are fairly energy efficient these days. I have a desktop copier bought used that seems take no time to warm up. It is ready to make copies instantly right after turning on the power. Well, it's a copy machine not exactly a laser but it has a drum like lasers so it is pretty close. I use large copiers at work and those always took a few minutes to warm up and need to stay on all day. For black and white text only lasers are hard to beat. At least you don't worry a head to clog up any time. Toner is fairly cheap. I once spent around $20 for a small box of toner for a NEC laser. The toner was filled into the printer not into a cartridge. It lasted so long that when I dumped it there was still some toner in it.
 
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