Can my printer work when only black colour cartridge is installed?

[gKanavos]

After 10 years 've finally decided to bring in life this

https://h10057.www1.hp.com/ecomcat/hpcatalog/specs/provisioner/05/Q5880B.htm

relatively old scanner-printer machine that my father bought me with my first pc and i've never used.After some exlporation on my loft,i've found it's power and pc-connection cables so i connected it with my pc and turned the printer on and it was working just fine.

Now i've thinked,the only thing i need is a black ink cartridge (because in first place i need this machine mostly to print guitar tabs so i dont care to print in other colours) so i went to the local pc store and i bought a black ink cartridge and then later i installed it on the printer.

After i had set the black ink cartridge up i turned on the printer but i got a "check ink cartridge" indication then i thought that a tri-colour cartridge might be needed.Im not into printers so i'm irrelevant with the subject so the question is,can my printer work when only black colour cartridge is installed so i can not have to buy a tri-colour cartridge?

Sorry for my bad english and thanks in advance.

 

[Alabalcho]

I would assume that without a cartridge (even empty one, or "remanufactured"), the printer won't run at all.

 

[USAFRet]

Most printers won't work without all carts installed.
Even with all carts installed, if one or more is empty, still won't work.

 

[Gofer01]

Just buy a cheap laser mono printer. In the end you save money by not buying a stupid cargerage every month. And a laser printer prints 20 times faster the toner cartridge can last up to 3 year's depends on your usage