Trick your Brother inkjet into working when an ink cartridge runs dry
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.
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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!
Thank you for your additional information. I love my Brother as far as the quality and features, however, I hate how often I have to purchase ink (at a very high price and for some reason you can’t buy the blue at a store by itself – you have to order on line or if in a store you have to buy a package of yellow, blue and red (sorry I know these are not the names they use for the colors – majenta and cyan). I also don’t use my color ink that often so having to replace them at such a price several times a year is something I really can’t afford. So, thank you, thank you, thank you!
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.
Eric THANK YOU I tried the ‘Peeled off Colored Sticker” trick an it worked. THANK YOU
Thank you so much. I have a different Brother printer, but my daughter had a late night school printing emergency, and you just made me a hero. Thanks for the tip. The printer now thinks the yellow cartridge is “full.”
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!
Wow. Thank you. This gives this printer at least 2 more weeks of life until I take the baseball bat to it.
I’ve used this thing 20 times in 3 years and every fifth time I am putting new ink into it.
Absolutely insane.
You guys rock, I’ve been suffering with this printer for two years now, the ink cart is so not empty when the alarm goes off and suddenly I have a somewhat expensive piece of Ahem, modern art…
I tried the sharpy trick and when that didn’t work, I peeled some of the label off the cart itself (LC-51 in my case) and put it over the little window. I used a Q-tip to push the label in so it fully covered the clear plastic area and it worked a treat. Now I can keep a full cart next to the printer and leave the pseudo-empty one in the printer until I need to print in color.
Too bad I didn’t discover you and this thread BEFORE I left my Brother MFU out by the curb 2 nights ago for some other enterprising soul to scoop it and (ahem) try this trick themselves. Now they have a FREE MFU. And I have a new working Lexmark (having been conned yet again) and I am out 150 bucks.
Thanks. Got mine to stop beeping. Good Pictures.
Hi. the other trick for other Brother printers (Mine is a DCP-150C)is to get some plain old “twink” or white correction fluid. Use the white correction fluid to paint over the clear fluid level indicators. Does the same thing and fools the printer into thinking its full of ink.
Thanks
Thanks about the tip with the white correction fluid. It Worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hi.. it worked for my coloured carts but not for the black one. why?!?
Hi Synwin, I am not sure why — are you certain you applied the sharpie/tape/white correction fluid at the right level? I think it would be MUCH harder to do this with the black ink since it would be harder to see the right place to put it.
If you’d like to email me a picture of your black cart I’ll try to help you. drfaulken@gmail.com
If you do not use the color carts at all, would it be safe and cheaper to use water and food coloring in there, along with the covered indicator trick.
using the different fluids will give the MFC something to clean with even though they are not used.
Is this a bad idea?
Hey CG — I am not sure that colored water would be a good idea, as the residue left by the dye may damage the print heads. But who knows.
This picture is from Synwin, who is having problems with her printer thinking the black cartridge still has ink in it:
Synwin, the correction fluid appears to be in the right place. Since I used tape, I am not sure if the correction fluid you are using is blocking enough light to fool the printer.
Have you tried putting electrician’s tape on your cart? You may also want to try coloring the area you put the correction fluid black with a marker.
I am sorry I don’t have a better answer for you, but it does appear you are coloring the right area.
Keep us posted; I uploaded your picture so that maybe someone else can be more helpful.
What a great idea!!!!!!
I have been fuming over my MFC for the last three years, and had a mild anurism every time I got the “out oif ink” message because there was still SO MUCH INK LEFT. It drove me insane toi have to buy more ink. BTW WalMart has the cheapest ink if you need it “right away”.
What I ended up doing is drilling a small hole in the flat area right above the sensor and using an ink refill kit to fill it with ink. Then I use a piece of electrical tape to cover the hole.
One observation: the color ink cartriges are interchangable (at least the LC41s). Before I figured out how to bypass BIG BROTHERS rip-off ways I would put any color available into the slot. Especially important for faxing on a Sunday night when it goes “out of Cyan”.
Two cautions though:
1) Make sure you use lots of newspaper the first few times, the ink can make a massive mess if it spills, and it does!
2) The color quality of the refills is not that accurate, but then again you are probably not printing photos on this piece of garbage.
My Brother printer is under my desk… I barely see where I stick the cartridge in.
You learned me that I threw away 1/3 of the damn expensive and fucking poluant ink I stupidely replaced for three long years.
Thank you so much! This idea saved me tons of money. I used it to fix my brother 115C printer.
I love you! Thank you! My son had a simple bit of writing he’d done for school — replace cyan it whined and would NOT print, even though it was black & white.
Of course, we figure this out after midnight, because he hadn’t tried printing in the afternoon when he’d finished.
Btw, using a black sharpie on the plastic does not work. Using silver duct tape on the other hand – does.
You are a livesaver. And those folks at brother should be shot for not giving us a b&w mode.
hey i have a Brother MFC-465cn and my cyan ran out. i will try this today. ill first try the sharpie trick then the electrical tape. hopefully it works since i havent printed anything for about 3 months because i didnt want to buy the cyan.thanks for the help
Great tip.
Without your suggestion, my brother can’t print out black color when one of color inks is empty.
so i just tried out the sharpie and it doesnt work. i tried putting electrical tape on the font but it did not work also. then i tried putting it on the front and warpping it around that piece cuz i noticed the sensors go on the sides of the plastic and then it finally worked. worked good.thanks
Great tip – worked well even with non transparent packing tape!
THANK YOU DRFAULKEN! Brother is really putting the screws to everyone who buys one of their printers. Your webpage is the first place I have seen any kind of “assistance” regarding the fleecing of customers who buy/own these printers & the debacle of color cartridges being empty when one wishes to print in only B&W! BRAVO my friend!
You think Brother is holding us hostage over the ink supply, look at this new attempt by Epson at contolling their precious commodity:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/09/02/epson-ec-01-is-a-recyclable-printer/
Designed obsolescence in the guise of recycling–gotta love it.
Oh this is so sweet!!! I tried it and it worked perfectly with my LC-51. As a test I used electrical tape on just the Cyan and Yellow – sure enough the message said the Magneta was low. I slapped some tape on it and- VIOLA! The stupid printer went right into clean mode and I got the printer back.
Thanks so much.
I FEEL GOOD TO BEAT THE STUPID “BROTHERS”. I almost throw away my printer, DCP 115-P.
Thanks for the tips.
Awesome tip! My printer has been unusable for a few weeks because I didn’t want to buy new cartridges for nothing. I really appreciate the help!
P.S. I used this trick on a Brother MFC-465CN
Briliant! Many thanks
Grab some black nail polish and put it on the the little skinny spine of the cartridge, wait til it dries then chuck it in. You can use electrical tape but it kept coming off for me.
Thanks for the tip Eric. I’ve found that it works well if you peel off some of the coloured sticker on the ink too after your advise…
We should all ship in for a good lawyer and sue brother what do you think? ok i am not so serious but you have an idea…
you’re a god! i have had my brother printer (DCP 115c) lying around and useless ever since i run out of just a single ink! your tip just worked so praise to you! XD thank you so much!
Thank you all for hacking the Brother Ink conspiracy. Has anyone figured out how to defeat the ink sensor on the MFC-9200C? I’ve found lots of info about how to refill the cartridges (LC04BK), but the sensor won’t allow refilled cartridges or after-market cartridges. I appreciate any and all tips.
Need help for the cartridges in my MFC-6490cw.
The yellow is: LC65HY-Y
Seems this setup for the inks watches the little black floater MOVE!!!
anybody get past this?
Thanx!
any tips for a lexmark z1300 #29 ink cartridge?
Answer for MFC-9200C. Halleluya!!! The black tape trick works for the MFC-9200C! I just did it today using after-market cartridges. I didn’t do any power on/off tricks.
With the power on, I pulled the black cartridge out. I used a piece of black electrical tape to completely cover the back side of the cartridge (the narrow side furthest from the handle – the side furthest from you when you’re facing the front of the machine). I didn’t trim the sides of the tape at all – just peeled it off the role long enough to cover the side of the cartridge from top to bottom and side to side, without wrapping around the bottom or the top. I put the cartridge back in and closed the lid. It happily cleaned the black cartridge as is now working perfectly. All 4 catridges are after-market.
Big-Brother takes another step back! This is one for the good guys.
Happy printing.
Hey guys,
Thank you so much for the idea!!!
Unfortunately I had previously thrown out my colour cartridges (I don’t even want to print I just want to scan and fax).
I took your idea one step further – I filled the little sensor areas with electrical tape.
Now I can scan and fax – I’m not sure if that will quite let me print but problem solved for the time being.
Thank you so much for sharing your idea.
Dave
The black tape didn’t work for my MFC215 but I found on another site to just wrap each cartridge in a small square of black garbage plastic and cut a hole where the ink comes out.- works a treat.
We just bought a Brother MFC-465cn fax/scanner/printer. Looks real nice, but we printed 1 colour picture and that was it for the colour cartridges. I covered the sensor part of the cartridges with duct tape and wella, it worked!!! THANKS so MUCH!!!
thanks for the wonderful tip… lets see if i can find that spot in EPSON.
drfaulken, Thank You!! I had a 1940CN which I complained enough to Brother that they sent me this replacement MFC-640CW because I was so tired of the fact that every time I went to send a fax I got the ‘ol “Cyan is empty” (or yellow, etc.) when I hadn’t used the darn think since the last fax I sent. So, I pretty much use this machine for sending faxes or doing an occasional scan (neither which use ink) and I was always getting that very frustrating “replace ink” message. I just got off the phone with Brother because they GUARANTEED me that this unit would still function as a fax/scanner even if ink was out…and guess what…no such luck!! Their only bit of advice for me was to “go out and buy more ink”. So, I got out my electrical tape (per the original poster), covered up my cyan cartridge…and I’m scanning again like a champ. THANK YOU. BROTHER, if you’re monitoring these blogs…get a clue…you are a scam!!!
Thanks for the tip, I have a DCP-150C and the tape trick worked a treat. Fuck you Brother!!
Oggi la mia stampante mi ha detto “Cyan esaurito”…non si poteva fare niente. Sono andato subito a un negozio e quel colore anche era esaurito….dopo aver letto questo consiglio sono riuscito a stampare!!! Bravo ! Bravo! Bravo!
I would like to share with everybody that this hack for Brother 5440 inkjet printer also works on Brother DCP-130C. The ink cartridges used are LC57 type of cartridges. LC57 is for use with the following models: DCP-330C, DCP-350C, DCP-540CN, DCP-560CN, FAX-2480C, MFC-240C, MFC-440CN, MFC-465CN, MFC-665CW, MFC-685CW, MFC-885CW, MFC-3360C, MFC-5460CN, MFC-5860CN. This means that by using the “black tape” trick, those people using the above-mentioned models of BROTHER printer can save money.
Thanks!
Now I have one problem solved.
The other problem is when I forget to switch my DCP-115c off than it wakes me up at night with its cleaning noise.
I have a MFC-240C and unfortunately this trick, electrical tape, is not working for me. Help anyone!
I have a better solution. Simply use a dark colored sharpie and write over the transparent window for the light sensor or on cartridge wall where sensor looks, on all the cartridges even the black one. The benefit is two-fold. First of all it won’t mark the ink as empty when its only half empty (the window on my cartridges is on the halfway mark) and secondly it allows one to go on printing even when one or more cartridges are eventually empty. My all-in-one printer is the Brother MFC-465CN and I have it set to grayscale. My blue is empty and my yellow and magenta are low but my printer doesn’t know it. This will be the very last Brother I ever buy even if its the cheapest and best printer on the market. I have principles.
Hi Jules,
Your idea is a good one, and has worked for other people. It didn’t work for me, but glad it did for you.
I am totally with you about not buying a Brother again. I just use mine as a scanner and a black and white copier now. When I run out of my ink stockpile it’s getting the boot.
Brother inkjets mix coloured ink into the black ink when they are printing black.
(This as well as the frequent automatic “cleaning” and the ~11ml of each ink in the cartridges that are initially supplied with the printer are why you can easily be told you have run out of a colour ink without having done any colour printing.)
So putting food colour into the colour cartridges will feed food colouring through your printhead onto your paper. Maybe not good for PH.
If you are sure you do not want to print colour then you could experiment by putting generic BULK INK specifically made for your Brother printer into each colour cartridge. I am not sure how to get bulk ink into a Brother cartridge.
Gotta luv yer Brudda!
SNARL
Hi Jules,
I think perhaps I am not coloring or placing the electrical tape in the right place. I do not know where the “window” is that the sensor looks through. Please anyone with a MFC-240C tell me where the window is. I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
Just wanted to offer my thanks as well.
A reminder to those with other printer models:
What’s good for the goose is not always good for the gander. It’s possible Brother has moved the sensor on newer printers or developed some other way to thwart this trick.
So you may want to search the comments to see if somebody else with your printer has had success.
If you do not have the same model printer, you can’t justifiably expect this trick to work, but the idea should be the same (tricking the printer into thinking the cartridges is full). So for example, someone in the comments above suggested wrapping the cart in black garbage bag material, then cutting a hole where the ink comes out. Sounds like that would work, but it might be safer to experiment with a sharpie coloring the exterior of the cart until you find the “sweet spot” where the sensor is looking.
Once again, thanks to the people who are spreading the word.
Thanks for saving my day.
I didn’t have access to electrician tape, so I just painted a white sticker in dark blue and it works just fine.
Once again, thanks for the tip.
Thank you for this!
unbelievable. i just googled “i hate my brother mfc440cn” and found this. thank you.
I love you all – thank you so much for this. I have just started a business from home and haven’t been able to print for weeks. This was my last ditch attempt before I slung the (brand new) Brother MFC 260C out of the window. I have had it a matter of weeks and the black cartridge ran out. I had a whole load of replacement ones (OEMs) so thought I was sorted – oh no, by the time I’d tried the third new replacement black cartridge I was in despair!
I tried the white marker trick on my cartridge as I didn’t have a black marker pen handy. My cartridge is slightly different to the pix above – just a tiny window of plastic showing. Painted the front of it – still didn’t work. Looked at where the sensor was (needed a torch) and realised it went right round the plastic column. Painted ALL THREE SIDES of the transparent window/column on the cartridge and it works!!!!
Yippee. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
The trick also works with MFC 260C. Brilliant!!
Thank you for the excellent idea! To make this work with a Brother MFC-240C I had to cut a square of the colored cartridge label off and push this into the cutaway in the back.
The sensor on this model reads through from one side of the clear area to the other so you have to cover the sides. Sharpie marker did not work for this model either, it seemed to be able to sense the color. I was about to give up and throw this printer out until I read Betzalel’s post above suggesting using the colored label of the ink cartridge itself.
Whiteout will not work, as it reflects the light from the sensor and will read as empty. Try a Sharpie or even Nail polish if you do not have any Black electrical tape. Anything that is not a bright or white color that will stop light from comming through will work.
The print head is in the cartridge. Putting water in the cartridge will allow water to come out, and allow the cartridge to clean, but where does that ink go? The Cleaning pad! I have not tried running one with water, but have use rubbing alcohol, and it will dry without smearing other colors or the black if it is tried to be used, and it will not puddle up in the printer anywhere. It also helps keep things clean!
Works!! on MFC-465CN using LC51BK, LC51Y, C, M
I got Near Empty warning and shows about 10~20% remaining level on LCD. But when I check the inks, they looks like more than 30% left.
