My Lexmark printer cartridge reset solution

I was pulling my hair out after replacing one of the ink cartridges, only to have the print dialog box say “out of ink/toner” or something like that.

Nothing seemed to work, even though the device itself seemed to know that the ink was replaced.

THIS worked for me, and I hope it can help somebody else with a Lexmark S600 Series printer. If this is not your Lexmark model, it may work anyway!

The Problem

The problem showed up when I replaced the cyan-colored ink cartridge, which was showing as low on the printer.

Once I replaced the cartridge, the indicator was showing that the cyan-colored ink had been replaced, as far as the device itself…but when I went to print a document, I was blocked completely from printing, because it said that the ink was low.

Frustrating! I was trying everything, both on the machine itself through the supplies settings, as well as on the system settings.

Tip: By the way, I recommend wearing rubber gloves for changing the cartridges, because it tends to get all over my fingers otherwise.

The Solution

Let me just take you back to the System Preferences on the Mac, Printers & Scanners…

Mac System Preferences (El Capitan), showing Printers and Scanners

, and here’s my Lexmark:

Lexmark Printer in Mac Printers and Scanners window, highlighting Options & Supplies

You notice “Options & Supplies,” here. You can print a test page, clean print heads. I tried all of this, both from this dialog and from the machine itself, and no avail. I could not print anything.

So, what eventually I did, or found that I could do, is this…

Important Note

You’ll notice I have two Lexmark printer drivers installed here. I see that one says “Share this printer on the network,” and the Location says “Bradford’s Mac mini.”

DON’T use this one for this trick: The WRONG Lexmark Printer Install in the Printers and Scanners Dialog

I don’t know all the ramifications in terms of how this works, but the one that I ended up using was the one that says nothing under Location and does not say “share this printer.”

Use THIS one!!!

Under Options & Supplies in this dialog (and is missing on this one that says “Bradford’s Mac mini” and “shared”)…

Lexmark Printer in Mac Printers and Scanners window, highlighting Options and Supplies

…it says Show Printer Webpage right up there on the first General tab.

Lexmark s600 series printer dialog box showing: General > Show Printer Webpage

If you click on that, it takes you to an IP page in your browser, and you’ll see, in this case, the cyan was plenty fine after I changed it.

Lexmark s600 series printer web page, where you can Refresh the printer’s understanding of the ink levels…!

But by hitting the Refresh, right here, it finally told the machine, apparently, that we do have cyan ink, and it’s okay to print.

Hooray!!!

I hope this helped you out! And if so, you’d really make my day by leaving a nice comment, or a Like here or on the YouTube page for this tutorial.

Heck, I wouldn’t be mad if you checked out The Multimedia Ninja podcast. We have some super-talented guests every week, to help you take your multimedia skills (usually not about printers!) to the next level.

Thanks, and have a great one!

-Bradford