Big headache refilling HP C3180 92/93. Pictures inside.

[whiteonrice]

[Cliff notes: used to buy refills, found 120mL of UV dye for $12, won't work in HP 92 cartridges, seems fine in 93.]

Hey guys, first post. I've been trying to find a cheap refill method for my trusty C3180 for a good year now. I'm a broke grad student; I need the printer mostly for printing (a lot) of lecture slides on standard index cards because that's how I like studying. Exams come and go frequently so print quality is not an issue, I just need it readable.

I don't know if I should say this on this forum but I have always felt buying retail cartridges is an absolute rip-off so I started buying refills off Amazon. Last year I went through over a dozen black cartridges and 25 pounds of index cards (don't worry, I planted trees as a cub scout) so I thought I should fill the cartridges myself. I bought 120mL of UV dye on Amazon, it had great reviews. I filled my 93 color and 92 black cartridges (both previously refilled by a 3rd party company) from nearly empty and to my surprise, both printed fine.

After the black ink ran out again and I refilled, it would not print (93 still working fine). I did all the cleaning/testing/aligning I could do with my HP software and cleaned the cartridge itself. It didn't help. This was right before an exam but luckily I still had an amazon-purchased cartilage. I read about HP monitoring used cartridges and deactivating them when they are "completely" empty so today I refilled the cartridge when I estimated that it is half full. It printed about 2 more standard pages and now won't print black ink. I have a picture below of what it's doing: seems to be using the color cartridge to make "black."

Here are my questions based on my hypotheses:
Do I need to reset my 92/93 cartridges, if possible?
Are these UV dye inks not meant for my printer or clogging the cartridges?
I don't mind manually filling cartridges, so if it is the printer I'd rather buy a printer compatible with my inks because I'll save money in the long run, any suggestions?

I can't post photos so here are the links:
printer i73.photobucket.com/albums/i224/fizix_skate/print3_zps2b611910.jpg
inks i73.photobucket.com/albums/i224/fizix_skate/print2_zps7bf83e2e.jpg
test print i73.photobucket.com/albums/i224/fizix_skate/print_zps05ce7365.jpg

 

[Laser Tek]

I guess, you should really reset your cartridge. Usually, printer's "malfunctions" are due to the smart chips manufacturer placed in our cartridges. To be more practical, you can just buy a toner refill kit. It already have a reset chips, toner and refilling tools inside. I hope that works on you.