Hi everyone today I happened to need to use my printer (amazing how infrequently I need it these days). And just my luck it wouldn’t print because it claimed the magenta and cyan cartridges were low/empty. That’s all well and nice but I’m printing a page of text no magenta or cyan in sight never mind that I can clearly see the cartridges aren’t anywhere near empty. 
After rooting around in the printer for a minute with a flashlight I realized that it’s actually using a sensor to basically look into the side of the cartridge and see what level the ink is at. As a complete turnaround in my luck the first thing I tried actually managed to foil the sensor. I placed a piece of black electrical tape over the semi-transparent side of the cartridges. Lo and behold after placing them back in the printer asked if I had replaced them and through a brilliant piece of social engineering I managed to lie to my printer with a straight face and answer “yes” Now my printer is printing again (in full color I might add) and I don’t have to spend $60+ on new color ink to print my page of text.
If you have any questions, corrections or comments please leave them below in the comments.
