Do you have a Brother printer yellow ink problem? Then, you have to keep reading this article. Here, we will discuss several solutions that can help you solve the problem.
Table of Contents
Brother Printer Cannot Detect Yellow Ink [Reasons & Solutions]
Below are some of the reasons why your Brother printer is not detecting yellow ink and their practical solutions:
1. Printer Needs a Reset
Sometimes, your Brother printer is not detecting yellow ink due to a little glitch. So, the first thing to do when this problem is encountered is to reset the machine.
Simply disconnect the machine from the power socket, and then wait some minutes; maybe 20-30 minutes. Afterward, plug the printer back to the power socket and then switch it back on. Now, check if your printer detects the yellow ink.
This action most of the time solves the issue. However, if the problem persists, keep reading to find the solution to it.
2. Outdated or Faulty Microchip
Brother printer cartridges often come with a microchip. This microchip makes the connection between the printer and the cartridge possible. They also ensure smooth printing operations.
If you recently updated the Brother printer driver, and the cartridge’s microchip is outdated, then a connection between the printer and cartridge may be impossible. In such a case the issue of your Brother printer not reading yellow ink becomes inevitable.
This also applies if the cartridge’s microchip is defective. So, to fix this issue, you need to replace the cartridge with a cartridge whose microchip is up-to-date. Or, with a new cartridge that does not have a faulty microchip.
3. You Replaced the Yellow Ink When Your Printer was not Switched On
A lot of people make the common mistake of replacing their ink cartridges when their machine is switched off. When this is done, the printer may be unable to detect the replaced ink.
To correct this problem, you simply need to uninstall and then reinstall your yellow ink cartridge. Ensure to power on the Brother printer when you do this.
How to Fix Yellow Ink into Printer
You can use the following steps to fix the yellow ink cartridge into your Brother Printer:
Step 1: Gently take out the ink cartridge from the printer.
Step 2: After a while, reinsert the cartridge. Ensure the yellow ink cartridge is inserted in the right position kept for yellow inks. If you put it in the wrong position, your printer will still be unable to detect your yellow ink.
Step 3: Your printer will ask if you replaced the yellow cartridge. Select “Yes”.
Step 4: Next, close your printer’s cartridge door. Then, print out any document to see if the problem has been fixed.
4. The Cartridge’s Protective Cover was not Removed
Every new Brother Ink cartridge comes with a protective tape on top of it. This tape prevents the ink from getting dried up. The protective tape needs to be removed before the cartridge is installed in the printer. If this is not done, your printer will be unable to detect the new ink cartridge.
Therefore, remove the yellow ink that cannot be detected by your printer, then check if the tape was removed. If it wasn’t, remove it and reinsert the ink cartridge to fix the problem.
5. Metal Contacts inside the Machine is Dirty
There are some metals inside the printer that has to make contact with the cartridge’s microchip for the connection to be secured. If these metals get dirty, your yellow ink may not be detected.
To resolve this problem, your machine’s insides have to be properly cleaned. Read this instructional article on how to properly clean a Brother printer.
6. Generic Toner or Ink Cartridge
The Brother printer may have some protective settings that prevent generic or non-supported toners or ink cartridges from being used. So, if the yellow ink isn’t for Brother printers, it may not be detected.
The only solution to this is quite simple. Use just genuine Brother toners and ink cartridges for Brother printers.
7. Brother Printer Software is Updated
Sometimes, updated printer software may stop your printer from detecting non-Brother cartridges. Updated software is needed. However, people who use non-Brother toners or ink cartridges may be disadvantaged when they update their software.
You have the option of not updating the software or using just Genuine Brother cartridges. But we will recommend that you choose the second option.
If the yellow ink was not detected by your Brother Printer, we believe the solutions discussed should solve the problem. However, if the problem persists, you may contact Brother Support for further assistance.
If your Brother printer MFC J200 cannot detect yellow ink, then you can fix the issue with the solutions provided in this section.
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Why is My Yellow Ink not Printing? [Reasons & Solutions]
Your Brother Printer is not printing yellow ink because of the following reasons:
i. Your ink cartridge was not properly installed.
ii. The print head’s nozzle is clogged.
To fix these problems, follow the instructions below.
