Brother all in one says out of ink but there is ink printer scanner copier fax say

[micky]

Brother, all in one, says out of ink but there is ink MFC-J625dw

Is it hypnotized?

I have a Brother copier, printer, scanner, fax, wifi, double sided copying, but I can't do anything with it because first it wants ink and it says it's out of ink for red and blue. Inkjet.

But when I look at the cartridges, one has it seems lots of ink and the other seems to have enough.

Is this a known problem of some printers?

Fixable? I know there's no float like in a toilet. How does it decide that it's out of ink? Some switch or rheostat I can bypass or open so it always thinks it has ink?

This thing does everything except make French toast. I hate to throw it away.

posting to alt.periphs.printers also. Is there another ng I've missed?

Thanks.

Used to be printers came with a quick start manual and a manual. This one has 9 pdf files, not even including certification of plastic. Several about cell phones, including how to scan TO the cell phone. (Heck, at most I'd want to scan FROM the cell phone.)

[micky]

I found some webpages that remind me of what I used to know

If you know how Brother decides that a cartridge is necessary, or you know aobut this particular model, MFC-J625dw that would be great, but otherwise, I should read the webpages first and I apologize for bothering you all.

[Shadow]

No idea if it applies to your model, but printer manufacturers make their money out of replaceables, and have little chip counters in the cartridges/machine. So when they decide it's time to pay again, they say it's out of ink/toner. I was fortunate enough to buy a Samsung ML 2010 B/W laser printer with no such chip. On my 4rth refill, each refill costs under

10 dollars and lasts 3000-4000 pages. Later models have the chip. It might be a faulty ink-level detector, or maybe the cartridges need reseating. Try the brother support page. Replacement "alternative" cartridges for your model are dirt cheap on Amazon. If there is no hardware damage, that's what I'd do, replace the cartridges. []'s

[Frank]

My HP Officejet printer will not accept re-inked cartridges.

Apparently not enough to just re-ink them but counter must be reset.

Old HP cartridges, you could re-ink yourself, then they made ports inaccessible and now it is a chip to keep others from doing it.

Nothing new here. Years ago a chemist at Kodak told me that Kodak made no money off their cameras and practically gave them away as the big profit was in the color film they used.

[Retired]

Found these with a web search. Give them a try and let us know outcome

These are 2 best looking links; there are more

[micky]

They also spent millions? of dollars working on a film cartridge for

35mm film that could not be opened and reclosed. So people wouuldn't buy film in bulk. At least that's what I was told, but since other makers made such cartridges, and sold them iirc at a reasonable price, I'm not sure what good it did Kodak to prevent people from re-using theirs.

Let's assume no one else made the cartridges at first. Why should they since Kodak's could be reused. So Kodak is redesigning theirs, but could't they foresee that someone would start selling reuseaable ones?

[micky]

Retired, I looked at your webpage, and then I found another one with pictures of the very same cartridge that this one has, LC75 or maybe

73, and instructions to cover the clear window, and I did that, and the printer was not fooled. It gave a different warning, not about being low on ink but telling me to do the initial crank twist to start the cartridge working. So this method probably worked at one time, but they defeated it later. Still, maybe the tape was too opaque and I need something translucent. However, like I say below, I don't mind buying new cartridges, I think the machine itself may be broken or it wouldn't be complaining about what is in tthere.

I certainly don't mind buying new cartridges. But since there is ink in the two old ones that are listed as bad but otoh at least one of those two is not full, so the prior owner used it for a while, I've been thinking the hardware is fouled upI

I found this on the curb with a sign in big letters, FREE. This evening when he's probably home, I'm going to go back there, a private house, and try to find the previous owner and find out what's wrong with it.

It really does, or used to, do everything, things I didn't know about. Like there is a setting to keep outsiders from hacking into your wireless network and printing things on your printer. (There are things you can't do when it's set like this, and things you can.)

What would they do with the stuff they printed? I guess this applies more when one is in an office. But even though it's small and light and seemingly meant for homes, it's got all these fancy capabilities. Things I'd never use but I stil want them. Bluetooth I woudl use. I don't remember if my currrent wi-fi printer has that.

Or I might give this thing to someone else who doesn't have wireless.

[Paul]

One Amazon reviewer says to tip the printer at 90 degrees for a few moments, so the ink covers the LED sensor.

Hard to believe, in an era of chipped cartridges, someone is still doing this. Using LEDs to sense ink.

Paul

[micky]

I'll try that. The ink is translucent. The black vinyl tape I used was totally opaque, which is what that guy recommended.

[micky]

I tried it, but I forgot what you said and only tipped it 40 degrees back. (Though i did it while it was starting.) Didnt' work.

I'll try 90^ next time. Which direction? Back?

But then I'll buy new cartridges.

I also went to the house of the guy who put the printer out (with the sign FREE on it). He was very friendly. He said it worked fine but he had bought a new one. He said he put it out at 3PM Sunday, and I didn't get it until 9AM Monday. It's a very busy street but has plenty of parking right in front of the grass on which he put it. I"m surprised it went more than 5 hours of daylight with no one else taking it. I don't now why (assuming it works) I'm so happy to have it. I already have a wifi all in one inkject. I guess it's because it does even more than mine, even though they are things I'll never use, and because it's free. I like free. Maybe I'll give it to someone .

