Printers minus a color cartridge

I have 2 Lexmark printers that work fine with only the B/W cartridge. They are also not supported on Windows 7 that I can find. They work fine with XP but machine is on last legs and want a new one. New machine XP or Win7 is the question. I have a Win7 laptop but can't print.

Talking to printer sales people they say the new machines require both cartridges. I don't mind buying another 50-60 dollar printer that will work with Win7 but don't want to be forced into the 2 cartridge for $60+ routine

Perhaps they require cartridges, working or not, to be in place? Might be a workaround.

Yes, it should continue to work as long as both cartridges are present. I haven't had color in mine for quite some time but it continues to print with the black. It does need both cartridges (dead or alive) in there to work.

i've used my lexmark1200series with the colour out of ink and the black still works when it has ink in it.

sparks - I assume you checked the lexmark sites for updated printer drivers - if not - http://support.lexmark.com/index?page=driversdownloads&locale=EN&userlocale=EN_US

and looks like they are still updating drivers - so you might check with them to see if the plan to suppor

Agree with Lunateak - that is how my HP printer works. And funny - just got the cartridge refilled - and when installing it got a message that I was installing a counterfit cartridge - ;)  The message warned that the printer would no longer provide the ink level for that cartridge to let me know when it was low - but did let me proceed.  What's next.  Never again will I buy HP (I said that 8 years ago - but decided to go ahead anyway with this printer - my mistake)

Thanks ... that is an option to just let the color run out and buy another black when the time comes (if you can just buy one).

I tried every updated Lexmark printer driver I could find and nothing worked with Win7 but will try further. Local techs say it's possible

3-4 times a year I print out stuff for myself but 2-3 times a week I print out neighbor kids homework and do not need color as much as they would like it

You can buy the cartridges separately.

My negative experiences with HP printers is that they won't print with any cartridges being empty no matter how I change the settings. I will never have a HP printer ever again - expensive ink and a printer that produces mediocre quality!

CheenaGringo wrote:My negative experiences with HP printers is that they won't print with any cartridges being empty no matter how I change the settings.  I will never have a HP printer ever again - expensive ink and a printer that produces mediocre quality!

LOL ...just partially fill EVERY colour cartridge with black ink, and fill the black cartridge.

FYI  Many cartridges have chips in them. The purpose of them is many. One is to time out the ink when it is too old.  Another is to say fooey when you refill it. If you think about it if you refill a cartridge and it fails and sprays ink all over the inside. HP does not want to be blamed
for it and yes it does happen sometimes when you refill a cartridge. They are not really made to have a needle poked into them. Also the fake ink can cause corrosion problems in the printheads so the makers know if you refill them. Even if you don't see a sign of it they know. Yes
it may appear to  be unfair but if you paid $100 for the printer/AIO yes you can expect to pay much more for ink than using a $300 printer/AIO that can print at lower costs than a laser printer. So one way or another they get there money. More money you pay much less cost per page for ink.  Those $40 printers are not quite the bargain that they seem unless you print occasionally only. Yes they do all kinds of things to get you to buy ink and HP is not the only one doing so. Actually filling the color inks with black is a very clever idea. Do you know that cheap printer can only have a
half filled cartridge out of the box? They do everything they can to lower the price because that's what you consumers say you want. So that's why
these printers behave the way they do. Money.

Z

I've posted about this before so forgive the repetition but I spent a little more on my AIO to get one that has refillable ink tanks rather than cartridges - Epson L355

Bought it at Benno's and paid about CDN$ 300 for it. So far I have only replaced the ink one time but it continues to work flawlessly. Replacement ink costs MX$ 150 per bottle so MX$ 600 for all four colours. I don't print a lot but so far the ink seems to last a long time.

Zedinmexico wrote:FYI  They are not really made to have a needle poked into them.

Z

¿So how does the ink get out of the cartridge then? LOL

arbon wrote:

Zedinmexico wrote:FYI  They are not really made to have a needle poked into them.

Z

¿So how does the ink get out of the cartridge then? LOL

The ink (inkjet type) gets out through very small rows of holes that have very small capacitors which boils the ink and spits it out the hole.
We are talking extremely small scale here and a very smart exact small spit of ink ends up on the paper. Color inks combine the inks to make
the proper color as do color lasers using toner instead of ink. Lasers than melt the toner onto the paper. Inkjets dry on there own that is why
you have the pause before the paper comes out. Inkjet technology was used in DLP projectors to open and close little doors instead of firing
capacitors to increase resolution of the picture.

Z

You have described how an ink jet print head functions, but not how the ink gets out of the cartridge and into the print head. Eh

arbon wrote:You have described how an ink jet print head functions, but not how the ink gets out of the cartridge and into the print head. Eh

If off axis it uses a tube that connects the ink cartridge to the print head. If ink and printhead are contained in one the answer is it goes from the
ink portion of the cartridge to the printhead using various methods depending on design.

It's a moot point now because the XP printer only has a parallel connect and there is no win 7 driver for the XP scanner.

and the Win 7 desk top came with an all in one.

Yikes .... forgot about my old flatbed scanner that I'm sure won't have drivers in Win7. All USB so nothing dating back to the parallel cable days .... but another reason for XP