I just put a small paper tape, 1cm x 0.5cm size,
on the plastic window’s front and 2 sides all around together.
That’s it. for 4 inks, I put 4 paper tapes.
MFC asked if I changed Black ink, I pressed YES.
Now all ink levels are 100% left.
Later if I really can not print anything, then I’ll replace only LC51BK because I don’t print colors. Mostly I just want to use Fax and fax report. LC51BK compatible is about $5 which is good enough for this Fax machine.
And if you don’t use colors,
don’t forget to the printer properties setting to “Grayscale”. and “Pain Paper”.
otherwise, MFC still use color inks to produce even black print outs.
AHASHAHAH IT WORKED!!!
MFC 3240C with this one the black tape didn’t completely work it seemed to work and then got upset again so i thought fuck it i’ll just wrap a cut off piece of plastic bag around the cartridges and shove them back in, NOW it’s happy ha ha! love this trick!!!
Great Tip man!! i just wanted to scan on my MFC420-CN but it was keep giving error about the empty cartridges. Your tip really saved my day! thanks again
Well, I’ve tried all your ideas and I still get “near empty cyan”. It’s even a Brother cart!! Any other ideas? It’s the DCP-115C.
Guys, my MFC-215C has the same optical ink level system. However, 2 of my sensors are dead. On this printer, if you remove the cartridge and check the levels with the menu option, it won’t show any reading (all the level boxes are clear). In the defective ink colors (black and yellow) the level is still indicated as Low (one black box in the first level). This indicates a defective sensor as it should not read anything at all. You do not have to reboot the printer, the readings happen in real time. You can exit and re-enter the cartridge ink level menu if it doesn’t refresh quick enough. So in my case, the bloody sensors are dead, always reading lowest level of ink. Luckily the printer still prints but keeps warning about low ink levels. Pretty cheap.
Hi all these comments are realy good and was quite helpful as i have just recently purcahse an epson all in one printer.And have not started on it yet.Please help me in getting started with it with all the tricks and tips that i should follow and precautions and care I should take fr my new all in one printer.so that i don’t have to go through all those problems.Will it run out of ink with just one picture printed?I am frigtened and nervous..this would be a too heavy on my pocket.
you are awesome!!! It worked on the brother MFC-685CW- save me some headaches!!!!!
You’re funny…and helpful. Problem solved and I won’t be throwing my 5860 out the window after all.
Thank you all for your postings and help. The electrical tape worked like magic on my Brother MFC9420 printer.
Cursed with a Brother MFC465CN
Eats ink like an addict, I could swear to it being a timed ink outage- I printed nothing for three months and only minimal before and it screams empty.It wont do ANYTHING if its outa ink. It will clean itself more than a house cat..until it runs out of ink, several times a day – even while turned off!
I hate Brother, will never ever buy another one……..
Well sir, you are a genious!
Thank you I just refilled all of my cartridges,using the ‘tape method’…
, black marker did not do the trick.
I know these cartridges are at least half full, there is no diff. in weight compared to a new one.
Did I mention I hate Brother?Now someone figure out a way to re-program or how to set the sensor an actual empty alert
Thank-you SO much. I had an important deadline to print documents and of course, beeping started indicating out of ink. Which actually of course I was not, still 1/3 full…anyway, THANK YOU. I like this printer but this issue is a serious design flaw.
xo
Hi, thanks for the sharpie tip, however with my Brother MFC 440CN I tried the sharpie but it didn’t work. So I will try the black tape and get back to you all. Thanks again, I’ve been trying to figure out this problem forever.
i may have posted this below but it doesn’t seem that way so I put it here as well
from brother website
If the unit were to continue printing, print jobs and cleaning cycles would suck air from the empty cartridge and damage the print head
hi again, sorry for the quickie double post I just happened to go to the Brother website to see if they had any ideas for solutions to this and they are claiming the reason they don’t let it print when a color ink is out ” If the unit were to continue printing, print jobs and cleaning cycles would suck air from the empty cartridge and damage the print head”
I don’t know if it’s truth or just an excuse. I supposed it’s possible. Anybody?
TheTrekHippy wrote:
“…I don’t know if it’s truth or just an excuse.”
Calling it an excuse would be putting it too mild. A flat out lie is more like it.
My other printer can still print if one or more of the color carts are empty. I’ve done this for extended periods of time over the course of several years and have never had any problems with the heads being damaged.
The only sucking going on is Brother trying to suck the money out of our wallets.
Thanks for the fix on my mfc-240. I only wanted to scan something and it wanted two cartridges. I used the labels off the carts as the marker pen didn’t work and I had no electrical tape. Perfect!!!
Same problems and complaints as everyone else. I have the MFC-440CN, which I’ve always referred to as “the Mother Fucking Copier” due to it’s great user experience, with the ink in particular.
This technique worked for me with the MFC-440CN / LC-51 cartridges. The key thing was to make sure the tape covered the sides of the ink level window, not just the part that’s parallel to the back of the cartridge.
The technique is also outlined on the following page, which has photos of the LC-51 cartridges and illustrates why it’s key to cover the sides of the ink level window:
http://www.robotification.com/component/content/article/7-hardware/35-trick-mfc-440cn-printer-into-thinking-its-ink-cartridges-are-full.html
Thanks drfaulken!!
Hey Shade (No 18)… there is some poetic justice in using Brother’s own label… and it worked for my Brother DCP-540CN
Thankyou so much for this…cyan was “empty” just as I needed to print something..of course it is Sundayand the shops are closed. So thanks again for sharing this.
By the way I used red electrical tape on the DCP-135C.
X
Dude… you are the shit! I cut a piece of black sticker from the outside of my black print cartrage and put it where you showed. I can fax once more!!!
Thanks so much, all!
-Miz
Hoorrayyy!!! the black electrical tape did the trick for my DCP-135C…
for the days this useless junk kept on nagging me to replace the magenta and cyan cartridges…
while still half-filled…. by the way my printer has been converted to continuous or bulk ink sytem… so now I have years ahead of me to use this printer without the worries of consuming expensive original inks from brother!!! thanks a lot guys you nailed it!!!
Thanks a lot.
I have MFC 240c. And it doesn’t scan with out ink. What a stupid trick “BROTHER” plays to make people buy ink.
Using the same sticker on the cartridge, i sealed the clear plastic area on the back of cartridge. We have to seal both the sides in the groove.
And now, the printer scans and also prints!!!
danm it worked thanks a bunch just sharpied mine and the danm thing worked
Thank you! YOU ARE A GOD!! Please keep this site up!!!
Thankyou so much wow i cant believe i am able to print now. I have a brother DCP-150C and putting white correction fluid really helped. This is a life saving moment lol
WoooHooo!! I was so flippin piss-off at my brother mfc5460cn, with the “no cartiridge” message for cyan. I was ready to throw it out the window. Thanks to this thread, I may just keep my printer a little longer.
Awesome tip!! I have a completely differnt Brother and it still worked.
thanks a ton!
Thank you so much! I was about ready to throw this scamming piece of shit out my window. I will definitely never invest in any of “Brothers” items ever again.
Thanks mate, a complete pain in the backside the MFC665CW has been since my brother purchased it… this will allow us to use it until we exhaust every scrap of value from its cartridges… small victory i know..
Cheers champ.
whew! thanks a lot! i felt so frustrated about not being able to print my paper works which were due the next day – good thing i found this site. i already shared this trick with my colleagues who are also having the same problem with their brother printer. in fact, most of them already bought another printer with another brand because they really got annoyed by this brother’s system. the others even had a stack of cartridges still with good amount of ink, but can’t use anymore. nonetheless, this is really a great help.
please keep on posting ideas on how to maximize the use of theses gadgets, anyway we invested on these, and it’s just appropriate that we enjoy its full use – otherwise, we’re just making these companies and manufacturers even richer…
Awesome!!! Thanks for figuring this out. This was such a waste of cash and time
sure as hell i have a brother MFC-440CN and it said the magenta was low and i looked at it ……sure as hell it was less than half full….so i put electrical tape over that clear window and it printed…..hope this helps
Works like a charm…thanks for the tip. I’ll never purchase another Brother printer as long as I live. They should be sued for not putting some type of disclaimer on their fucking box when you buy the damn thing.
Did not work with black perm marker even after repeated coatings all over the cartridge. However, once I covered the transparent end with black elec tape it worked immediately.
Awesome tip!
I will never buy Brother again; this was the second Brother that awarded me this aggravation.
This one is model MFC210; the other is MFC5440CN.
Brother, if you are reading this…GTH from all of us!
Thank you SOOOO much! Cutting out the label and using it for the 240C worked WoNDERS! I was about to lose it! I was trying to print out papers for my doctorate when this thing started acting stupid! You guys saved me.
For any of these optical systems systems detecting ink levels, maybe another solution is to use the printer on a tilt, so that the ink level again covers the optical sensor point (ie raise the front of the printer if this optical sensor is at the rear of the cartridge when inserted.) It may be that more is required, remove the cartridges for 30 seconds etc to fool the printer firmware into detecting cartridges replaced.
I have just successfully done this on my MFC-260C. The cartridge for this looks more similar to that described here http://www.robotification.com/component/content/article/7-hardware/35-trick-mfc-440cn-printer-into-thinking-its-ink-cartridges-are-full.html . First of all I tried a dark green vivid marker around the plastic bit which did not work. Secondly I used blue electrical tape (did not have black) which did not work either. But then a put another *layer* of blue electrical tape on (and making sure to cover even more plastic area) and it seemed to work fine! As for the sensors picking up the actual colour inside I somehow doubt they would do that?
Wow thanks a lot for the tip man. I was getting annoyed at having full black but having to go and buy yellow ink just to print a black and white document.
I have a brother MFC-240C and your tip works great, just gotta cover the little ink window on the spine of the cartridge.
The black tape trick also works on the Brother MFC-665CW cartridges. You don’t have to remove the cover to the cartridge: just apply slivers of black take to the small indented area (less than 1/2 inch wide) containing tne “spine” . Cover both the recessed parts and the spine.
The ink status indicator immediately shows the previously empty cartridges as full, and the printer immediately starts to print again.
Awesome!
Congrats on sharing a life saving tid bit!
If only the net was used more often in this way..
Thanks
This was a GODSEND. This works great on the MFC-240C also. I used the sticker from the label. Kudos to DRFAULKEN; my only complaint about this printer was the frequent need for new ink cartridges. Thank goodness I found this hint after only one set of new color cartridges.
AHAAAAAA!!!!! Friggin genius!!! It worked – I love you! =) THANK YOU!!!
I must say thank you!! for the wonderful and justifiable trick.
I have a MFC-465N, got it 6 months ago, never really prints anything, may be 5? Most work it does is CLEANING ITSELF everyday!
Until one day, i really need to print something, i got this msg “ink low, and will stop printing if JUST ONE of the inks runs out”!!
So I thought there is got to be a command to disable the self-cleaning feature–NO. And the next option is to search for cheap inks, but no matter how cheap it is, it still eats up the ink by self cleaning.
Luckily, I found this site and all the people providing these enhanced tips, I tried a couple of times, didnt really work for the first few times, I guess some people already repeat the tips, since there is no pic, i will try again:
1. Make sure your dark color sticker is big enough to cover the entire spine including the left and right sides of the transparent spine–not just the area of the spine
2. Need to clean it after you are done installing the cartridges
May be i am not smart enough, but it finally works.
Cant tell you how much I appreciate, especially in an economy like this… the way Brother sets this up is REALLY REALLY BAD
Wish everyone found this site.
I just did this for my MFC-885CW that told me I was out of yellow. There was still plenty of ink left.
I put tape on the clear plastic and it WORKED!! Then it told me I would out of cyan, so I did it and that worked too! Then it told me I was out of Magenta, well… I now have it ALL working.
Funny because I have only printed 3-4 color pages and a lot of black and faxes… but my black ink is still working too. I have only had the printer a few months and mostly bought for the FAX.
great fix…
I googled “brother ink cartridge override” and found this, Thanks so much.
IT WORKS!!! THANK YOU!! (By the way, green electricians tape works aswell!)
Thanks. Worked for us – or seems too!
Well, i was in the same boat as the rest of you and was about to fuckin lose it on my MFC-240C printer. Well i did the trick with the cartridge label on the little window and now i can scan…WTF why would you need a full array of all the inks just to scan…
First and last time i buy a brother.
Thank so very much for the help!!!!!!
THANKYOU Your a god it worked with my Brother MFC 260C
thank you.
thank you.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!
My MFC-260C works again!!! Thanks for your powerful tips
MFC-6490 all-in-one. electrical tape a success.
thanks.
bit of bin liner did it for me down the front of c
sensors i tried tape a few times didnt do it for me i have mfc-5440cn thankyou very much does anyone have manual in english i bought mine in spain dont understand what its telling me tried on site cant seem to get anywhere any ideas thankyou again now i have a good usable printer
Saved my ass on this my dad bought a new printer and gave this old 5440cn to us…found cartridges at ingrabber.com for 4.95 a piece They work great btw..we need for small home office…screw the color printing…THANK YOU!
Awesome thanks for this – it worked a treat!
Thankyou thankyou thankyou… dark blue elctrical tape onthe spine worked first go on the so called empty yellow ink cartridge in my MFC 215C… thanks heap man.. you rock! now i can fax and get a report…
Just had to add my thanks on GP.!!!!!!!
awesome! tried it. worked! you just saved my life!!
genius. saved me a lot of time. thanks!
I just tried this using only a permanent marker on my MFC-465CN. It isn’t working, so I’m about to dig around for some electrical tape.
Anyways, I’ve totally lost faith in the Brother name. What a freaking scam. I’m pissed to say the least.
Marker alone did not work. There is now clear tape and aluminum foil on three of my four ink cartridges. If it destroys the printer I’m returning it as defective. Screw this.
I don’t know why printers have to be such frustrating things ):[
Just went through the process of having my DCP-150C tell me I’d run out of ink just as I started to print out a technical manual PDF.
It’s in Black and white, but my cyan had run out, so everything stopped.
Didn’t want to go all the way into town, just for a cartridge I’m not using, so did a search and found this site.
I initially tried to block out the window with a black ‘Felt Tip Pen’ (as we call them here in OZ), but that didn’t work until I had also painted over the window area with ‘Liquid Paper’ (another Ozzie colloquialism).
Having sorted that I went for lunch, but heard the printer stop.
I had run out of paper!
No problem, reload more paper and go finish my coffee.
Came back and the red light was on, run out of paper again, so I checked the page number last printed to get an idea of how much paper to put in, loaded up and went off again.
When I came back 10 minutes later, THE RED LIGHT WAS ON AGAIN!
NO PAPER!?
Now I know that every time I try to be clever with these damn printers, they screw up somehow.
I’m trying to print a 100 page document, and I’ve set it to print in reverse order all ODD pages in collated format, so all I have to do at the end of the run is turn the block over and print all EVEN pages running forward.
So what’s happened?
Everytime it stopped, either for ink or paper, the damn thing went back and started printing from the beginning!
I’ve now got THREE manuals!!!!!
And I’m probably going to run out of ink before it actually finishes!
OMG Thank you so much!!!!!!! It worked like a charm with our Brother MFC240
hey “brothers”
this is one of the best solutions I ever found on the internet after thousand of searches. but even the cartridge itself provide you a piece of tape on the other side of it. try it, it is nearly loose. thanks thanks thanks
This is reallly AMAZING!!!
i own a DCP 150c
Where is the spine on my dcp150c catridge as my cartridge lookz really different from the one posted..
thnkz !
