Inkjet printers frequently combine a cheap piece of hardware with an endless supply of expensive ink cartridges. You might choose to refill your cartridges or buy refilled supplies to lower the cost of printing correspondence and other documents for your company. However, some recharged cartridges may cause performance and compatibility issues. You might be able to resume printing with your refilled or third-party ink supplies with some careful troubleshooting.
Defective Cartridge
The problem won’t go away merely because the consumable received a fresh supply of ink if the cartridge you refilled or bought from a refiller contained a flaw that manifested during past use. Similarly, if you bought a printer-compatible cartridge made by a third party to work with a certain hardware model, you might have gotten faulty goods. Your cartridge might work again if you can find and remove a smear or smudge that contaminates the contacts used to connect to the printer. Keep your hands away from the printhead and contact points since your oils could harm these delicate parts. Your best option if this troubleshooting step doesn’t work is to recycle the cartridge rather than attempting to revive it.
Cartridge Installation
The printer needs the inkjet cartridges to be placed correctly before it can detect their presence. Make sure they click into place by placing them in the appropriate spaces. Your cartridges should be carefully removed and immediately reinserted if they appear to be partially inserted. Follow the cartridge-maker’s instructions to ensure that you implement them as intended because some third-party cartridges use narrower casework than the original, manufacturer-supplied consumables.
Unrefillable Cartridges
Some cartridge makers produce parts that can’t be filled again. For instance, Lexmark offers discounted prices on ink tanks that must be returned for recycling and cannot be refilled. You may save money on the price of manufacturer consumables by using the Lexmark Return Program, through which the company makes these discounted supplies available directly from its website, but you’ll have to give up refilling them or waste supplies trying to do so.
Bypassing Monitoring
Some inkjet printers mistakenly indicate refilled cartridges as empty or reject them. In these circumstances, you must override the printer’s monitoring software in order to avoid the processes that prevent you from reusing consumables. On some circumstances, all you have to do to use the cartridge is click the “OK” button in a dialogue window. Your ability to keep track of ink levels may be rendered useless if the cartridge continues to work properly while the printer continues to report the cartridge as empty. Although using third-party, refilled, or remanufactured ink and cartridges does not void your printer’s warranty, the maker might decline to provide warranty service if these alternative consumables cause damage to your printer.
