It is disconcerting to buy new OEM toner for my color laser printer (HP 2025dn) at a cost that is more than I paid for the printer with toner already in it. Yes, the new printer came with "starter" toner cartridges, but still...

Combine that with HPs over-aggressive toner management and operating costs soar. My printer, along with most of the newer HP models, keeps track of how much toner is dispensed (it isn't just counting the number of pages) and when it determines that any one of the four cartridges is below the minimum level, it shuts down the printer. You can't even print in black and white mode.

Hidden deep within the menu structure on the front panel there is a workaround for this. You can set your printer to "Cartridge Out Override" and it will continue to print, even if your cartridges are really empty and you are just putting out blank pages.

The reason this is useful is that when your printer says the cartridge is empty and when the cartridge is actually empty are two different things. My "starter" black cartridge went "empty" at 504 pages. After setting the Cartridge Out Override, it continued to print up to 863 pages, at which point there began a very faint mottling of large black areas.

Obviously HP is of the Gillette school of marketing, give the printer away and make money on the toner. But for them to cry "empty" when I got more than 70% additional pages is unconscionable. For those who would like to really use all their toner, the menu selections for the Cartridge Out Override is below. It won't be exactly the same on all HP printers, but it should get you into the ballpark enough to find it on most of theme.

Configuration
Cartridge Out Override can only be enabled from the printer's control panel menu.
1. From the main menu, press (RIGHT ARROW) to System setup and press Check Mark button (SELECT).
2. Press (RIGHT ARROW) to Print quality and press the Check Mark button (SELECT).
3. Press (RIGHT ARROW) to Replace supplies and press Check Mark button (SELECT).
4. Press (RIGHT ARROW) to Override out and press Check Mark button (SELECT).
5. Press (Check Mark button SELECT).
If Stop at out is selected, the printer will stop printing when a cartridge reaches the recommended replacement point. If Override out is selected, the printer will continue printing when a cartridge reaches the recommended replacement point. The factory default setting is Stop at out.

tanstaafl.