How to Fix Brother Printer Yellow Ink Not Working
To solve the issue of the yellow ink not working on your Brother Printer, do the following:
i. Uninstall and Reinstall the ink cartridge. Do the steps in the “How to Fix Yellow Ink in Printer” section of this article to properly install your yellow ink cartridge.
ii. Run a print quality test and clean your print head by doing the following steps:
Step 1: Press the “Ink Management” or “Ink” key on your Brother printer’s control panel. If your printer does not have this key, press its “Menu” button then use your Up and Down buttons to select “Ink Management” or “Ink”.
Step 2: Use the Up and Down keys to select “Test Print”. Then, press “OK”.
Step 3: Use the Up and Down keys again to select “Print Quality”, and then press “OK”.
Step 4: Press your Color Start button.
If you use a touch screen model, press “Ink” > Test Print > Print Quality > Color Start.
Step 5: Examine the sheet of the Print Quality Check. Your printer’s four colors will be represented with a square pattern. This pattern has several single blocks. Since yellow is the color in question, check to see how it is represented in the sheet.
Step 6: There are three possible ways yellow may be represented:
i. The whole block may be missing
ii. Several of the single blocks may be missing.
iii. Very few single blocks may be missing.
Step 7: Your machine will ask if the quality is okay. Select “No”.
Step 8: You will be asked if the cleaning can begin. If you use a touch screen model, press your “Color Start” button. If you do not use a touch screen model, select “Yes”. Your machine will start the cleaning process.
Step 9: Once the machine is done with the cleaning, press the “Color Start” button. This action will print out another Quality Check Sheet.
Step 10: Do steps 7 to 8 again so that your machine can carry out another cleaning cycle.
Step 11: Compare the 3rd sheet and the 1st sheet you printed.
– If the whole block is missing in both the 1st and 3rd sheets, then the problem may be serious. In this case, reach out to Brother Customer Service.
– If there is an improvement between sheets one and three but the 3rd sheet still has several blocks missing, clean the print head an additional 3 times. This will make it a total of 5 times. If there is no improvement after you have done the cleaning five times, contact Brother for more assistance.
– If just a few blocks are missing in the first sheet and if there is no improvement between the 1st sheet and 3rd sheet, repeat cleaning 3 more times. If there is no improvement after the 5th cleaning, reach out to Brother Customer Service.
Step 12: Press Exit/Stop.
The video below is an instructional video on how to run a print quality test and clean the printer…
If a clogged print head nozzle was the reason the yellow ink in your Brother printer was not working, then the problem should be rectified with these steps. However, if the problem persists, then do not hesitate to contact Brother Customer Care for assistance.
Can You Print Without Yellow Ink? [Solved]
Your Brother printer won’t print without yellow ink because your machine is designed to stop printing operations once any ink cartridge runs out of ink. This means you will be unable to print not only when your Brother printer is out of yellow ink, but also when it runs out of any ink at all.
This setting is put in place to protect the printhead’s lifetime. Even when you decide to print in just black, a small amount of all color inks is needed to make this possible. So, when you are running low on colored ink, you can change your printer’s setting to only print with the blank ink (grayscale).
However, some models have a feature known as “B&W Print Only”. When in this mode, the printer can print in black and white for a given period without using the finished color ink.
How To make Brother Printer Print without Yellow Ink – Brother Printer Yellow Ink Problems
Do the following to make your Brother Printer print without yellow ink:
Step 1: Verify the message your machine is displaying.
i. If “B&W 1-sided Print Only Replace Ink” or “B&W Print Only Replace Ink” is showing, then move to the next step.
ii. If “Cannot Print” is displayed when you are trying to print when your yellow or any color has run out, press “Cancel”. This will stop the job and go back to B&W mode. If this does not happen and you keep getting the “Cannot Print” message, do not proceed and simply get a new yellow ink cartridge instead.
iii. If another error message like “Cannot Detect” is displayed, then troubleshoot the error displaying. Read the “Brother Printer Cannot Detect Yellow Ink” section of this article to solve the “Cannot Detect” error.