Thanks this worked for my MFC-490CW as well.
The ink cartridges are a little different, but you just have to slide a thin piece of electrical tape under the thin plastic strip.
Hi totlzas,
The DCP 150C cartridge has a grey plastic body all round the outside, but just between the two round ‘feed’ ports is a cut-out where you can see the clear plastic inner body.
You can’t just cover the window!
You have to cover, paint, obscure the little clear plastic ridge inside the hole.
A good coat of liquid paper will work.
Pylon.
I found that if you use a common cigarette lighter and held the extreme tip of the flame to the ink window, it causes a black residue from the combustion that blocks the light really well, make sure you don’t hold it too long or you might melt something (I didn’t have a problem with that tho in a Brother MFC240-C)
I was ready to buy a new printer due to the frustration of having to replace color cartridges when I never print in color! Thanks so much! Glad I found this post.
I found a small strip of aluminium foil is good enough to cover the eye of my Brother cartridge. No need to open the case, just insert teh strip with something roundish, a q-tip works fine.
Dear Doctor,
What a delight it is to beat the greedy monolith.
Brilliant tip, all credit to you. Thanks.
I was ready to throw the whole machine in the trash. Numerous calls to Brother did not help. They don’t give a damn. Your suggestion did the trick. Thanks much.
This is great!!! The only problem now is that Brother will find a way to fix the cartridges so that you can’t do this any more. I have an Epson sstylus PHOTO R220 with the same problem and the cartridges are not transparent so there is no way to over ride the sensor. If any one knows how, please let me know. Thanks upandatemm@yahoo.com
it worked with a silver marker on the LC61 series cartridges! I just colored in the clear plastic spot…& now it shows it as full ink! Thanks a lot!
Excellent – Thanks a ton!
I’ve been so annoyed for 2 weeks just wanting to print basic black pages. My cartridge is a little different on an MFC-490CW – the clear part is behind a plastic part but I figured it worked the same way. Sure enough!
Thanks again!
Great…Great…Great….
so frustrating…
but this worked great on MFC240C Brother
multi printer…
Thanks a lot…
I wanted to give the tape trick a try on my
MFC 465CN, but did not have electrical and gave some black duct tape a try.
Nope too think to allow the cartridge in.
HOWEVER
I used a sharpie on it and left the doors open for a while and when I closed it The message said did you refill the Magenta I said Yes and it cleaned and is printing no more messages claiming I need to refill
IT had told me the Cyan was empty before I tried this.
I tried this ages ago when it was easier to fool them with a old lexmark I could just take it out and put it back in but yea that was in the mid 90′s before they got hip to what consumers were doing to save money.
JERKS like they loose Any money allowing us to use ALL out ink WE bought.
THANKS I am waiting for my Best Buy Reward zone certificates to be rewarded on the 10th So I can use them to help get new ink so this will buy some time till than :0)
MANY THANX!!!!’
It is so much cheaper to just buy a whole new printer instead of ink replacment which Sucks for the landfill :0( Why can they not get the message?
Greedy dogs Just do not care
Anyone used the cheaper price ink from one of the low price generic ink places online?? Any places that offered good cartidges at a good price?
hell to the yes,it worked!!!!!!!!!
Sharpei didn’t work, but the lectric tape did. Make sure you cover the entre spine (front and sides), or else no go.
I have a MFC 3240-C.
This problem has plagued me many a tossed-out-a-good-cartridge-and-go-buy-a-new-one…..DAMN Brother!
Help! Where EXACTLY do I put the black tape on the mfc-490cw?
About HAD IT with Lexmark! They’ve made units progressively less field-serviceable.
[{{many bad words!!!}}]
If anyone’s found ways to get these things to accept home-refilled ink carts, please let me know!
ALSO, any notions what printers are most field-serviceable [repair parts and ink refills done by consumers]?
Thanks!
FUCK YOU BROTHER!
I’ve bought two replacements for each color already and have printed only like 5 pages altogether with some small graphs or colored text. The fucking cleaning scheme is a rip-off!!
Thanks to you man, I was just about to break something inside the printer to justify buying me a new one!
So MANY THANKS, once again!
FUCK YOU BROTHER! MWUAHAHAHAHA
Bloody brilliant. I have never been sooooooooooooo f—— frustrated with a printer but finally my son can use his printer and not mine.Thank you sooooooooooooooo much.
My 465CN tells me that I have no black cart installed or that the ink door is not closed. Think that the blackout will fix this, too?
You Rock, Pal. Appreciate the tip…..I too was about to throw it in the back alley.
Thank you. works with black electrical tape on my dcp 135c
Thanks so so so much your a legend, I had so mad I had bought some new ink its was a lighter yellow and even thought the pot was full it said it was empty BUT NOW IT WORKS YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!
THANKS SO MUCH
I have two (one home, one office) MFC-240c printers and the newer one for my office was giving me the “no cartridge” message in regards to my cyan cart. I took one of those stickers for labeling file folders, colored it black with a perm. marker then cut it to the width of the clear tab on the back of the printer cart and put it on and then darn thing worked like a charm!
For those with the MFC-240c – the spot you need to cover is on the back side of the cartridge, directly between the peg (top) and hole (bottom). It’s the inset part there, and you need to cover BOTH sides of the little tab inside the insert.
Thank you OP for this, I would have been running 45 minutes to the store without it!
What a great tip. I have had my MFC-5440CN for several years and it has been great, except for the tremendous amount of ink left in the “empty” cartridges. I have tried drilling into them to get the ink out, but that never worked well and just left me covered in ink. I just tried this using “white-out” and it worked great (using a black Sharpie did not work at all). Thankfully I have been saving the “empty” cartridges (don’t ask), but this trick just got me at least a years worth of free ink.
Thanks again.
Another win for the Internet!!
Oh Joy!! you and black electrical tape are the greatest. It worked perfectly on the LC51 black that kept telling me there is no cartridge when I had just replaced a brand new one. As for the Brother website help, you can forget that.
Thanks so much.
Thanks for this page…
MFC 465CN: printed 2 or 3 pages, and the ink was gone in 6 months. Now it won’t even let me send a fax!!! Why does it need ink to SEND a fax!??? Well, read the comments on this page, and used my wife’s old mascara to paint the clear plastic on all sides…let it wait for 5 minutes to dry…pop it right in. Voila! The only function I don’t use in the MFC is printing; serves them right.
DUDE!
this is an amazing trick!
tried it on the MFC 465-CN, it works great!
now i can scan and stuff without worrying about the ink being empty!
THANKS ALOT
Thanks!
A white correction pen (liquid) did the trick on a MFC-465CN.
Right now are 02:30am, no way I could get a new cyan cartridge, and I needed to print a black and white document for tomorrow…
So far I was happy with this printer, now I’m somewhat pissed off.
Thanks!
Worked like a charm! Take that you conniving printer manufacturers!
Just a heads up. I got the brother MFC465cn
Do NOT buy this printer.
save your money
i had it less than a year and can not use it because the paper tray is broken
The whole thing is made out of flimsy cheap plastic soon as i seen it i knew this would happen eventually. I did not expect it this soon but darn i JUST installed new ink cartridges and now I am basically screwed
DO not waste your money on a Brother
THANK YOU! I have a Brother MFC-665CW. There is a small spot at the front of the cartridge where the clear plastic ink holder shows through for the sensor to monitor. I just cut a small piece of the label on the cartridge off and stuck it in that area around the little protrusion. Just finished making 5 black and white copies which was my whole objective and it worked.
My MFC-240C was a DOOR STOP for 8 months and now I can use it to print BLACK!!!!!!!…
Were would we be with out Smart ppl like you guys.
TY TY TY TY TY TY
I just did this on a MFC685CW and it worked perfectly. The cartridges I just spent $100 for at Staples are in my drawer until it really runs out. Thanks.
This worked brilliantly. Thanks so much for the tip!
YOU ARE MY GOD
You just saved my day!
I’m surprised this tip isn’t posted everywhere
Thank you!!
I have the same model as you, for 2 years I had to buy color cartridges that I never used just so I could print in black.
You don’t know how many times I wanted to just pick up the printer and drop it on the floor and stomp on it!
Such a simple fix. You saved me so much cash, wasted time, further frustration and saved my printer too!
Your the best!!
I know it’s been awhile since you originally posted this, but thanks any way. The electrical tape idea just saved me a major problem with paid postage labels that were stuck in my browser with no way to print them. Had to tape the magenta cartridge so I could print the labels with my new generic black ink cartridge. $6 for 3 black carts and that included shipping. Beats the heck out of the $25 for one cart price at OfficeMax…
You are the man!
Kids just use the printer for photocopying now that we have a colour laser.
thanks for spending the time to share.
Kind regards
Brian
I have this problem with my 5460CN and read about this taping thing. I just can’t figure out where the tape goes! Tried about everyplace I think. Anyone have a photo to show me where the tape goes?
This is now my status after replacing all 4 catridges … exactly the same as before I replaced him …. I even unplugged it for 60 sec!
Bk – No Cart
Cyan – Low
Megenta – Low
Yellow – Low
AMAZING!it worked. hee hee feel so smug having got one over on the brothers. Thank you so much!
THANK GOD! This totally worked on my 5440CN. I am currently unemployed and printing out many, many resumes. As a result I am going through tons of cartridges while spending WAY TOO much money. I decided to buy 3rd party toner but the printer wouldn’t recognize the cartridges…used the tape and I was back in business! Thanks for the tip!!!
You are funny but smart. I was having these same problems. I have a intellifax 1840c all in one. i shut mine down one day to keep it from cleaning so much, which that didn’t help, it still would run the cleaning process. So when i turned it back on a few days later, it want do anything, it says unable to initilize, routine maintenance see chapter 1 or something like that. I had purchased so many ink cart. from ebay and had to return them all. I even took the machine half apart trying to get to the printer head, but couldn’t remove it to clean it. I purchased another printer, wonder how long that one is going to work, before it start acting up. can you tell me what could be the problem with the old printer? I wish i would have found this out years ago. thanks.
Another distinctly unimpressed Brother MFC-465CN owner who’s VERY relieved to have found this site.
Thanks to all concerned. Sharpie didn’t work for us, but black electrical tape did.
Now I just need to work out how to stop it trying to clean itself every 5 minutes!
fucken awsome man – just did this to my DPC-560CN and works a charm.
Another happy customer here too. Sat on the phone with Brother tech support trying to convince them that in 3 months I have not printed even 10 pages, how could it be empty, though I see messages showing the ink going down day by day. They say it is all because of the cleaning … ah-ha, but after a little electrical tape to do the trick, I NOW have my printer, copier back !!! How can they get away with this for SOO LONG and scam printer buyers. Will this at some point when ink actually runs out damage my printer ?
Hey I have a 440cn mfc and the cart.s are flat like a deck of cards, however I have the same issue once a month it seems. I dont use color either but low and behold the colors seem to be the only cart.s that go bad, will this trick work with them cart.s anyone? If you can help I’d appreciate it I’m going broke filling this brother.
OMG. I’m so glad you posted this. I have over 10 ink cartridges that are more than 50% full and it has told me that I am out of ink! So be damn. I knew there was a way to trick it, just not smart enough to find the solution. Thanks for your tip. I will try it on BOTH my home and work Brother printers. Hope it works. I have a MFC 240 and 5840.
Thank buddy.
Cindy
Holy $hit!!! You are da man. Same crap with MFC-684cw. And I don’t even print in B&W, and damn thing won’t let me fax anything. I’m going to try this trick tonight. I will also post about this on my clickglide dot com site
Confirmed! Trick worked with MFC-684cw which uses LC-51 ink. It was a bit tricky to cover the window because it’s inside the cartridge. I had to use tweezers but it worked!
Thanks drfaulken!
Your post inspired me to check this solution in our brother 9840cdw. In that model the sensor beam goes through a part in the cartridge that has transparent plastic on top of it. You can spot it easily if you compare the colour cartridges next to each other. That spot will be yellow in the yellow cartridge, cyan in the cyan one and so on. Just cover it with something that will bounce the light beam back and presto! Things are rolling again.
FANTASTIC! Was waiting for some invoices that had been faxed to me to be printed off Cyan cartridge simply wasnt registering, as soon as i stuck some electrical tape on it….Hey Presto!!!!!
Well impressed with this ‘cure’ really saved my bacon………Thank You!!!!!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank You!! I too have a Brother MFC-465cn (uses LC51 cartridges) that would NOT print if it was out of any color. But thank you to you tip and a tiny piece of electrical tape…I am good to go!! I was so frustrated, because I had broken one if my “empties” apart, and it most definately was NOT! Again Thanks!!!
Dude you ARE the man! Thanks so much, you saved my ***!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dude…thank you so much. My MFC-440CN has been fixed up quite nicely. I used the label trick to get it to work.
Same prob with DCP-330C
Tape on the spine fixed it, thanks heaps for the great tip.
Thanks, MFC 885CW with LC51 – covered clear window wot black electrical tape…worked like a charm
This worked well on my DCP-340CW. The catridge is a slightly different design but black paper stuck over the spine worked just the same. Saved me a lot of trouble.
Worked on a DCP-145 as well, thanks for the hint!
It showed Black empty – fair enough, bought new black – installed – THEN, Yellow was empty! Screw that, a bit of tape over the yellow window (and a bit of hard pushing to get it in), and away it prints.
This thing goes in the trash after this round of cartridges are empty.
Thanks for this genius trick. It worked as a charm on my DCP-110. Used Gaffa tape
Dont say Gaffa cant fix everything 
Simply outstanding!
Thanks!
YOU ARE THE MAN!
Soooo Happy… This procedure also worked perfectly on the MFC 240. Thanks so much for the post..
))
Super!
It also works on my MFC 425cn!
It is really great, kick Brother’s ass!
This is great!! I printed 30 more pages with an “empty” black cart!! bastards,… after the 30, the printing started to get lighter then (really) empty, blank page empty… put another taped “empty” in, (I have a pile of them) … had to force 2 cleaning cycles before the page wasn’t blank … havent bought new carts for months.. eat this Brother bastards.
Amazing. All I want to do with this machine at this point is scan stuff, but of course you can’t scan something with a brother multifunction without having adequate ink. Because, you know, scanning requires ink… to print to your computer’s hard drive.. yes..
anyway, the peeling off some colored label and sticking it to the spine of the cart worked like magic. I’m in utter shock that this works, but it worked perfectly. Tried black sharpie to no avail. I highly recommend using the piece of the label under the word “brother”.
It is a little picky, you really have to do a good job, but I’m never buying ink again!
Works fine with Brother DCP-750CW using prcel tape.
Great tip!!
so I have a Brother MFC 330 C with the LC 51 ink cartridge. I am guessing from your post that the black tape will work as it has for others.. My question is, I cant get the cyan ink to come out AT ALL.. I have bought 2 new cartridges, and neither work.. My machine was less than 6 month old when this started happening,, To this day. I can’t print with the Red color,,, I cant find any heads to clean,,, HELP !!!
This is an awesome tip! Thank you so much. I was in dire need of this tip.
Was just about to buy another set of colored inks for the third time in a year for the MFC240C (or just throw it out and get a different brand printer)when I thought just let me Google this problem. The black marker didnt work, but cutting the colored label on the cartridge and using that as a cover did work.
God bless you for saving me time and money.
With the LC61 ink, take the cart out, push it together to see the window, then use a silver sharpie to color both sides of the window, replace and print!!!
