Troubleshooter

In the context of HP printers this error is most commonly encountered when using remanufactured cartridges or a compatible cartridge which required you to remove the chip from your old cartridge and attach it to the new cartridge.

This is due to the technology that is utilised in order to establish how much ink is left remaining in the cartridge.  Because the printer doesn't have any way of physically looking inside the cartridge in order to check the ink levels many HP cartridges work on a basis of recording the amount of ink that has been dispensed in order to work out whether they are full or empty. 

A remanufactured cartridge is a HP original cartridge that has been recycled.  For functionality and legal reasons one of the components that needs to be reused without interference is the chip that records the level of ink that the cartridge has used.  As a result when you install a remanufactured HP cartridge the printer will often look at the amount of ink that has been used in the entire lifetime of the cartridge and will then use this information to report back an incorrect ink reading.

This shouldn't affect the actual page yield of the cartridge that you have received and in many instances a remanufactured cartridge will actually include more ink and last longer than an original despite the warnings.  You may however be required to indicate to the printer that you realise the ink level is inaccurate and want to continue printing regardless.  The printer driver will usually guide you though how to accomplish this however if it simply displays the error message 'ink cartridge empty' and refuses to print then please perform the following:

- Remove the cartridge from the printer
- Turn the printer off and then back on again
- Reinsert the cartridge

At this point the printer should indicate the cartridge installed is empty.  If your printer has a screen it should prompt you on how to override the warning or alternatively please try printing from the computer and follow the on screen prompts.

If your printer continues to display 'Cartridge empty' and will not print despite following the instructions above then please do contact us for further assistance as you may have a faulty unit.