I have an Epson Wp-4530 inkjet printer, out of warranty. This evening it has just begun dribbling yellow ink over every page that I print, even B&W text documents.
Googling "WP-4530 yellow ink leak" brings up dozens of complaints of the exact same problem - it's a design flaw with this (and other related) model(s).
99.99% of my printing is B&W, but this rubbish printer is deliberately programmed in firmware to lock out operation of all printing functions if it detects that any of the ink cartridges (black, yellow, magenta and cyan) are empty. It doesn't matter if you only want to print in black - if there is no magenta left, you're dead out of luck. Epson's printer software does helpfully detect this problem, however, automatically bringing up a webpage so that you can get out you credit card and order a new ink cartridge directly from Epsom straight away
Each cartridge has a set of electrical contacts on the top. I figure the ink level is detected by an in-cartridge sensor. Does anyone know how these cartridges work internally and if it would be possible to bust open the yellow cartridge, drain it of ink (about $60 worth
) and fudge it so that the sensor indicates a full cartridge?
I realize that this isn't a fix for the problem, but just want to get back to printing in B&W without yellow ink dribbling everywhere.