Step 2: Print using “B&W Print Only” features following any of these procedures:
i. Faxing (for just MFC models)
ii. Copying
iii. PC Printing
Faxing (for just MFC Models)
The following requirements must be met if you want to use the “B&W Print Only” mode when faxing:
i. The Fax being sent must be sent as B&W. If you try sending a colored Fax, your printer will ask you to change it to black and white.
ii. You can only use 2 paper types: Inkjet paper and Plain paper. If you use any other paper type, your machine will not print the Fax. It will simply save it in its memory.
Copying
The following requirements must be met if you want to use the “B&W Print Only” mode when copying:
i. You cannot make a colored copy. If you try doing this by pressing “Color Start”, the machine will still print out a black and white copy.
ii. You can only use 1 paper type: Plain paper.
PC Printing
When you try PC printing when your yellow ink is out, your PC will display a message saying you do not have enough ink to maintain print quality. You will then be asked to replace the yellow ink cartridge.
When this happens, you need to turn on grayscale in your printer’s driver before you can print using the B&W mode. Follow these steps according to your system’s operating system to do this:
Windows
Step 1: Open your PC’s “Printing Preferences” by doing the following:
For Windows 8 & 10: Open the PC’s “Control Panel”, next, select “Hardware and Sound”, and select your printer’s driver by right-clicking on it. From the options, click on “Printer Properties”, then open “Preferences”.
For Windows 7: Click on your “Start” button, next, click “Control Panel”, now, select “Hardware and Sound”, click on “Devices and Printers”, and select your Brother printer by right-clicking on it. Select “Printer Properties”, then click “Preferences”.
Step 2: Open your “Basic” tab by clicking on it. For the “Media Type” option, select “Plain Paper”. Also, uncheck “Slow Drying Paper”.
Step 3: Next, open your “Advanced” tab by also clicking on it. Now, click on “Grayscale”.
Step 4: Click on “Apply” and then “OK”.
Step 5: Delete all jobs on your system’s print queue. Also, press the “Cancel” key on the Brother printer to cancel pending jobs.
You can now start using your printer as a black and white machine.
Mac
Step 1: Click “File” from an application, then click “Print > “Show Details”.
Step 2: From the dialog box that will come up, select “Print Settings”.
Step 3: For the “Media Type” option, select “Plain Paper”.
Step 4: Select “Grayscale” in the box for “Color/Grayscale”.
Step 5: Start printing by clicking on “Print”.
You have to change this setting from “Grayscale” back to “Color” after you replace the yellow ink and want to print in color.
How to Print When Yellow Ink is Out – Things that can end the “B&W Print Only” Mode
The “B&W Print Only” mode will end due to the following:
i. You can use this mode for approximately 4 weeks. This also depends on how often you print. Know that the mode is not meant to last forever and at some point, you will need to replace your yellow ink.
ii. The mode may end if you unplug your printer from the power source. Unplugging your Brother printer from the power source is like resetting it. So, if you unplug your printer from the power source when you are on this mode, you will end up clearing the machine’s memory.
iii. If you remove the empty yellow ink cartridge from the printer and close the cartridge’s door the mode may go off. The “Cannot Print” message will be displayed again.
We believe you now know how to print without yellow ink on Brother printers. However, when the mode ends, you will need to replace the yellow ink cartridge before you can start printing again.
Why Does My Printer Use So Much Yellow Ink? [Reasons]
Your Brother printer uses so much yellow ink because of the following reasons:
1. The Printer’s Cleaning Cycle
Your Brother printer is built to occasionally and automatically clean and flush out the print head nozzles. During these cleaning cycles, the printer uses a small quantity of ink. The ink helps remove dried ink, air bubbles, and dust from the channels and nozzles of the ink cartridge.
All inkjet printers go through this process since they all have inkjet technology.
2. The Amount of Printing Done
The amount of yellow ink your Brother printer consumes is also dependent on the quantity of printing you do. It does not matter if these printing jobs are just black and white if your Brother printer offers color printing. The machine is set to print in “Color”. So, all the printer’s colors are mixed to produce one color, even if you are printing just black.
However, if you wish to preserve your color inks, you can change the settings in your printer’s driver to “Grayscale”. To do this, check the “How To make Brother Printer Print without Yellow Ink – PC Printing” section of this article.
If after doing this you still think that your Brother printer is using so much yellow ink, you may get further assistance from Brother Support.