Printer suddenly won't print black and white because the red cartridge is empty

[dasherHampton]

I have an Epson Workforce printer that I've generally been happy with over the years. I only print black and white so I've never paid much attention to the color cartridges. As far as I know they've been empty for a long time.

So I try to print some documents today (1st time since probably last fall) and the printer refuses to print. PC says the printer is in an "error state". So I dig a little and the Epson program says the red cartridge is empty and I need to replace it. It will not let me get past that point and directs me to the Epson website to buy a new cartridge. No matter what I try I'm stuck there. The "remind me later" button is greyed out. I have to go into Task Manager and manually close the program.

What's going on here? This has never happened before. Did Epson slide an update in somehow to sell ink cartridges? Can I get past this somehow to print my black and white documents?

And yes - I'm not trying to print in color. I checked that first. I've also unplugged the printer and let it reboot.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Probably an update. Silent update to the drivers, and then also, possibly, an update to your printer's firmware, as well, hidden in the new drivers.

Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, it happens. Printer companies are greedy. Well, except for the old Brother. They used to sell printers at fair prices, and didn't chip their ink carts. Now they're chipped too.

Edit: Does that printer use chipped carts? If it's old enough not to, then it might be using optical sensors to detect "ink low", in which case, they can be fooled, oftentimes. Look on StackExchange, and/or YouTube, for your printer's model or family, and see if there's a way to fake "ink present" or "ink full".

I know that there is a way to do that for my Brother printer, with electrical tape.

 

[dasherHampton]

I guess I"ll just have to bite the bullet and buy new color cartridges. Maybe I can find counterfeit ones cheap on amazon.

Talk about frustrating. I needed those paper copies today.

edit - meh looks like its only $18 for the magenta.

 

[SamirD]

This is why ink jets suck and getting a laser is the real solution. Especially when you can find open box lasers for the same price as a full set of inkjet cartridges.