HP 962 Ink Cartridge Series

Hello Bob, I am very sorry for the misunderstanding about how printer types work. Your printer model has much different cartridges than a lot of the other HP printers. Because your printer uses separate color cartridges (rather than a tri-color one), you need to have a cartridge in each cartridge slot and each cartridge needs to have some ink in it. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of printer. Many people prefer the ones like yours, with separate ink cartridges, because you only have to replace each single color as it runs out. To get more information about why you can't print when a cartridge is depleted, you can reference this online document: support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04331666 When you want to print in black and white only, you can change the settings to print black only. Then, you will still (very rarely) have to get color cartridges because the tiny nozzles that spray the ink onto the paper will clog unless they are cleared regularly. When you are not using a color, the printer will have to use a tiny bit of ink during maintenance to clear the nozzles for that color. Mary HP Care Hp.com/support