My Google search was “Brother printer fuck” and this was the only result!!
My daughter was up most of the night printing and assembling her programming/graphic design portfolio for a job interview. At 3am, the printer showed that the black ink was empty. I had purchased a new cartridge but bought the wrong one. After running to our local Wal-Mart only to find they no longer stock the LC61 cartridges, I didn’t know what else to do. The cartridge definitely has ink in it still, which frustrates me to no end. After reading the suggestions here, I cut a small piece of the existing label and placed it over the ink window. I had my doubts but… Voila! It worked!
My beloved Brother MFC-490CW was back on it’s feet and she was able to finish her portfolio on time!
Thanks so much!!!
Hey – you ROCK
Ive been trying to fix my printer for weeks
Bro MFC 210c
covered my cayene with DUCT TAPE
because I did not have any black elect tape
it immediately told me to close cover
and it cleaned
and Im good to go
Thanks so much
you ROCK!!!!!
Thanks a lot! It’s not a trivial task (all the time) to find out architectural information about computer hardware…especially proprietary hardware.
i’m so frustrated with my brother dcp 150-c. your tricks did not work, i’ve tried it all… why?
I’ve just tried this on my MFC-660CN. No joy with the electrical tape but the correction fluid works fine. Many, many thanks!
BRILLIANT!! The electrical tape worked on my Brother MFC 420CN. Thanks for the great tip!
For me, I was tired of taping or using a felt marker so what I did is cut out a square piece of pizza box that just fits in the cartridge hole and through where the sensor is. Et Voila! I don’t even need a cartridge in there.
Geez! There are SSSOOOO many posts on this page!!!
Why am I only seeing this a week after I spent $75 on MORE effing INK!!!
Just 2 days ago, I sent ALL of my old “empty” carts to my sons school where they turn them in for $$!!!
I am DEF posting this on my FB wall!!!!
Now to fix my prob of the dang 440cn not cleaning itself…have ALL NEW ink carts and the test pg comes out like crap….the black is faded and chopped up and the color looks ok to me, but the test page is missing lots of the little squares???? Hmm….what to do?
worked for my dcp-135c…loosely tape over the window, so the prongs can grip around the window…oush the tape down into the holes. works just great! so pleased!!!
About a year ago when I needed to scan something I got this OUT OF CYAN error before and I knew the ink was new so I just assumed the printer had a broken ink sensor.
Then today I had to fax something and this damn thing wouldn’t let me. So right before I was going to throw it out the window, I decided to Google this issue and sure enough this website was the #1 listing.
Thanks.
You are a Legend Thank You
Great tip! I got a bit upset for a moment when I noticed that I only had white electrician tape home. But that worked fine to.
We will save a lot of money!
Thanks again!
we drilled a hole in ours and put water in it every time they beep….
I have a MFC 620 and also have the same problem with ink not being empty but telling me I have to replace the cartridge. I have tried using the black electrical tape but have had no luck. I am pretty sure I am putting it in the right place as I have referred to your photo. Any suggestions please??
Hi guys,
I did this trick 2 years ago. This is good for some EMERGENCY B/W printing only or fax receiving. Now my printer with a clogged head after some month staying unplugged from the power. A lot of automatic cleanings and following manual cleaning of removed printing head gave no results. The new head costs around 100$. So i think about new printer. The only solution is extending the pipes to connect external big (200-500ml) ink tanks.
I have a MFC 440CN the ink is LC-51 I replaced the ink and throw out almost a new black all other colors replaced also. Colors print fine but the black still doesn’t work. I cleaned so many times with no success. I shows all are full and nothing happens with the black. There must be an easy way. It has been well over a month. Can you help me PLEASE.
Theresa,
One of my readers, gmryancps said my method should work for that printer. The 440CN uses the same cartridge as my 5440, the LC-51.
Have you tried putting tape over the “window” like in my photos?
no it is a full cartridge just put in
This is a new cartridge and it is full it is not reading empty. It just won’t print. I really don’t understand putting tap over what?
Oh, this post is about tricking your printer into thinking that the cartridge is full if it is really empty.
Contact Brother, they may have a better answer for you.
I cover ed up the window and it still doesn’t work. The I removed the ink tank and stripped away the plastic from where the ink comes out and wiped it with tissue and still nothing.
Oh joy…I called brothers and they took me through the steps of a mass cleaning process which is to: hit menu black menu in rapid succession then hit numbers 76, it should say cleaning all, then hit 3, it should read Power_P all then hit the color that you are having a problem with. Once this is complete it should work. IT DID NOT WORK AFTER SEVERAL TRIES. They told me that I would have to buy their ink which cost 2 legs. The ink I brought worked all this time it still works except black. They told me that I would have to buy their ink and then get my machine serviced by a company called Imaging Experts in Tampa Florida which will cost me more than what I want to pay is what the lady told me. Do anyone have suggestions before I start twittering my issue?
Hi Theresa,
I had a very similar problem with my printer. I fixed it by removing all the cartridges and then unplugging the unit for 60 min. Then I replugged the cartridges and then plugged in the unit. Try that …. If that doesn’t work … do the same thing but after the 60 min … plug the unit in again without the cartridges … the unit will tell you to plug them in.
Let me know if it works.
I will try it and see what happens
My suggestion is to read this entire thread, realize that it’s concerning a very specific issue surrounding brother printers and the fact that they won’t function at all unless all you ink tanks are full, realize that we collectively (thanks everyone!) have verified and solved this issue, and that your problem is completely different. Attempting our fix on your printer isn’t going to solve your issue, as it’s just a completely unrelated problem to the one we’re discussing a fix for.
Then realize that this run of brother printers is terrible, and just buy an HP and give up on your problem. It will save you time and money.
Repair = expensive, brother tech support = exspensive. Us helping you = free, but probably not going to solve your completely different issue. Best bet is to buy a new printer (it comes with ink!)
Thank you for sharing this tip. It was highly beneficial!
Thank you so much! Very easy to follow directions and very simple yet clever. I had doubts on weather this was going to work at first, even with all these positive comments, but it actually worked!
Thanks again!
Thanks Brother! for trying to F*CK me during tax season. The Sharpie trick works great, thanks for posting it Dave!
I WILL NOT be buying another Brother printer or HP for that matter. But then again, who sells printers without trying to f*ck you on the ink? or who is print friendly (allows you to print in a grayscale only mode when you are out of color ink?
Hello Thanks for posting this useful tip. I was wondering if that or something similar would work.
I just dismantled my mfc 420 cn last night. I replaced the cartridges and couldn’t get the red to print. When I did it was green and then brown. I took the printer apart and cleaned the heads. because when you clean with their built in routines it uses up all your ink. if some of the heads are clogged tis happens unevenly so I was running out of blue and yellow and black and the red was still full so i took it apart by removing the top section which scans. then rotating the paper feed till the head unlocks then remove the gear belt slide head to opposite side and lift head off of track use a non dripping alcohol soaked paper towel to sit the head on and repeatedly press down over and over and over again till you can wipe in the direction of the three tracks of tiny holes and see all three colors and black. After you are somewhat sure you are unclogged put the printer back together and run the cleaning process and testing procedures once again. If you have uneven coloring from bad refill make a test print image in paint with red blue and yellow colors and black blocks when making image make sure to make custom colors red should be 255 red and 0 in the blue and yellow sections and blue should be 255 in the blue section and 0 in red and yellow and yellow should be 255 in red and 255 in green this does not make brown but yellow. if you would like assistance with some of this. i would be glad to help by email or yahoo. just send me a message to my yahoo at the following addy. robert_graff_79@yahoo.com BE SURE TO PUT “HELP MY PRINTER” in the subject of the message so i know its not junk mail
thankssss it worked on my DCP-120C
It works! although I had a MFC 2950CN which has different cartridge. It has similar mechanism to check a cart is full or not. Tricked it by putting a black electrical tape. The cart I have is different though, you have to push the front part of it first before you can see the transparent tank – this is where you put the black tape.
Brilliant! I just ran into this problem trying to scan and email info to a friend. I have a MFC-495CW. Brother has put a bar in front of the area where the sensor checks. I cut narrow strips of black tape and applied over. the tape has to be applied loosely so that it can be pushed in a bit or the cartridge will not go in completely and will not allow it to be locked in place.
Thanks for the quick fix!
thanks so much! my mfc-665cw prints again after using the black electrical tape. i only wish i had all those “empty” cartridges that i’ve thrown away!
Thanks!! Just sold something on ebay.. went to print the label.. only to find out “empty” u rock!
this muthfuker mfc 440cn keeps reading NO CARTDIDGE when i insert black cartridge with or without the tape have tried other cartridges with full black no luck..ready to smash with baseball bat..appreciate help asap..thanks
Thank you so much for this tip! I used electric tape over the ink sensor on my color cartridges since I only ever print black and white, and it worked like a charm! You’re the best!
thank you so much, i want to do stuff, then i can’t do it because of this stupid machine. Thanks you
@ Casey – Mine does this every effing time I replace a cart. I have to unplug for 5 seconds, and as long as the cart is properly in place, it recognizes it once it’s plugged back in. Piece of crap.
Thanks a mill, worked a treat on my brother MFC-640CW. Was using generic cartridges and LSD kept saying “No Cartridge” when there was. I bet “Brother” dont like you now!!!
DUDE!! Thank you sooooo friggin much! I am so happy! I won’t have to buy that damn color ink anymore!!!
Awesome, awesome tip. You saved aggrivation and money as I’ve been troubleshooting my Dad’s Brother MFC 5860CN, trying to print a simple one-page bank document for him. I feel so empowered… Absolutely brilliant.
Thank you!
You saved my life, needed to print out for urgent visa application.
This really does work. AMAZING!!! I ADORE you. I have a really crucial court hearing tomorrow morning, and have a jillion copies to make between now and then, so, when my printer display “randomly” came up with “Out of CYAN, Out of MAGENTA” at 8:30pm, after printing only black for the 2 hours prior, I was up shit creek… No paddle, no snorkel, no cute lifeguard!!!
The office supply would be closing sooner than I could probably make it there, so NOW WHAT??? If it had been earlier, I honestly would not have even checked for an alternative, and I would have paid $30.00 that I really don’t have right now, to get new carts. (I’m sure I would have returned from the store, only to have the yellow one crap out on me, too).
The options were limited, since not having the copies would certainly lose my case for me. I must have 3 copies of each document to submit into evidence, or the court will not accept it as evidence at all. I took a risk, and instead of running straight out the door, I looked on the internet, for any other solution. Even if it meant refilling the carts myself. At least I’d save some cash, and could do the midnite walmart thing!
Better yet, I found this page and followed your directions. I admit, I crossed my fingers, prayed, and lined up all my lucky troll dolls (lol) before testing the machine… VOILA!!! Super simple. Electrical tape. worked immediately. I went all the way around the cart, and used a broken off Q-Tip to “smoosh” the tape into the slots so It would properly fit in the cartridge holder in the machine. When I win my case tomorrow, I will have to have a martini in your honor. Thanks a million… You’re a cashsaver, a timesaver, and a lifesaver!
Shelly
Thank you so much. You help me a lot. ^^
thanks a lot about the white correction fluid trick, my printer worked again!
Many thanks, it saved my life ! ^^
Thank you so much! This printers ink problems have been pissing me off since the day I baught it!
Brother MFC 3360c fooled with the black tape! Just be sure to cram it into the slots and double check the levers that hold the carts in.
Hi,
It does work. I am really becoming tired of replacing my color ink which i dont use anyways. And sometimes they are not even out of ink yet but it already wants me to replace it. The tape works. I used a duct tape because I dont have the electrical tape. I have a brother mfc 210c… thank you guys.
Thanks man. It’s height of summer, I’m stuck indoors with no open windows trying to fix this piece of shit for my mother in law. I am already covered in magenta ink and not happy. Great tip.
this is awesome trick. I knew something like this could be done!!! now my colors are all empty but it shows full! saved time printing my resumes and i wasnt late for my interview!
Brilliant, thank you.
We have the brother mfc-640cw.
Besides requiring four full ink cartridges, it has another wonderful feature:
According to brother customer service, once we begin printing a fax, and then discover, say, that it has been sent to us in error, or that we don’t need it, or that it is 500 pages long, whatever, there is no way to delete it.
The fax must be printed out in full before any further faxes can be printed.
Is there a hack for this also?
I’m definitely in the never-again category of brother customers.
Thanks!!!
It’s a great solution!
Finally i could send that urgent fax.
It’s so ridiculous that even the fax stop working when the cartrige is empty.
BTW
It’s worked well with brother MFC-465
I love you. Great tip, worked like a charm.
I have Epson Stylus NX400 Series and same problem you are having with Brother. Can I do same with tape?
Oh my god thank you so much. Mine was doing the same thing with the yellow. I just needed to print black and white shipping labels. Your tips works great. It now say that the yellow is full and print black and white with no problem. Thanks
Worked on my MFC-885CW – Ink (LC-51)….SHARPIE didn’t work, but the taking the sticker of the cartridge and putting it on the ENTIRE print head side WORKED!!! Thanks your the BEST. <3<3<3
Add me to the list of successes with duct tape around the clear tube on the LC51* carts for the MFC-465CN. FYI, it seems that once I pulled one cart to “treat”, the Bro got confused, and insisted other carts that I had not touched were not even installed, so I just did them all ;-}
This trick does raise the question of whether there will be any easy way to see how low it is getting without yanking the tape, and re-doing it? I am thinking a piece of shrink wrap tubing (from Radio Shack) slit down the side would make that a lot easier. Will try that the next time…
JABK (Just another Brother keeper)
What about a MFC 9320CW???? Any suggestions! I hate this thing
yippee skip! green lab tape worked on my MFC 885CW. Can cover the area, hope to get lucky that when the tape gets punctured when you shove it into the slot that it won’t puncture too much. Or use the Q tip to wrap around the clear window more carefully.
Thanks so much! I had been limping along, trying to figure how to get things done without printing.
So I put NEW cartridges in my 790CW and what do you know? The cyan was at half already, took it out and shoved it back in.
BEEP BEEP BEEP
“Not enough ink to maintain print quality” and the print scale display shows cyan EMPTY.
I did the sharpie marker trick and colored in the window that shows when the tab is pushed in. Did a print quality page and cyan is perfect on it. Stupid machine ><
This worked on the Brother MFC 420CN. The Sharpie didn’t work for me but the colored sticker from the front of the cartidge did. all color cartriges read completely full after applying the sticker aroung the back.
Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
U r my BROTHER…..u r a life saver!! thank u so much for the tip!!..
The ink cartridges for my MFC-240C look completely different from this, and I tried blocking out the only part where there is a transparent window to the liquid ink with a sharpie, but to no avail, it still says the ink is empty. At least that one lets me scan with the ink empty, but I don’t need fucking color to print a shipping label and that’s all I ever want it for, I never print in color, and frankly I don’t care if the color heads do get clogged, and the color cartridges run out way faster than the black ink does.
Thanks so much for the tip. We Brother printer owners have been well and truly scammed. I’ll definitely be using your trick when I next hear those dreaded beeps!
I was actually searching for an answer to another problem when I came upon this site.
I could not power off my Brother MFC-465CN the other day as it had run out of paper. I had to leave the power on until it finally clicked – DUH! – that I could put some old paper in there in order to allow the printer to power off just until I got some new paper.
Am I missing something or do these babies simply not turn off when paperless??
