Thursday, October 16, 2025

Continue printing when Brother HL-L6200DW says it's out of toner

My old HL-6200DW Brother laster printer ran out of toner. It happens. I've never been able to get it to bypass the low toner hard stop, but now we have Perplexity.

The ai suggestions didn't work. I suspect they do work on newer printers. But the description of oddball key combinations made me look at bit further with some additional search terms. This time old decrepit and battered Google Search actually found a fix on an obscure toner sales site.

Here it is, from them, for posterity (or until I die):
 Open the toner access door on your printer.
• Press the Secure and Cancel buttons at the same time.
• Use the arrow buttons to select the correct toner yield of the toner you are using
TNR-STR = Starter cartridge
TNR-STD = TN-820 standard yield
TNR-HC = TN-850 high yield
TNR-S.HC = TN-880 super high yield
• After you have found your toner cartridge type, press OK
• Press up arrow to Reset

I don't think it matters which cartridge you choose, that just determines what count is applied and any of them will exhaust your low toner. But it does allow continued printing while waiting for a replacement.

(The printer is end-of-life, it's had one drum replaced. I keep it because it's unlikely there's anything better today.)

 

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