Troubleshooter

In the context of Lexmark printers this error is most commonly encountered when using remanufactured cartridges. 

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 Lexmark 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 Lexmark 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 Lexmark 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 look closely for an option on the error box such as 'more info' or 'learn more'.  These options will often be small and sometimes will consist of simple underlined text rather than actual buttons but once clicked on you should be lead to a sub menu which will allow you to proceed past the error message. 

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.