Hi Sara,
I haven’t experienced the “out of paper” problem you described, but I also just power my printer off by unplugging it. I think the printer attempts to do a few things at shut down that I don’t care about any more, like cleaning the color print heads.
Thank you thank you thank you all! I wish I’d seen this tip 2 years ago – used the sticker from the cartridge label, pushed around the little window with a pen, and bingo!
a fuck’n GOD, DrFaulken you are a fuck’n GOD.
Hi everyone!
When I’m having issues, I am always one for doing my own troubleshooting, online research,
and reading reviews, etc…but I never post, offering my own experiences to help others…
But OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!
I just HAD to write something here; I’ve only had the Brother MFC-495CW for like 2 months, and ALL of my inks claimed to be empty!
So, I only bought the black ink; while I enjoy the colors, they aren’t necessary, so I ASSUMED that this printer would let me just print in black and white when others are empty!
Hmmm….
So, I was ready to crush my printer until I came upon this site.
So, I ripped off some of the sticker that is attached to the LC61 color cartridges, and wrapped it around each of the sensor windows, and voila! Also, I changed the color setting in the printer driver to “greyscale.”
Thanks SOOOOOOO much for this thread!!! I thought I was all alone! lol
WOOOOOO!!!!!
Thanks for this info; I have a Brother MFC 210C, and was just about at the end of my rope. I’ve been using the off market brands because like others mentioned, replacing all the carts with Brothers ink cost about half the price of a new printer! Several days ago, my printer started acting up with the “not in cartridge” message, and replace this and that. And of course visiting Brother’s website, was no help. After spending hours yesterday and today trying to figure it out, I came across this site, tried the electric tape, and it worked like a charm. I’ve wasted loads of ink over the years of owning this thing, Big Brother should be ashame of themselves.
Awesome! We just moved and my ink is packed in boxes. Had some important paperwork to sign and scan and this allowed me to do that without having to go buy ink! I rarely print in color but am constantly replacing my colored cartridges in my MFC-640CW.
THANKS!!!
thanks for posting. worked first try.
This worked perfectly on my Brother MFC-5890CN! I was trying to print a word document and my yellow ran out but my black ink still had half and it wouldn’t print. It has smaller ink cartridges that are spring loaded, so the ink viewer is pushed in when the cartridge is out of the printer and when installed into the printer is pushed out. I wrapped the electrical tape around the ink viewer while in “installed position” and it worked beautifully!
Thank you so much!!! You saved me from such a headache.
I thank you very much for this information.I have to scan and email a document to my home office every night.Friday night I got the dreaded yellow ink is empty message.The other 2 colors wee also low.Screwed around with the menu until it allowed me to scan. I was thinking I would have to go buy ink that I do not need in order to do a scan. Put the electrical tape over the windows and voila–full cartridges on my MFC-440CN.
THANK YOU!! You da man!!! I was getting extremely frustrated with my Brother LC61 series. Used your idea & zammo —it worked. Had to place electrical tape over the clear plastic while pushing the part of the cartridge that extends out together with the main part of the cartridge. So the electrical tape covers the clear plastic and kinda attaches onto the black outer casing. If you wanted to be more precise and just cover the clear plastic you could probably use tweezers and cut the electrical tape more precisely.
For my patience level I just slapped it on there so I could print something in black only. (What a racket brother has going). Thanks again!!!!
Love you for this!
Thanks! This trick also worked for my MFC-440CN
Thanks! Metalic electric tape worked great on my MFC-440CN! I also found out that if I took out my black ink cartridge before the “black empty” notice appeared, and replaced it with the same cartridge, the printer asked me if I put in a “new cartridge”? I pressed 1 for yes. Next thing I know my black cartridge reads “full”
The LC61/LC65 series cartridges for MFC inkjets are harder to stick tape to, but an even cheaper solution works: use a Sharpie black marker and colour the transparent ink-sensing window black.
Rock ON! I don’t need the color cartridges, I just need to scan, fax, copy, and print B&W.
My cartridges don’t look like yours, my machine is a MFC-490CW, and I don’t have any electrician’s tape, so I inserted a little square of a post-it note where it looked like the machine would read the ink level, and that tricked the stupid machine just fine.
Man, I hate it when machines think they are smarter than we are.
… it works with Brother DCP 135C cartridges as well – even with non-original ones.
Thanks for the manual!
Thank you!! I just tried this on my Brother MFC-790CW which takes LC61 ink. I used a piece of black electrical tape over each of the three colors. I put it on the clear part of the ink cartridge on the back side facing the printer. At first I only used a small enough piece to cover it and it didn’t work. Then I tried a little bit bigger piece which I had to fold over the sides a little. This worked! Now my printer shows full ink on all (I had just replaced the black so it really was full.)
It really bothers me that Brother and other companies like HP in particular just try to take advantage of people. They know they are doing these things and don’t care, it’s all about the bottom dollar. Well, I’m a school teacher, what if I was just about the bottom dollar with their child’s education?? Food for thought…..
Great! works for MFC-295CN!!!
worked for me too.. bought the thing on sale.. black cartridge still had ink when I tipped it.. awesome job.. I can finish printing my study guides
Works great for MFC-465CN
This worked awesome also on the MFC 240c
My black ink is out and finally I googled for help.. All I want to do is scan in documents for work. I tried to color in the spine area of the cartridge and it didnt works so I used a post it not and tape and it worked for me also…Its frustrating when work needs to be done. I refuse to pay for ink all the dang time
Thank you so much! I knew there had to be an easy solution to this problem!
This is GREAT advice. Many thanks to the original poster. I have a Brother MFC 240C and it wouldn’t scan when out of ink. Using a part of the cartridge label to cover the window worked fine. This is a huge money and time saver.
Thinking good thoughts about you!
This tip works also with “No cartridge” message even if the cartridge is new.
My printer is a DCP-115C.
Great !!!
OK, It’s been a few years since you wrote this, but I’m still so thankful to have found this. You rock. Thanks. Your f-bombs accurately describe how this POS printer makes me feel… too bad I’m too cheap to replace it.
Buddy, you rock.
Good Stuff Matey!
Black nail polish over the cartridge sensors for the Brother 465CN works a treat!
Shame on you Brother……
It works.. thanks.. I got so tired buying inks too and I use more black than colored anyways.. and sometimes they do beep even if they are still a lot of ink… now i am saving a lot.. thank you,.
It’s working, thanks man!
Just letting you know: You just saved my bacon with this tip. Thanks buddy! Works like a charm!
hey, I just found this and apart from having a good laugh i’m so happy that others have the exact same feeling I do of this stupid brother printer. I also don’t use colour – never – and have to pay another $40 to fix but I will try out your suggestion. I was wondering, have you found a better printer since 2008????
God bless you for posting this!! You saved me a lot of money and headache!
Hi Mel — I only use the Brother as a scanner and fax machine. I use the Samsung ML-2851 laser printer (my review) for printing.
You can still buy that printer for between $100 – $200, but I don’t know if it is the most modern version of this model. I really like mine.
thanks a lot
very helpful
I tried the electricians tape method first but had trouble getting it in the right place. Then tried the Sharpie marker and it just wouldn’t work. Then tried White-out and still no success. Finally back to electricians tape and everything is working great! Thanks for all the suggestions…
I used the tape trick(from the cartridge label)to fool my sensor into thinking the cartridge was full. I have a Brother MFC-240C and it uses #LC51BK for black cartridges. This is the only cartridge I’ve used it on so far but it worked perfectly. I covered the ink well window in the center back, on all three sides, with the black tape from the label. I cut it to size and stuffed it around the sides with a pencil. I always complained at how much ink this printer used everytime I went to the store I was buying a pack of black and a pack of colored cartridges. I felt for the money I was spending on ink I could just buy a new printer – now I don’t have to. Thanks for all the tips!
To everyone with “No Cartridge” problem:
I empathize with all of you. A relatively advanced trick worked for my MFC-5440CN. Try it on yours to see if it will help.
Go to site http://dan.hersam.com/2005/03/09/brother-mfc-420cn/
Read threads 175 to 179.
Good luck
Dude……You are the man!!
Works a treat
Great!! works on all Brother printers as soon as you find the sensor and tape it with black electrician tape. Motherfucn genius.
Wow, I’ve been suffering from this problem for too long and just now came across this two year old article.
The various tips worked great on my Brother MFC-465CN with LC51 cartridges.
Now I won’t have to buy ink until I truly need to.
Kudos to DrFaulken and all the others. The community rocks!
Great fix, thanks heaps mate, isn’t the internet fantastic. Stuff buying colour ink, i’ll stick with black!
Wow. Electrical tape worked on LC-51 cartridges for MFC-3360C. Why did I not find this post earlier. Would have saved soooo much!!
Electrical tape worked on my brother MFC-685cw with LC51 ink.
You are a genius! It worked with my Canon printer too. Yellow was out. I coloured in the end of the cartridge (the sticking out bit) with a silver sharpie and it printed the doc. Thank you so much. It is telling me now that ink is low.
This tip really works!…Thanks so much for helping me with my printer frustration.
oh my goodness I am thanking God for you right now. Genius
You are a freaking lifesaver!!! I was doubtful, took a trip to WM for electrical tape and voila… no more beep beep beep. Thanks so much.
You are amazing!! I called the 1-800 help number, I told them I was not able to print even black copies, even though my “Cyan” was out… he told me that its only “logical” to replace the blue ink in order to print black…. ? What a scam, just to get me to buy more ink and then “Call back after it has been replaced.” What a joke, never buying Brothers again!
You are my hero, my father thanks you, he can now receive a fax once more!
I can’t believe I didn’t google this problem earlier -__- I’ve thrown away so many unempty ink cartridges, probably enough ink altogether to make a whole big black one. Anyway, I wanted to try this with my cartridge. I didn’t have black tape so I used stripy green and yellow, lol! But when I put it in it just pushed it off so I just thought heck and jammed some paper against the clear bit and put it in.
Worked lovely, but damn my printer for having to suddenly jam and clean itself immediately after that -__- Probably used up as much ink as was left in that poor yellow…
I found your great site in 2010. No one mentioned filling with bulk ink, I use Canon ink left over from old Canon printer to fill MFC 240. Works great Thanks.
I haven’t tried your tip yet, but I was so close to taking my Brother printer outside and jumping on it. As you may have guessed my printer has been on borrowed time for a while now. Your tip has saved my printer (and my sanity!).
Your tip introduction was hilarious! I could relate to everything you said! Thank you.
It works! I used duct tape and Voila!
Thanks-You Rock!
Totally works, just cut the same
color label off on the MFC-490CW
and stick it on the window of the
color ink cartridge that is out
and walla…!
Thanks! You are amazing! This worked for my MFC-240C – I was ready to throw it into the street!
Thanks for great tips and clear picture and description. I saw the same idea of fooling the level detection but saying put a black tape on the “side” led me nowhere. I used scotch tape and painted with black marker on all tankers. It work. However, cleaning heads was unsatisfactory until I unplugged/plugged the rubber plugs from the filling holes.
Thank you very much.
Your brilliant! It worked just by peeling off some of the sticker already on the cartridge and covering the window. Easy……Your a life saver and I hope good things come your way.
You rock – seriously! Thank you so much.
Genius. Sheer genius.
490cw…the tape thing worked but you have to put it through the opening where the ink is. I tried to go around the ink part and it didn’t work. Thanks everyone for your help…huge life saver!
Holy Cow…! It seems to be working. You have made my life bearable again!
Awesome! Now I can print my flight boarding pass for tomorrow morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sweet, Thanks
worked on my Brother DCP-350C
with two colours, and i just covered it with some masking tape
Many thanks – great tip
Amazing, this will save me a bundle of $$$
I used black nail polish and painted over the clear plastic on all of the color cartridges for my Brother MFC-885CW. Worked like a charm!
Thank you!!!
OMG… It actually worked. MFC-490CW . We used duct tape and placed it around the clear window (front and side) of all the color cartridges that were low , the black ink was new . All the ink levels are now, registering on the screen. The black ink will still not print. I think its clogged. Does anyone know how to unclog it. I have already completed the “clean” function on the printer. But it still will not print black. Thanks for everything
OMG this works great! Thank you for the tip! I was about ready to chunk my fax out the window for this reason. I NEVER use the color cartridges. Got sick of buying them over and over again for nothing! Thanks again!!
Worked a treat, used a sharpie as well on my MFC 240C, thanks
Tape worked for my Brother mfc240c. Marker did not. Then after I got it t let me print I ran a full page of colors and nothing was wrong with it. A perfect print from carts that my printer said was empty. I love this man for telling us the secret to the brother printer universe. Thank You so much!
Bravo!! It works for Brother MFC-885CW. Thanks so much.
I can’t believe the government lets these companies deceive the public like this. Thank you so much for your help!!!!
It Works on my MFC 295CN – the countless days running to staples, office depot, walmart costco and anyplace that sold ink… every single time i had to print a contract or send a fax… Beep Beep Beep. I saved the cartridges because i just didn’t believe that they could be empty but i had no proof… AH HA!! yes the lying scum bags!! I put the tape over the LC61 little clear window leaving just a little play and taping the electrical tape to the black housing just out side.. and ..cleaning cleaning… it WORKED!! I could just scream. I have a years worth of ink now!! Thank you Thank you!! Thank YOU!
The black tape trick worked on my 1940cn – Thanks!
Worked on the MFC-5890CN, there is a clear window on the cartridge and cover it with some tape and good to go. I hate bullshit like this.
Thank you very much for the site!!
I didnt use my printer for OVER A YEAR because of this stupid problem. Two pieces of tape on two color catridges and it works like a charm.
THANKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Dr Faulken,
I have a MFC-665CW and googled my problem…..yours is the closest solution I could find so far, although my problem is a bit different (I HAVE refilled all ink cartridges and I continue to get “No Cartridge Black”. Granted ~ 4 months ago I finally caved in and started buying the cheap non-Brother refills, so maybe I have damaged the ink or cartridge sensor because of that). Either way, I want to hide a grenade inside this thing, sit back and open a bottle of champagne while I watch it blow up to smithereens…..to say the LEAST.
I live in New Zealand, so I don’t want to tell you how much we pay for proper Brother refills here. And other printer/scanner/faxer options are more limited here, so I will have to go back to googling a solution. But being raised on Long Island, New York, I really enjoyed the way your original post explained your solution. I actually had a laugh and a half while trying to sort this damn printer out……uplifting to say the least. When I do figure this beast out, I will use your trick for sure. I can’t count how many times we have had to refill the ink while mystified that it had run out so quickly. I hope the corporate heads of Brother reap what they sow someday…..this crap sounds like DELIBERATE profit tactics…..by screwing all us hard working folks out here…….ARGH!!!!
I hope you reap what you sow too……posting this solution was truly a good deed
And if you have any ideas for my hideous problem, feel free to post.
Cheers,
Marcie
Worked on my 420CN, but I used duct tape that I colored with a Sharpie.
I thought that this old printer was the worst before I purchased a new Dell multifunction. Those things really suck.
Thanks for the tip!
thx a million – which is close to how much ink wouldve cost me for my mfc 290c/ lc61 cartridges. i ony print in black n white and scann docs
.
Thanks a lot.
I FOUND IT!
My Brother MFC-665CW would not print and kept showing “Empty Cartridge Black” and “Ink Empty Black” in the LCD display, despite being refilled with all new ink inserts. I followed the manual that came with the machine and the Brother online help service, and carried on reinserting the cartridges as instructed with no success. (Note: I had given up on purchasing authentic Brother ink a few months ago as each set of cartridges cost 1/5 the entire cost of the machine. So these were cheap non-Brother ink cartridges I was using here). From the Brother online help website, I concluded that I must have damaged my ink cartridge sensor circuit board, although visually there was no evidence of any damage. The machine is ~7 years old, so maybe the ink sensor circuit board just crapped out.
