Problems w/ Brother All In One Again

[Lurch]

If someone can advise me it would be really appreciated. Sales are starting to pick up for the Xmas season, and this AM my Brother MFC J870 DW refused to print but 1 sheet. It said I am suddenly out of red ink, when I don't even remember ever using red for anything. When I replaced it with a new non OEM red ink, it still refused to acknowledge it, and wouldn't work with the old one inserted back in, even though I can see ink left in it.

I changed to "print in B&W only" and it still refused to print.

So I went to the library to print out the 2 packing sheets and 3 ship labels.

Is there a way I can print in black ink only?

[Lurch]

I installed Linux Mint on my spare PC but can't get this printer working with that, and now I can't even get it to work on this Win 7 PC.
I'm thinking of just using my Linux PC, since I like it, and just going to the library to print stuff. It's only about 1 mile from here in my car.

[Philip]

It should allow you to print in B&W mode only even if the red cartridge shows as empty ?
http://support.brother.com/g/b/faqend.aspx?c=as_ot&lang=en&prod=dcpj4110dw_eu_as&faqid=faq00002461_005

[Lurch]

Thank you. I guess this thing may now be junk. I installed the second new 3rd party Magenta ink cartridge today and I still get the same message "re install cartridge" or "not enough ink to print".

I changed the setting to gray scale too.
I guess I might as well get in the habit of going to the library to print.

I emailed the seller of the ink but I doubt they know what to do.

What might work is if I unplug the printer and let it recycle. Then t may let me print in B&W only.

http://support.brother.com/g/b/faqend.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=mfcj870dw_us_eu_as&ftype3=1973&faqid=faq00003059_000

[Philip]

Sometimes the aftermarket cartridges would show as not-existent because of the chip on them..

If the new cartridge gives the message "reinstall cartridge" and the old empty one shows "not enough ink to print", you may want to slide out the chip from the old/oem cartridge and use it in the new cartridge.

[Lurch]

Thanks Phil. Is the chip the small thing on top that looks a little like part of a piece of RAM?

[Philip]

Yes, they can usually just slide right out.

[Lurch]

Wow!!! Good deal! I couldn't get the Brother chip stuck into place but it's sitting on the cart, and I carefully inserted the cart with this chip on it into the AIO, and it now recognizes I have a full tank of Magenta. :)

The chip should stay in place.

Does it have to be from a Brother Magenta cart or could it have been any color?

[Philip]

Glad it seems to be working ! This indicates that your aftermarket cartridge did not have the correct chip in (common issue actually), may want to switch cartridge vendors.

I am not sure if a chip from a different color cartridge would work, you may have to experiment to see...

[Lurch]

Awesome. The chips seem to have a hole on the corner of them which is supposed to fit over a tiny peg in the cartridge but the hole may not have been big enough on the Brother chip, but I set it on there and it now works so I should be OK with it.

I was planning to junk this AIO and it's only a year old. It prints really well and the 3rd party ink is so cheap you'd think the prices were from the 70s. I got 2 boxes with 4 carts in each box for $10 shipped and the black is an XL size. I seem to get 6 to 9 months per cartridge.

Good idea on changing the vendors.

I wouldn't have minded going to the library too much but the lessons you taught me should keep this AIO working for quite a while and I won't have to pay 15c per sheet at the library.

[Philip]

All those cartridges should add up to a nice roll of coins, I'm glad the trick worked :) I think I remember when you bought it, I may have even tried to sway you unsuccessfully to get a laser one ;)

[Lurch]

I think it was people here on this forum that talked me into getting this Brother AIO.

I had a laser printer once several years ago but I sold it after using it for only a few weeks or so. I chickened out of the particles it may have put into my home air. I'm kind of a wimp about things like that at times. I run an Ionic Pro negative ion generator 24/7 in my house and it might prevent me from things like the tiny amount of pollution a laser printer produces. Maybe if this Brother AIO ever stops working I'll get an entry level laser printer and really keep it. :) But it works really nice now that I changed the xchip in the cart.

Thanks again for the great advice. It's a shame that Brother and other companies have to try to prevent people from using less expensive ink.
That's just right in your face greed. :)

[Philip]

It is greedy, you are right... Many manufacturers have moved to that business model - the initial cost of home printers is very low, and then they get you with the locked cartridges at ridiculous prices for tiny amounts of ink.
Some of the business models are much more robust if you check beforehand, i.e. my Brother MFC-9460CDN laser printer can print 6000 b/w pages per toner cartridge.

[YARDofSTUF]

I haven't had an issue with EZ Ink brand carts yet on my brother printer. Get them from amazon.

[Lurch]

OK I'll keep that in mind. Thanks again.

I only print 2 to 6 pages a day and some days none at all, so the particles I'd get from a laser printer would be very low. Sometimes I sell 1 to 3 items on amazon, and then I print a sales receipt and shipping label, in econo mode.
It's not like I'd be printing books with it. :)

[Lurch]

Who would you say makes some of the best entry level laser printers? I'm not sure what brand the one I had was, but might have been an HP.
I think it was only about $100 with a rebate.

[Philip]

It depends on your requirements, i.e. color printing/scanning/faxing/copying. I use Brother color laser MFC, but it may be a bit high initial cost and overkill for occasional printing.
For an inexpensive model, I'd get something like Brother HL-L2340DW / HL-L2360DW for less than $100... (or HL-L2380DW includes a scanner for $40-50 more).

[Lurch]

I was looking at the 2340DW last night. I'd like the scanner in it too thio.

Can you use 3rd party toner with it to save money?

I'd be OK with a B&W printer.

[Philip]

I've used third-party toner in Brother cartridges, yes. Had a problem once with aftermarket toner showing streaks on prints, but most work as well as the OEM imho. You just have to clean out the old toner before filling it up. The printer (my model) can usually reset the page counter and print many more pages after it states the cartridge should be changed too.