I bought a Brother 5440 multifunction color printer scanner fax machine when I started working from home over three years ago. It was reasonably affordable, and my previous forays into inkjet printers explained why: the printer exists to get you to buy more ink cartridges. The 5440 didn’t come with fully-filled carts. I wasn’t insulted, I’d gotten over that little screwjob the last time I owned an HP inkjet years and years ago.
What particularly pissed me off about the 5440, and other Brother multi-function printers as I have come to find out, is that the unit periodically cleans itself by using a small amount of ink. Of every color. At regular intervals. I tried to fax an expense report, less than a year into owning the machine.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!
I jumped straight up in the air. What the fuck?
REFILL CYAN
I just wanted to fax something. Why did I need cyan ink? I really needed to fax my expense report in, so I drove to OfficeMax and got a replacement cyan cartridge. I snapped it in, reset the printer, and attempted to fax again.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!
What the fuck?
REFILL BLUE
Oh, for fuck’s sake. For about half the cost of my MFC I bought enough ink to shut the machine up long enough to fax my report in. I ordered a box of carts from eBay and pushed the issue aside.
The trick to the Brother MFC is that the color cartridges are half the size of the black cart. Over the next two years, I ran out of yellow, blue, and cyan twice more. I had only printed one page in color, ever. Last month I needed to fax in over twenty pages of documentation to my staffing firm in order to start my new job. I also needed to scan some documents in for their records. I powered up my MFC and pushed the fax button.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!
REFILL YELLOW
I reached into my eBay box o’ carts, only to find out I had used up all of the color ones. Motherfucker.
I searched the Web and found out there is a sensor in the printer that checks ink levels. The sensor uses a beam of light to do so; if the light bounces back, the machine assumes there is ink in the cart and continues to operate. If the light is not bounced back, the machine assumes that the cart is empty and starts beeping.
Note that I’m not actually out of ink. According to the machine, I need to buy a full replacement. If you look towards the right of the unit, you see where I marked the “spine” of the cart with a Sharpie. This is the area checked by the printer’s sensor.
Following a suggestion I found online, I took black electrician’s tape and placed it around the cartridge’s spine.
I shut the door to the printer and restarted it. I pushed the fax button, and away we went. Problem solved.
The danger of such a procedure is that the print heads for each color may become clogged. Little bits of ink supposedly dry on the heads, and the machine routinely cycles a “small” amount of fresh ink through the head in order to keep things clear. I find two and a half carts of three colors over three years to be a bit excessive just for “cleaning.” I never use the color printing option for my MFC anyway, so who gives a fuck.
I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that you couldn’t scan or fax without a full rack of ink, and thanks to the Power of the Internet™ I am able to use my Brother MFC 5440 again.
Whoah, great tip!
For powder ink users, sometimes it works just to take out the ink powder cartridge and thump it a few times to loosen powder from the inside walls of the cartridge. Note: Do Not Inhale.
drfaulken,
Thanks for the great tip! I can’t believe it isn’t posted all over the net??!!?? Maybe Brother isn’t as common as some other brands. Anyway, I did not fully understand why toner got low with little to no color printing but now I do. The trick you suggest seems to work fine- thanks. WHile I like my Brother printer and associated software much better than HP printers of bygone years (mainly due to the fact the software isn’t full of “features” that plain SUCK!) the liberal use of f bombs in relating this particular problem seems entirely appropriate!
Hey Man,
I want to thank you for your story on how to override the Brother Inkjet sensor. I hate the Brother “let me con you into buying color ink when you only print black and white” scheme.
You saved me a world of frustration.
Cheers,
Allan
haha very cool i will test it!
We are having the same problem with our Brother printer, but the cartridges are different (LC51) and have only a tiny window where ink level can be seen. And the damned thing wouldn’t let me print a black only postage label even though my “yellow” was out, aargh. After printing one sheet with a new yellow cart, it decided black was empty, but I can clearly see it’s nearly 1/3 full.
I’ll try your trick and search for more ideas. Thanks for the heads’ up!
Great Tip!
It’s so annoying that brother printers wants new inc when the cartidge still has some 30% left.
Thank you!
Holy smokes, it worked! I had my doubts, but worked great on the MFC 440CN.
fucking hated this printer for this stupid fucking shitty thing… thanks man - YOU ARE THE MAN
On my Canon Pixma MP150 I can just ignore its lies of being out of ink, and I even found out how to turn off the nag screen (it’s in the interface somewhere).
They also put out misinformation about the print heads, claiming they will clog if allowed to go empty. What’s misinformation (aka BS) about it is that, while they may indeed clog if the ink runs out, the print heads are part of the cartridge! And you need a new cart if it’s empty anyway, so it doesn’t matter if the old one is clogged or not. But they make like it’ll cause massive destruction and don’t correct it if someone thinks the heads are part of the machine. What a racket huh!
Thanks for the tip. I’ve found that it works well if you peel of some of the coloured sticker on the ink cartridge and stick it over the part where the ink shows through.
Works with the DCP-340CW as well. Or is that the same printer? Anyway, thanks for the tip.
After being in the Navy 22 years, I understood every word of your entry.
I used a black “Sharpie” indelible pen on the MFC=440CN cartridge, in place of tape. I am cook’n with gas.
The picture you provided was a HUGE help after much searching on the internet to find a solution to this extremely frustrating problem!! It worked…thanks!!!
I know a lot about printer tricks being a printer technician specialising in HP I also repair other brands of printer have to say thats a new one on me well done.
Thanks!!!! This was a huge help. The cartridge still has plenty of ink. I have tried shaking but that just made a mess. Thank you for the pictures.
Way too cool. I live 45 minutes from an ink store and needed to get some work done. Without this trick I’d have been out of commission. Now, I can get my work done and replace the cartridge on Monday. Go internet!