So I cruised the internet and found a site called Tech Support Forum where I found my solution…deactivate the ink sensor all together. It was easy and worked like a dream! Also, it seems to work on most Brother all-in-one printers according to the testimonials. There wasn’t anyone it did not work for and they all had different model numbers. The solution I read was done to an MFC-240C with photos and the anatomy under the control panel very much the same.
First of all, TURN OFF THE POWER TO YOUR PRINTER. Then lift up the scanner and remove the three screws along the top of the control panel. With a bit of force, snap-up the most inner two corners of the control panel. Also with a bit of force, snap-up the two outer corners of the control panel closest to you. Then let the control panel gently hang in place as in photo below. (I wrote this up with photos but can’t get them to post on this website…..so if anyone knows how to post photos on this blog, let me know and I will get them up)
You can see three green sections under the control panel. You want to go to the green section toward the upper right side of the control panel.
Zeroing in on the correct green section to work with, toward the upper right side of the opened control panel.
Now within that green area, look for the group of nine tiny wires all gathered together and connected into the same long rectangular plug, going up and down. They are the white wires closest to you.
Look for the middle of the nine wires, the 5th wire in, when you start counting from either side. Pull it out of the plug while holding the entire plug securely down in its place (I used tiny jewelry pliers) or clip/cut it, and just leave it there. It’s a tiny wire so it doesn’t need much force.
Now replace the control panel in reverse order to the way you removed it; first snap/press firmly the two corners closest to you. Then firmly snap the two most inner corners. Finally replace the three screws.
When you turn on the power again, the LCD now permanently shows full ink cartridges and the printer will never stop again because of ink. When you see printed colors getting faint you just refill them yourself, or check them periodically. You now have 100% control of your ink situation and don’t need tape either ☺
Just bought a used machine and this trick worked great for me!!!
Thanks.
Oh, I used gray duct tape.
Great!! Worked for my Brother mfc-465cn, that was out of Cyan, and wouldnt print, even though i just needed black and white!
Fuck you Brother mfc-465cn printer!
Thank you very very much, I was about to throw this printer in the bin it pissed me off so much … EAT SHIT BROTHER MFC-235C!!!!!!!!!
Wow!! I have been so frustrated with this ink issue. I am so glad I found this. It worked for me I am thrilled. Thanks so much!
confirmed to work on the mfc-495CW
take out the cartridge, slide the plastic as if you were inserting it…
you will see the CLEAR see thru part of the cartridge exposed… THAT is the part you need to cover, nothing else.
Get a pair of scissors and pull off one of the cartridges labels… cut the label to fit the tiny area needed to be covered…
Insert your cartridges again, wait about 4-5 mins for it to finish “cleaning”
VOILA, success!
So awesome it totally worked. Put black electrial tape on all three of my LC51 color cartriges that said they were empty. You are genius fella. Absolutely thrilled. Oh yeah!!
You are an angel
Worked like a charm using the electrical tape on my DCP-130C. I bought new ink yesterday because even though I just replaced the colors
(the cyan is always first-WTF-then the other two go within hours)
you never know when it will say they are empty. I never print with the colors either! I’ve spent so much on ink the last several years on this piece of crap that I was about to purchase a laser printer. When I remembered that it would not scan without ink, I was furious. Now I can at least keep it to scan with and get the laser printer to save money on black ink.
Thanks, buddy
Hi
I have a brother DCP 165C and doesn’t print black. Cyan is low.. I am trying to cover the cartridge window as suggested but don’t know exactly where do I have to do this? Thanks
It worked!! Thanks for publishing this or else I would have wasted valuable ink!! My cyan & magenta were ‘empty’ but turned out it had just as much ink to still print quality colour. Used it on the Brother MFC-440.
I didn’t have plastic tape so instead I used masking tape.
Also worked on the 845CW – unbelievable.
I went through the trauma with a sheet I needed to scan so I could e-mail to my school to make copies; wouldn’t scan because I was low on yellow. I run to the store as it’s closing and pay full price for a yellow cartridge (could barely afford that, much less a set). Rush home and switch out the cartridge and – it immediate does a cleaning cycle, then beeps and declares that the magenta is now empty! So glad I am done grinding my teeth over this! Thank you!
You are the man !! This worked great on my MFC-240c
Hi guys,
Thanks for the tip. Print in mono mode with no cyan ink.
However I can scan fine even if one or more of the the inks have run out, at least with my MFC-820CW. Just scan from your PC and leave the Scan-key/button/what ever on the machien alone.
Cheers
Hello JUB1L,
thanks for your solution: for anyone with the “dcp” “no cartridge” issue it worked fine to unplug the white connector and plug it back in. For (ex)-dummies (like myself): it helps to remove the thin black strip to the left (just pop out gently with screwdriver), release the blue lifting arm at the front so you can open the cover all the way. Then remove the screws and pop off the front cover.
(Don’t be scared, it’ll be fine although it makes quite a racket when properly put back). There you find the connector. Experience has taught that it’s quite ‘do-able’ without a pincer and adequate lighting but if you happen to have them around, they might come in handy…;).
Great site by the way and greetings to everyone.
I have a MFC 420CN. Didnt have black tape, so I took a Black Magic marker and colored some paper black and taped it to the cartridge just as you instructed and it worked !!!! Thanks for the tip because this was driving me crazy. I ordered cartridges anyway, but at least its a quick fix until they arrive in the mail.
THANKS A BUNCH !!!
Also works for the Intellifax series, tho they have a different cart.
The trick is to make sure to cover both sides of the little protrusion on the cart – if you look into where the cart goes with a flashlight you will see a little black sensor with two square protrusions facing each other. One shines an infrared light across and the other senses it. The bit sticking out of the cart sits between them blocking the light until the ink runs “out”(translation: low). So it’s the sides that are important to block, and a sharpie or whiteout may or may not work if there are little areas not colored in. Tape works best!
I had a Lexmark and discovered they have a chip in the cart and when it runs out the chip tells the printer, which stores the serial num of the cart forever, preventing you from refilling it! If you refill when you get a “low” warning it will work tho but once it’s empty it’s garbage. I sent my Lexmark on vacation to a nice timeshare in the landfill…
HI, I LOVE YOU. THANKS SO SO SO MUCHH!! YOUR BLACK TAPE IDEA WORKS SO SO WELL. SAVED MY CATRIDGE. <3
I have a MFC-240C I followed your suggestion and used folk art paint since I didn’t have black tape or white out. I painted over the small plastic ink tube and am now able to print. The Status Monitor now shows all levels of ink are full!!
Thank you so very much for the tip!
caseegal
Your expletive explanation worked especially well as I recited each expletive frustration verbatim through till the black tape installation…Thanks ….sincerely (without Expletive)Sean
After all of that work of coloring in the windows and putting tape over the sensor areas..it now is saying “close cover.” ugh!! And, we HAVE closed the cover.. we made sure cartridges were in nice and tight… by the way.. it is an MFC 3360C
Awesome. I have a MFC 240 and was seriously inconvenienced by this and felt very ripped off by Brother. I put a strip of black card in the cartridge and feel like I’ve avenged myself!
Hi Vicki,
Check out my entries at #350 and #354. The tape didn’t work for me either as my problem was slightly different. But you can deactivate the ink sensors all together so you never have to deal with the tape again. Hopefully it will also work with your “close cover” problem. If not, maybe you can see if you can find that answer on the Tech Support Forum website (as I did). You have to join the forum, which is free, but for me it was worth it as I found my answer there. Hope you do too
Thanks so much, this solution rocks!
OMG I was about to go apeshit when I was trying to print out some research for my psychology paper due in a few days, and I get the old “cyan cartridge empty” AND “yellow cartridge empty”! All I wanted to do was print a black and white fast draft and it wouldn’t even let me do that! I have NOT used any of my color ink once since installing the new, full cartridges, yet they are empty (even though when you shake them you can still hear them sloshing around inside. I was furious when I read on this site that while my printer “primes” itself at ass ‘o clock in the morning, it is actually using the ink!!! What a piece of crap. Thank you soooo much for this journal post! You have already saved me a ton of money and heartache
P.S. I have learned the hard way to keep my printer unplugged until I have to use it to save ink. My model is the MFC-255CW. My cartridge looks alot different from the pictures posted here, but I figured out what I needed to cover up. I tried nail polish first, then a sharpie but neither worked. I finally found some electrical tape and it worked immediately. The printer didn’t even prime itself like it usually does before it printed my paper – YAY!
You legend!! Worked a treat for my mfc6490, I ws in a middle of a project for a presentation in the morning when…beep beep..beep, beep….yellow ink empty. I thought I was screwd, as my presentation is 9am! Thank you soooo much!!
Ps i used double sided tape as thats all i had, worked fine!
Great Trick!! Worked on my MFC-440CN.. I refilled my cartridge and was getting that “low ink” BEEP. I placed a small piece of electrical tape over the cartridge spine, and now NO BEEPS!!!! THANKS!
YOUR TRICK WORKED!!!! YAY!!!!
Thanks so much for this trick, it worked a treat
You are THE man
))
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I tried it on my brother mfc-j265w and it works great!
Dr. Faulken:
Great help here, thanks.
Your commentators helped me with my specific model, the MFC-5890cn printer, using LC61 Cartridge.
On the yellow cartridge, I had to push back the spring loaded rear cover, to expose the ‘clear plasic ink level view window’, which ‘hides’ behind it.
Then, the little black ‘floater’ indicator level was visible thru the window sides.
I tried the black sharpie trick, to color with clear window – didn’t work.
Then I carefully cut a small piece of black electrical tape, sized to wrap around the entire window – worked beautiful !
Just make sure the piece of tape stays on when the spring loaded cover moved fore & aft, which it does upon re-inserting the cartridge in printer.
I suspected this idea would apply to this model, but had a hard time finding a reference to my specific model, until I remembered:
Helpful tip here: If others are searching for their specific printer OR cartridge model, most browsers will bring up a ‘webpage context search’ by hitting the ctrl and ‘F’ key simultaneously, then you enter the model # or cartridge #,(redundant to say ‘brother’ as this page is all brother topic) and it goes right to the comment where it is mentioned, if someone has entered the term.
Saves gobs of time reading every single comment – esp on pages like this with almost 400 comments – I read thru the first 100 comments before I remembered to use the ‘webpage context search’.
Just an idea to help others.
Thanks again all you helpful folks & Dr. Faulken –
David in Texas
This is awesome. I just got my MFC-495CW to accept a fax. It wouldn’t print out black and white because the yellow was low ?!? The trick to these cartridges is to put the tape on loosely with extra slack because the little sensor thing moves forward when you put them in.
THANKS SO MUCH IT WORKED FOR ME! The picture demonstration was perfect. I cant believe Brother, we should bring them down..
Oh and get this! After trying your trick and reading all the posts (see comment 377), I decided from now on I could just leave the surge protector (that my computer and printer is plugged into) off, and only turn it on when I needed it, so the printer wouldn’t be using ink every day. Well the other day, my husband had to plug something into the surge protector so he turned it on, and OF COURSE the printer immediately came on and began “cleaning” itself. (Just came to the realization that my printer is more hygienic than my dog BTW) Anyway, I told my husband to just push the off button on the printer to stop the cleaning process… and guess what? The off button is inactive when it’s cleaning itself. Needless to say I immediately unplugged that son of a bitch!
So, long story short, keep your brother printer UNPLUGGED until you need to use it, or ALL of your ink cartridges will become empty FAST. Oh, and use Dr. Faulken’s ingenious idea to allow yourself to tap into ALL of your ink instead of 2/3 of it – or just get a better brand of printer
I simply had to add my THANKS for the suggestions. I have a MFC 440CN and the sharpie trick didn’t work but peeeling the label off and placing on the back did! Yay! Now I can print without refilling my yellow ink. Thank you so much for this bit of info!
Thanks So Much! Brother should be ashamed! If you want to only use some of the functions of a multi-function machine that you purchase, you should have that right! I stopped using my Brother as a printer, cuz it was a slow piece of crap as a printer. Now I can fax and scan again! THANK YOU!!!
It worked wonderfully! Thank you. I used duct tape!
The electrical tape worked for the Brother 465 – I just needed to print a black and white page – why do I need yellow?? After I get this printed, I’m heading out to get a new printer. Brother printers are horrible and I will NOT get another one!!
That electrical tape idea worked wonderfully well! At 25.99 a pop for ink, who needs 3 colors to print B&W? Thank you so verrrrry much.
simple one, but really neat, more than the fact that it started working… is the fact that there is always a way around… kuddos to the one who posted first solution
THANK YOU FOR THIS! I’ve been hating the brother MFC-265 printer ever since because you would need all the inks to be filled before you can actually use it! AH, THIS HAS LITERALLY SAVED MY LIFE!
I was in a hurry so I used post its. Works perfectly fine! haha
Thanks a million. I can’t believe the balls these guys have to use ink for cleaning, not allowing you to print when it “runs out”, and the ink not actually being empty at all!!! WTF! This just seems like a massive scam. I will never buy Brother again! Thanks for helping me defeat the evil empire.
OMG! I have been HATING this piece of shit printer for AGES…thank you for releasing the frustration!!!!!
Hey thank you so much I was freaking out here….I am doing an exam and I ran out of my answer sheets……..now I can continue with my test lol ty!!! Mwah!
Hey Brother, you fucking fucktards. I’ll keep in mind never to buy another printer from you useless fucks.
If my ink is running low print it anyway. I’ll look at my doc and I WILL DECIDE whether I need more ink. Don’t lock up my fucking printer you assholes!
Delighted by your “fix”. The dastardly Brothers have gotten me for $100 worth of wasted ink- at least! Go stuff yourself Brother! Thanks, One unhappy LDS
I have the Brother MFC210C and the electrical tape worked perfectly. As a side note to everyone, I get my ink online at printpal.com. I’ve been buying from them for years, I’ve never had a problem with their products, and ink cartridges are as low as $5.95. No, I don’t work for them, just found a good product at a good price and want to pass the info along. Thank you so much for your post DrFaulken.
thank you thank you thank you
god dammit thank you
i no longer need to buy color ink
amen amen amen
these printer companies are ripping us off by not allowing printers to work without color cartridges
I remember when they did work even if u ran out of one color this is a planned way of them making money
Awesome, cheers! Works for the MFC-255CW as well, although they contain a spring-cover mechanism over the see-through sections, if you pull the cover back you get access, and can either carefully put the tape on, or use eraser fluid or something similar.
It worked on my Brother MFC-295CN. I had to put the tape on just right (not too taught). The printer went through a loooong “clean” cycle, and made odd noises, but it eventually printed my document with black ink only. thank you!
Wow I just want to let you know that it is 2:33AM and I almost go insane trying to print until I found your website. THANK YOU!
I have a mfc-440cn can somebody tell me where i put the tape at or provide a picture please
WORKED ON MFC-420CN. THANKS!!!
You sir, are freaking awesome.
Worked on the Brother MFC-620cn
OMG this so works.. thank you thank you.. I didn’t have electricians tape but I took regular scotch tape and colored it black with a sharpie. You saved me tons of money thank you!
