Maddening Printer Problem

chris fitzgeraldchris fitzgerald
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I'm using a 20" iMac together with a basic printer - an Epson C82, which up to now has been a flawless performer for what I need (text and music, mostly). Tonight, I powered up the printer and tried to print a word document, but the "ink" light on the printer was on, and an error message told me that I needed to add ink. I didn't think this was right, but changed the black cartridge anyway just to get the show on the road. Now the "ink" light is till on, the utility reads a full black cartridge and empty color ones, and still I can't print a simple B&W Word document. Can anyone help?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    regreg Posts: 832member
    Try cleaning the ink nozzles.

    http://www.epson.com/er/actions/000425.html . On a lot of printers now-a-day if you don't have the ink it will stop a job so you don't waste other inks. So try cleaning the nozzles then check ink levels again. You might be out of the color and that is preventing you from printing, even if it is B&W only job.



    reg
  • Reply 2 of 3
    chris fitzgeraldchris fitzgerald Posts: 88member
    The printer is out of color, but I don't see why I should have to have color cartidges installed to print in B&W? Right now, it won't let me print anything...I just keep getting error messages. I don't think I've needed color printing since I got the damn thing. Am I going to have to go spend money on color cartridges that I don't need just so the B&W printing will work? ARRRRGGGGHHH!!!
  • Reply 3 of 3
    skyboltskybolt Posts: 111member
    That is exactly why I got rid of the Epson I had!! I only printed in black, but when the black ink ran out, I had to replace ALL cartridges, even thought the color ones were full (or almost). Seems they have a chip of some kind that tells the printer they all need to be changed, and it's all or nothing. Believe you WILL have to change the color cartridges in order to print black. And the cartridges are expensive! Changed to Canon - extremenly happy! Cartridges are much less expensive, you can use third-party cartridges, and the colors are individual tanks, so you only have to replace the one that is empty.



    Good luck!
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