[Paul]

Look at the cartridge and where a person is supposed to put the black tape. And figure out from that, which direction to tip it, to get the ink to cover the optical path.

The review I read, didn't say which direction or coordinate system were being used. Ninety degrees could mean just about anything.

Paul

[micky]

He probably thought you and I should be smart enough to figure it out.

And indeed you did.

And for the record, I did too. When I tipped it back, that's because, I'm 98% sure, that was the way the cartridge had to go te get the ink in the window, as you just advised.

Frankly there is enough ink in one or both of them that 40 degrees would have been enough, and I think 90^ is for when there's only a couple days' worth of ink left, but I will do as I've been told.

I went back and found the guy who threw it away, and he was friendly, in a good mood and had no reason to lie, so I'm wondering if the printer sat around for a few weeks after he bought the new one, and maybe that has something to do with the No Ink message. I know, I've had more than one 19" TV, all CRT but both tube and transistor, that stopped working when I let them sit too long.

He said he put it out at 3PM on Sunday and I didn't get it until 9AM on Monday, so it sat there, on a busy street but with plenty of parking right in front of the printer, for more than 5 hours of daylight.

And it's not a rich n'hood. The sign was slightly obscured by the grass, but I easily r ecognized it as something free. so I'm wondering if tne rest of them are getting too rich for their britches.

[Paul]

I had something similar happen. I have a VCR, had it for years. It always sat plugged in. Never a bit of trouble with it.

So one day, I figured, I'll just unplug it until I need it again. About a year later, I had a tape I wanted to try in it, plugged it in, inserted the tape, and the tape pops back out. It won't go the final step, to loading into the "ready-to-go" position. I took the covers off it, tested the IR sensors with my IR detector strip, used the multimeter, and it looked like the sensors were all working.

I couldn't stand looking at the pile of stuff on the counter, so one day, off to the junkyard it went. What a waste. And all because I didn't keep it plugged in.

Paul

[micky]

Yes, very much the same as what's happened to me. Gack, I have two spare VCRs (that people got rid of) for when the one I use fails. They're probably no good by now.

[trader_4]

I have a Brother color laser MFC and it also won't print because it says it's out of toner. Except that it has plenty of black toner, it's out of one of the colors, which I rarely use and don't need right now. Why that would prevent it from printing in BW, IDK, but apparently these things are finicky.

[Mark Lloyd]

I have an older Brother HL-4070CDW that has a problem with color printing, and now has no color toner cartridges just black. I just use it for B/W printing. There's a setting in the driver.

Maybe yours has such a setting.

[micky]

I tried 90, or 85 degrees and I'm not sure, but it seemed like starting up was delayed as long as I held it like that. I really shoudlnt say that until I test again, but I don't feel like testing again.

inkcartridges.com had free shipping so I bought one color in OEM form, for about 10 dollars, and if its warning message goes out, I'll buy the other color in high capacitiy compatible ink for about 4.50. And later I'll buy a set at a time. Another company gave no discount for buying all 4 colors at once.

When I got the the printer, it had low capacity OEM cartridges in it, They make high capaicity oem which I thought were cheaper in the long run, so its almost as if he didnt use it much. I should check the glass for fingerprints. I think my life is boring compared to the detective shows I watch.

[micky]

Well, I didn't mind spending money on ink, if it would eventually work. It was just that the two colors it said had no ink seemed to have ink in the cartridge.

But I bought new cartridges and it's working now. The first thing it did was tell me the third color was low.

First I bought OEM magenta, OEM When that got rid of the magenta warning and I knew ink was really the problem, . I bought compatible cyan.

The cyan cartridge didn't even have the window that showed the ink in all the oem cartridges. The window isnt' there and the room in back of the window is not there. It's like one house has a porch and the other house has no porch at all.

So there must be some other way that it decides it's out of ink maybe a chip after all.

Couldn't install much of the software, which took an hour to download, including the OCR, unless the printer was plugged in. They don't want everyone to have it.

Changed alt.periphs.printers to comp.periphs.printers and things should work better now. I kept looking at the s at the end of periph and thinking I had that wrong.

[Tony Hwang]

Here back to school special on Brother MFC-J475DW for 59.00. Brother is very finicky about inks. They do too many cleaning cycles wasting ink. You can empty ink cartridges without printing a single page. Power off when not in use.

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

I don't see why: seems to me a perfectly sensible way of doing it, and IMO _far_ preferable to the chip method. The chip method is often inaccurate, and must add to the cost of the cartridges - as well as giving the manufacturers an at least theoretical, in countries where DMCA is valid, monopoly, so they can charge what they like. []

Good advice for virtually all makes, as they all do it. Though print something occasionally - whether once a week or once a month or other period different people have different ideas of (probably varies with model, temperature, and humidity) to stop things drying up and thus blocking.