Dawn
This was excellent advice which worked a treat on my Brother MFC-640CW. I had to scan some documents and the coloured ink (which I almost never use) must have shrunk below the line. Googled and found your tip. It worked. I tried a Sharpie on its own without success, so tried sellotape coloured black with the Sharpie Instant Success! Fantastic Trick Dr Tipster, thank you very much.
Top man, one quick search brought your page up and saved me getting my arse kicked by work. MFC-215C with silver gaffer tape did the trick perfectly.
Thhhhhhhhhhhhank you so much. Now i can use my scanner and fax and b&w copy. Almost bought a new one almost took an axe to this one. It’s a MFC-240C put the black tape over the hole and right away it started cleaning and wasting ink.
Got the tape ready for the next cart.
AMAZING!!! Thank you so much! Used this trick on the MFC290C. You have to squeeze the cartridge, as if it were in the printer, and then cut out a very small piece of electrical tape to cover the little rectangular piece of ink that shows. WORKS LIKE A CHARM!!!
OMG finally… I was giving my kids heck for excessive colour printing which they denied and likely didn’t – its the stupid cleaning mechanism…the tape worked perfect on the MFC 665cw…Thank you !!!!!!!
i purchased what i was told was compatible with mfc 685cw but can’t get the printer to recognize it. any ideas?
WOW! You’re the BEST man! Thank you very much! My Borther DCP-125 is now working. Tonight i can print all my homework in black ink without buying and installing new colored ink! =D You saved my life tonight. lolz…. LOVE IT!
Try it guys.. i used electric tape too!
God bless us all.
Wow, I totally thought this was fake, but it worked.
Man .. You rock… Super Duper Like
Great site,
My problem is nothing works at all. just an error message 4F. I have a mfc665cw with ink cartridges full or near full. Any ideas please.
Dave
Oh thankyou, DrF! I’ve run out of Yellow, and on a disability pension, so haven’t been able to afford to buy more in the last few months, and can’t print out my medical records for my specialist tomorrow!
I was about ready to kill my printer, but now I’m just going to go grab that yellow ink cartridge…..*grin*
THANKYOU!! Worked on my mfc- j265w once i worked out that you had to manually pull back the spring mechanism to reveal the clear box – I used clear sticky tape with a sharpie. My eight year old will not freak out tomorrow as we can finish printing pics for her project!! Lifesaver. Up yours Brother – add me to the list of those who will never buy this brand again.
Whahooo, suddenly my printer thinks it has a full cartridge again – haha, SUCK ON THAT BROTHER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing worse than a printer that wont print because the coulour cartridge is ‘empty’ and colour cartridges that run out when you don’t even print in colour ! @#$%$@# I have the MFC990 and you had to pull back the front slider thing to expose the window (that has a black plastic thing inside that disapears when the ink drops – like a ball-cock)I just taped a small bit with duct-tape to replicate the black thingy and 100% success, I’m so happy I wont be able to sleep for a week!!, my printer would not let me do even a greyscale without all carts functioning – it was almost gonna get hiffed out the window tonight untill I found this GREAT suggestion. whooppee xxxxxxxxxx
This trick definitely works. Been trying to get my mfc-240c to print black anything and it wont but it sure did dump three full cartridges trying to clean the printer head. I taped up three partial cartridges and it stopped beeping!
Now to tear it apart and clean the head.
Well, the trick is, you just need anything “not transparent” to cover up the transparent spine… Voila.,… then the magic pops up…. Thanks guys…
Tape trick worked with LC1100 cartridge DCP395CN
I have a mfc6490cw, how can I trick it?
Thanks, I got it to work!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
Stupid printer….
Well, the trick worked sure enough, but now I’m sending black and white print-jobs and getting blank pages… So now I have to google ANOTHER problem!
Thanks a million.it’s work.
IT WORKS!!!! I have a Brother DCP-145C and use cheap (hah!) compatible carts, so I just spent an hour taping over any and all likely parts and going back to ink management to see if it worked. My desk is now a mess of greenhouse repair tape and bits of sticky labels but – guess what I’VE FOOLED THAT ******* machine at last! To anyone struggling with this – it is DEFINATELY worth persevering with.
YOU ARE A GOD IN MY ESTIMATION. FEEL WELL CHUFFED WITH YOURSELF!
Thank you for this! I’m doing my tax and its 1 in the morning, there’s no way I can get a new ‘CYAN’ at this time. Works with MFC-255CW.
Tape worked on my MFC 260C.. thanks for laughs. It was heading for back wheel of my car!
Why not simply turn your machine off between jobs if it will be standing for a time. Even more simple? And it works on every model and brand. Woohoo…. Come on ppl, Keep it simple!
Thank you so much ,i hated this printer ,specialy at sunday nights doing late work for monday ,and beep beep beep ,no more color ink,fustrations all over and today i was getting the hammer ready to end it.
i bought 4 color sets(12pcs) and never used color in all the years i got it(MFC-5440CN)
Tape worked great,thanks alot
and yes Jason,i turn it off but every restarts does a cleaning and if you use it every day for 5-6 years ,thats alot of restarts
TAPE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE LOL
THX
OMG !!! I tried this on my MFC-440CN when I wanted to print a document w/ black ink only and I was *out* of Cyan. Worked perfectly. Thank you thank you thank you!
Mother fuckers.
It’s actually working… Of course, first thing it does is run a fucking cleaning program. Nevertheless, OP you ARE the man, and everyone else with the helpful tips, this is fantastic. Fuck the douche bags!
Thankyou! Thankyou! Thankyou!
Wonderful simple advice. Saving money, time and effort. plus loads of stress in wasting ink. I am looking forward to more campaign leaflets – - in lots of colour!
Kind regards,
Cento!
it worked on my DCP-J315W
I was fuming like hell because I almost never print (a few pages per month) and after 6 months I had to replace 2 times 2 colour cartridges.
What a rip-off. I specifically went away from HP as I thought they were thieves, but this is much, much worse. I could use those HP cartridges for a couple of years easily with my printing volume.
To avoid automatic, malignant use of cyan ink when printing black and white documents, try specifying BLACK (not AUTOMATIC) for FONT COLOR, SHIDING COLOR and PEN COLOR.
MFC 215 worst printer I have ever used. Under warranty and still have to pay for change of printhead. Repaired 3 times within 1 year. The last time it was repaired, the ink leaked all over. Overnight all the new bottles of ink were gone. Poor quality and very bad service. Last time I buy a brother printer.
Thanks a lot! I used the sharpie marker trick on my MFC-490CW and it works great! My cyan was out and I was able to print a 31 page summer review workbook for my stepson, which is in black & white.
This works great for my MFC-5440CN, and I HAD to use duct tape, of course. It shows the magenta and yellow are now full, but the cyan still shows a drip left (but it still works) even though it has the duct tape solution. Blessings to you, my friend!
I couldn’t find any tape so I caked my mascara over the sensor. Hahaha. I just needed to print something RIGHT NOW. I’ll clean it and get some tape tomorrow. THANKS BIG TIME. Damn Brother printers. I’m ponding mine. Back to HP!
Worked perfectly with my MFC-J270W and using grey duct tape:)
DR. FAULKEN, YOU ARE A SAINT. A GOD AMONG MEN.
Duct tape over the MFC 490CW plastic middle worked, just duct tape the clear plastic part and not the housing itself (As it needs to slide freely to be detected again by the printer when re-inserted).
I now have my boarding pass, and I can fly far, far away from this godforsaken printer.
I have a Brother, MFC-j415w which was out of yellow ink…I tried the electrical tape trick, but it didn’t work on this for some reason (last Brother, it did work on…) So I took a piece of the yellow label from the print cartridge and placed it over the ‘window’ on yellow cartridge, and it worked!! Thanks again!
Just tricked my DCP-585CW…. but with a much easier technique. Just place your printer on its back so that the cartridges are vertical instead of horizontal. Small amount of ink left will flow to the sensor and it’ll work!!!!
I am so in love with you right now that you have no idea!!! I needed an important document TONIGHT to sign off on a condition on the sale of my house by tomorrow morning and I couldn’t freakin receive my fax because the damn yellow and magenta was out. I taped the yellow and it worked. The magenta would not however so I used a blue cartridge and presto. Received my document!!!! You are super!! Thanks lol
It’s great that this works well on the Brothers but I have been searching relentlessly for the same answer for a HP Officejet 7410 All-In-One. Which sensors on the cartridge need to be covered? Thanks for the help.
Love this!! The sticker worked for MFC-885CW. Thank You So Much!!!
Cheers Mate, this was a huge help. Thank you so much. This also works with my Brother MFC-260C
Fantastic trick – saved me a last minute dash to the (expensive!) office suplies shop, just to print one paeg before a holiday trip
Thanks so much for the tip!
Thanks for the tip. Tried to scan this morning but out of cyan. I used masking that I marked dark with a pen. Worked like a charm!
I did not even have a cartrige. Just cut out a piece of cardboard the right size and it worked fine!
I was unable to work or do my schooling at home because my printer would never work because of these colour issues. I just followed the advice and now I am back on track. Anyone who has a brother printer who needs to print black and white, and wants a solution to this problem, should take the advice about covering the ink levels on their cartridges.
It works for DCP 115 C too!!!
Thank you man
DCP-135c
Success!
Black marker on the little window did the trick.
Thanks!
Thank you so much! I had 2 full black cartridges and empty everything else and I majorly needed it to print! You are a genious! Thanks again!
My DCP-115C had been sitting idle for 3 years since nothing worked when the ink ran out. Just found this site, followed the recommendations, and I can use the scanner again. Many thanks.
Went to walmart and they were out of the silver sharpie. They had golden element2 metallic marker which worked very well.
I tried with a plain-ol silver foil, cover the transparent plastiky window with it – this works too!
Hurray! I love the brother printer.
Awesome, it even works with a MFC 685CW.
Been driving me nuts for years.
I agree, outstanding and simple fix! I have had my brother printer (DCP 115c) lying around for months just using it as a scanner. Now I can print black and white which is 98% of what I need. Colour I take to work.
Thanks a heap, Brad.
Thank you so much for the wonderful information!! I just recently bought a brother 6490 and hardly ever printed when it told me to change the black ink. You have saved me a world of money!!
Thank you again!
i made a tutorial 4 lower model brother inkjets (dcp195c) etc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJFLI8gUT24
Black electrical tape is win for the MFC-240C pos printer. Truely…….bad bad design……..enough to make me want to smash the printer to pieces when they fail to fax, scan, print black n white on account of an “empty” cyan cart………forget the fact that 50% of the ink is left in the cart when it reaches “empty”……thats another days worth of crying.
***** I have been saving my “half empty” carts to bring back to staples, as they give 3 or 4 dollars per cart as store trade in credit…… now I have a stack of carts I can finish using the ink from using the tape method. yay…….
Great!! I actually didn’t think it’d work. I only have clear tape, but I hid it with both paper and tape. It worked!!
My printer takes 4 ink cartridges and I would have had to change all 4 of them!
Thanks for the tip!!
I can confirm that the solution from comment #354 works!
And I tried EVERYTHING. Even the Power while pressing menu key maintenance mode trick!
the electrical tape was genius!!!!
i have a dcp-115c, i never buy cartridges i tend to use the drill and refill method.
All my cartridges were empty so i went and bought some inks, drilled and filled…. beep beep beep cyan empty. click pull out, replace…beep beep beep… cyan empty.
20 minutes of headache i searched the net and found your black electrical tape method. i did have ductape ready available but didnt want to risk it so used the black.
No more beeps, question is though why did it read my cartridge as empty?….
do i tempt fate and take off the tape a few days from now.
Thank you very much worked like a charm ,taped blue electric tape over and works! i have a brother dcp-135c 4-in-1 machine and it was a cartridge graveyard until now! And i did try to use the gray scale option but it didn’t make any change so thank you again! very helpful
clever bugger I filled it in with permanant ink well done good job thankyou
Awesome/Works like a charm.After years of being frustrated having to be seemingly always buying ink carts and wondering what was happening to my ink, this is GREAT! I just use a piece of the label that is allready stuck on the cart and cover it over the spline. Thanx so much for the info . Wish I had found this site YEARS earlier. Thanx [MFC 210]
great tip
however i can do it with just paper and a marker:
just stick some paper on the place where the censor checks the ink cartridge and color it to be sure. (i made the paper stick on the cartridge with the still drying ink of my marker)
it works on my brother DCP-130C every time and i didn’t have to buy any special tape or anything
OMFG! What a slick trick! Worked like a charm. Now I can use my scanner even though the yellow ink is empty (it’s actually half-full, but the machine is reading empty). FU Brothers!
Wow thanx so much for the tip! this worked with my mfcj615! Idiots I called them on the phone and i asked them if htere is anything i can do to overwrite my yellow ink and they said no! appreciate the tip!
At first I thought OMG, why is is that this works for everyone but me, but then I unplugged my printer and plugged it back in, and then hey presto it does work!! Thank you so much.
Read, and followed, this black electrical tape trick as well as the responses from this site and I agree: Nice way for Brother to screw us over on those ink cartridges! >:( The trick worked like a charm on the MFC-240C when “Low Cyan/Magenta/Yellow” was posted. Just remember: don’t print a lot more pages after this or the print head will be permanently damaged when the ink actually does run dry. Thanks from eastern Canada!
Thank you for sharing this! I used duct tape and it worked perfectly!!
I have a MFC-465CN and the on/off switch will not turn the printer on or off. So, I have to unplug it to turn it off and plug it in to turn it on. However, it will not do anything if I touch any of the buttons, doesn’t matter what button, it makes no difference. I pulled the cover, hoping it was a stinking button, but no such luck. It will print, if I try to print something off from my computer, go figure. Before this happen, I touched it when I had a lot of built up static electricity and I saw a flash and I got a minor shock when my finger touched the printer, but I don’t think it would be enough electricity do anything, at least I hope not. I’m completely stunned here, anyone have any answers??? Hate to throw it away, since I already learned the clever trick of making it believe it still has ink with the electrical tape. Anybody have spare parts for this model? Help
This tip worked great for me on the mfc-465cn. I needed to fax something and putting tape over the clear part on the ink cartridge made the printer happy. Thanks for the great tip.
Right on advice for a real rip off Brother printer scheme. Absolutely brilliant. Works. couldn’t figure out how my color inks were draining- never use them. Keeping all taped up and lodging complaint with Consumer Reports and government! Thanks
thank you soooo much!!!! FUCK brother. put tape over mine after having had printer cartridges “run out” after 1/10 of its printer capacity. SCREW YOU BROTHER. never buying your cartridges again until they are actually empty.
you sir, are next to Chuck Norris in my list! MFC – 5890cn is one annoying brother to have!
thx. got my dcp-117c working. to hell with printing industry
Does anyone know how to reset the low ink notification on a brother mfc 9970 cdw???? Please help!
You sir, are a hero. I hate brother scamming people by making the printers cheap then draining the ink. Great tip!
It fucking works. Awesomeness!
What a genius you are!
Many, many thanks for sharing.
Covering with black electrical tape really works. I have MFC-5460CN. Thanks everybody!
For those with the MFC-6490, you need to push down on the retractable section that exposes the piece that connects to the printer (where the ink comes out, usually has a plastic covering when you buy them) and a clear plastic piece. Cover the clear plastic (all three sides!!!) with electrical or duct tape. Voila! Ink cartridges are suddenly full when they “need replacing” 5 minutes before. When cartridges are actually low, then your print quality diminishes. Also use the “normal fast” print quality setting–it produces just as good results for documents.
You are my hero for the day! Worked for me with some gaffers tape!
Worked great on MFC-260c. I just wish I had’ve googled this ages ago. You guys rock, seriously. And Brother, you SUCK, seriously. You need a boot up the arse for ripping us like that. I’ll go back to a Canon next printer, and I’ll use this one for target practise.
Crrrock, in Oz.
MFC 425CN ~ Great thanks guys, this was stressing me out. I bought some Printrite “compatable” replacement carts but they would not work. They have a dense whitish PVC film over the spine, on the cyan, I cut a piece of the blue label and stuck it on. Bit of a tight fit but works. Also works with the BOTHER ones (not a typo) I scratched out the R on the machine and hope they do too. I will be letting my supplier know the problem and the quick fix. Like many people I just want to print black. I hope you BOTHER FOCKERS are reading all this. STOP WASTING OUR MONEY AND TIME AND VALUBLE RESOURCES
I have Brother MFC-440CN. It ran out of cyan, refused to scan. It’s an urgent job on a Sunday night. I had to go to my sister to use her scanner. While searching for cheap cyan I came across this site. I cut a small piece of the label on the cartridge, then covered the clear window on the cartridge. Put it back, printer self cleaned. When I checked ink management, it showed cyan is full but magenta now is near empty. I haven’t tried to print or scan yet as it’s now past midnight. Thanks very much to everyone who has posted here. I’ve sent this link to my friends who also own a Brother.
You rock mate.. My new brother priner was showing that I dont have ink left, though I can see there’s plenty. With your trick, it shows full now.
Thank you so much
Well four years on and you still just helped me from taking a bat to the damned thing. Slightly different style on the new J410W but basically the same idea. I do not understand why I need ink for scanning. My old $25 Walmart scaner printer never gave issues, I never purchased ink for it after 5 years. Decided to get this one for the Auto document feeder. Was really wanting my old flat bed back for Goodwill. Thank you Thank you Thank you. And to the person who wrote about the print heads are in the cartridge, I will confirm this and if true then Thank you Too! Was a little worried about damaging the printer (even though I never use it for printing, is nice to have that ability).
Oh and follow up for others. When I used on the J410W if could not read the cartridge, which then you can hit the exit button and scan away.
MFC 490CW here – electrical tape did not work, so did the cut off of a small rectangle of the color label from the respective cartridge and put over the ink window facing the black cartridge and works like a charm. All cartridges showing full.
I have a MFC 495CW. I tried using a Sharpie, but that did not work. I then put duct tape over the sensor and the little bar that sticks out. I now am getting a message “Cannot Detect Reinstall slowly.” I have tried turning the pringer off and then on again. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I Have a brother DCP163c, couldn’t find a clear bit to put tape or marker pen on – so I split open the cartridge, made a little hole in the ink capsule, and filled it with water.
Now I can print in black no problem!
Thanks for the hack. Very helpful!!
On a MFC-5460CN Just TAPE some ALUMINUM FOIL to the Black Cartridge’s front to create the reflection it requires. GREAT FIND. – TAKE THAT BROTHER!!!!
OMG!!! THANK SO MUCH, IT WORKED. I USED THE LC-51 CART AND I WHITE-OUT THE INK WINDOW..MY PRINTER STARTED RIGHT UP. THANKS AGAIN!!!
Another great tip: Even when printing only black text the print will still waste all of your color ink! You must tell the computer to print in greyscale for it to use black ink only when printing only black text, makes tons of sense, right?! I love Brother, their software doesn’t suck like other major brands (cough, cough Hewlett Packard!) but they’re just as shady with their ink issues.
I used a black permanent marquer!
(brother mfc-295cn)
thanks a lot!!!!
excellent, empty cyan but couldnt print black, crazy but the taped fixed it, top stuff.
great trick
thanks a looooot
I just bought one ink but I remove it and tried your trick .
it works . you save my money.
This also works for Brother MFC-3360C USB Printer ink cartridges. I had to print a b&w mailing label today and my yellow and cyan were out. so I taped those puppies up and was able to print – thanks for the great tip!
Great thanks so much worked wonderful on
MFC 210C
Thanks so much – this saved my day coz I only use this damn machine for scanning & faxing – I will never have to waste money on ink again! Kerching! Cheers
Omg thank you so much for sharing… I was begining to get really frustrated at it telling me to replace ink. I don’t use colour much, usually just the black ink but somehow the colour inks always run out really fast and it is not cheap to keep replacing them eveytime i want to print/fax…I will never buy another brother printer anymore. ever.
Irascible belligerent old harridan here who has the privilege of owning a DCP150C.
I mean privilege. Because we know how how to deal with these printers! NONE of the printer companies have clean hands on this issue. It is a global scandal because it is legal to cheat people in this way.
Thanks to DocF and others these solutions are being globally circulated. I have at least a half dozen sites in Favorites on this issue. We all know why they exist.
My Cyan just showed empty. Off to Favourite ‘Printer Ink Tips’. Up comes the Doc, and I am reminded again what to do-(I’ve done this three times previously). My newish generics have a complete plastic window protecting the spying eye! Sharpie didn’t work for me-electrical tape does-haven’t tried correction fluid yet.
Oh my children!,-it is your bounden duty to circulate these tips, and when the printer companies try something else-there will be those who know how to bypass them. They will share that knowledge-we will then pass it on.
Power to the printinkvictims!!
(And if anyone knows of a printer with inks that last,-and are cheap to replace…do tell!I would also like more information on the tooth fairy)
AMAZING tip! I was about ready to buy another printer, the cleaning and constant refills were really annoying.
Thank you!!!
works for the dcp-195c…thank you!
Excellent tip mate.
Pitty about the expletives, they’re really not necessary to get the point across.
Ink dries up – reality. Brother need to keep the heads clean somehow. Maybe they could introduce have the option to “continue without ink” for e.g. faxing or scanning.
………….and while we’re on the subject!
A printer ink supplier (!!) told me that Brother inkjets have a reputation for losing the black print facility (if you see what I mean). The whatever clogs up or something-I’m not sure. I haven’t had black printing now for over two years-I print in navy.
…but until I was told this I bought two new black inks to try and alleviate the problem…
Printers of course use the black more than any other colour. Perhaps if you can’t fix the black ink problem, you’ll buy another printer or another black ink? Handy eh?
Inks may dry up, but given the almost obsessive auto cleaning by big Brother-you’d think that those heads would be functioning far better than they are.
But that’s not the object of the exercise-is it?
I can’t thank you enough for this great piece of workaround. Tricking the printer worked perfect.
Thanks.
dude you rock! i couldn’t find any electrical tape in the house but the duct tape worked just fine. all i needed to do is scan.
hi guys i have a brother j430w? will this trick work? i hope someone upload a video on youtube
Thank you, great tip!
It works on a brother mfc-215c
Marvin-comment 517:
I checked through,(that’s right, all 500 odd!), and all I could find for something close to your model (j415w/j410w) are comments 445 and 495 respectively.
Comment 443 is a j270w.
Comment 437 is a j315w.
Comment 89 has a link on the same topic.
It is with great pleasure that I announce the demise of my DCP150c.
(Virtual drinks and nibbles will be served along with claw hammers).
Tricked the bastardo for 3 years (fresh inks-then blind eyeing).
It started to print only in red. Fresh inks; still red. (No black for at least two years now).
I have settled on a Canon Pixma MG5350 after some research ( with the assistance of a textpert!).
Now let’s see. It could not be worse; that’s unthinkable!
lol! its amazing how many people have been though this problem. It just shows how many of us think that there has to be a solution to this bullshit problem. Like everyone else i appreciate it a million for the post man. it really saved me some money and time.
I was seriously starting to kirk out over this thing…thank you SO MUCH.
And viva la Internets(™)
thanks for sharing.
As we say in New Zealand, “Mate, you are a legend”. Thank you for this very helpful trick!
I have the MFC 210C and the tape thing ain’t working? does it have to be black electrical tape or can it be dark blue? I saw some other guy had the same unit and it worked, I must be doing something wrong? I can’t stand it anymore!
It works fine!
Brother sucks…
I use a Canon mp160 and was directed here after an hour of searching around. My dad got refills for the ink cartridges (color and black) and asked me to check if they worked but it always said they were out of ink. I used to black tape method and the printer still couldn’t recognize the cartridges, so I took the tape off and turned the printer off then on and tried again. The printer said it was unaligned or some weird shit like that but continued to print anyway.
End result- Color turned out terrible, but black is fine.
Still says there’s no ink though.
Thanks. Saved us $40 every cartridge.
I too couldn’t use my Brother MFC printer because the black cartridge was “empty”. I didn’t have a new one and the tape trick didn’t work for me. I drilled two holes in the top of the catridge on either side of the handle and added a little water (yes H2O) through the one hole, the other letting out air. Now I can print, Black prints fine too, since there was balck ink left that was just diluted like 50%. Won’t work for long, but long enough for me to buy a new cartridge. And I can continue working.
Very useful tip. Taped over the window with some duct tape I had, found out it wanted more magenta ink, too, taped that over, and I can finally scan a document.
Thank you so much! There was no way that I was going to pay for COLOR ink when I only wanted to print something in BLACK AND WHITE! All of these companies are greedy, apparently it works for them, but it also makes customers HATE them! If all the other companies were not doing the same things, and had as nice of a scanning software as Brother does, and made sewing machines as nice as Brother, then I’d boycott them over this issue. Unfortunately, I love their products. But I CAN BUY GENERIC INK as a means of punishing them now, CAN’T I???
Thank you so so much. YOU’RE THE MAN
Nearly 5 years later, and 531 Comments strong… this randomly found blog post is a life-saver when in a time sensitive printing pinch!
THANK YOU!!!
Brother MFC-240C. Had the same issue, trick works. Ink cartridge is different though. Get 1/4 inch (width) electrical tape, and using a pen tip, cover the little clear W shaped window where you can/could see the ink color. The cartridge door will not close if you just tape over the window, it has to form fit the W. Cheers.
If you only printed color once, why the hell did you buy a color printer? Buy a laser printer.
I needed the scanner.
ExTexan, I too purchased my brother for the scanner. ADF for $50 and it was great. I have moved on now but still use this one from time to time. $50 at the time was great and with the fix found here made it a long term situation for me. But I do agree that if you want the printer part, laser is the only way to go.
Ahhh! I like that Dr F! Succinct and to the point!
Belligerent old bats like me prefer to say that I will buy whatever the hell I choose, taking all my usage requirements into consideration.
I don’t like getting screwed because of this, over built in ink lack of performance that is bluntly a global rip off.
Any tips therefore that can assist to screw right on back, are very gratefully received.
Then we can all lie back and enjoy a cigarette….
THANKS! LC-61 — pull back the spring loaded plastic sheath that covers the part of the cartridge that goes into the ink bay first. Hold it up to the light and you’ll see the clear plastic. Any color magic marker that blocks light will work. It’s only needed on one side of the clear plastic. Hold it up to the light to check it blocks light.
Now you’ve got “full” cartridges! I’ve got my multi-page scanner back now! And I can print in black, which is all I need.
Thanks, I filled up my MFC-215C completely with air
. Once every 2 years or so I need to fax something and print the transmitrapport.
In the past I poored black into all of the color cartridges but it dries up eventually.
Nice to finally find a fix to this extremely irritating problem.
I echo you and many others here with their frustration. My MFC-685cw was headed to the dump, but I thought to try one more time
to find some way to save this piece of crap when I came across this site. Tryed using a black marker but didnt work. But peeled a piece of label off and cut to size, then stuck in over the window area using a chopstick and BAM! works like a charm. Awesome!
I still haven’t figured out exactly how to trick the MFC J625DW, piece of crap, into thinking the ink is full, If someone has, please let me know.
BUT I have learned a few things to share:
1) make sure you all have your default printing setting as “grayscale” otherwise, Brother’s setting is to use all colors of ink just to produce “Black”
2) When the ink signal goes off DON’T OPEN THE INK DOOR. Just keep going. once you open the door, the piece of crap machine will not function again until ALL INK IS REPLACED.
2) I will now unplug the printer when not in use to avoid BROTHER’s stated regular 20 day ink cleaning. Which explains why I was running out of ink in convenient 60 day increments, in spite of very little printing.
I hope everyone will post reviews on these dang Brother printers on Office Max and such, so we can expose this rip off.
* Has anyone figured out tricks for the MFC J625DW???
Another 60 days havegone by since I replaced ALL the ink again. I’ve tried all these things from my post above, AND have printed 0 color prints and TODAY, again about 60 days into the new ink, the damn thing says low ink.
At this point I figure it’s gonna cost $360 dollars to a year just to keep the printer runniing, so I’m going to go buy an HP soon and throw this Brother out, destroying it so no other sucker has to buy more ink.
THANKS so much for leaving this information up, years after it was first published. It’s March, 2013 and I too am near bashing my brother lc61 to pieces. We hardly ever print in color, and I’m so sick of buying new colored cartridges, and am especially sick of the BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP when I want to scan – who cares if there’s colored ink, or any ink for that matter! Really! I knew there was a solution, but was too disheartened to find it myself – thanks again!
Hey guys,
Looking to buy a first Brother printer and would like to know
if this technique still applies to the more recent models,
MFC-J435W and MFC-J835DW.
Hope to make a wise purchase.
Thanks,
Pierre
Hey buddy, thank you so much! this tip was very helpful. It worked on my brother MFC-J835DW. You are the MAN!
Thank god dude – what a shit design on these blood printers…
thanks heaps champ!!!!!!! fuck the corporations
ZEITGEISTMOVIE
wow! tank you very much for this helpfull tip!
it worked on my Brother DCP-15C!
i am now abele to print black while my colour inkt is empty
sorry i mean DCP-115
Does this trick work with other makes of printer/fax? I’m looking to buy one.
Thanks.
I have a Brother laser printer HL-2170W. When I put a toner cartridge from my other Brother printer which uses the same one, It says it is empty. Any tricks for this scenario?
Oh my gosh! I thank you for your brilliant solution to a particularly annoying design scam. You rock, my friend!
This.Really.Worked. I am so grateful for this post! Used colored duct tape (all I had) on my Brother LC-51 Cyan cartridge and it worked!
I am so glad I came across this helpful site. I couldn’t print anything because one cartridge was “out of ink”. Have used the tape trick on my Cyan cartridge on a DCP750CW and it worked a treat.
Thank you so much original poster and all those others who’ve contributed along the way.
MFC-J6510DW
Just to share with you guys my experience. Inks are running low but not so low. Out of curiosity I took the cartridges out to check how much inks were left. When I put the cartridges back, the machine said ALL FOUR color needed new cartridges. What the hell. It was printable one moment. Now I need to throw away all still good cartridges. Quite a rip off. I was not about to take that lie down. So I started fiddling with the cartridges until I managed the machines had accepted RED & BLUE were still good. But not so much luck with the other two. At the end I decided to employ the “black tape” trick to fool the sensor.
By the way, if you do want to reduce the machine’s auto-cleaning and the “unnecessary” consumption of your expensive inks, you need to unplug the machine when you are not using it. Powering down won’t help as the machine would do an autocleaning in the middle of the night when you are sound asleep. I found out about this when I was working really late (or really early) on day when the machine was actually powered off. The machine would probably do another cleaning if it felt it has missed its regular ink-wasting autocleaning exercise. If you print regularly, say once at least every one or two weeks, I really see no justification for this auto-cleaning. God knows how often it does it a week.