Patent ID: 8005391

Claim:
A method for determining when to deactivate a color cartridge in an image forming device, comprising: activating the color cartridge; calculating a first test value as a number of sequential black-only images in an examined portion of a print queue, starting with a current image; calculating a second test value as a sum of the first test value and a number of sequential black-only images immediately preceding the current image in an examined portion of a print history; selecting a predetermined trigger value based on a printing state of the image forming device, a run mode of the image forming device, and whether the examined portion of the print queue includes a color image; when the examined portion of the print queue includes a color image, comparing the first test value to the predetermined trigger value; when the examined portion of the print queue includes all black-only images, comparing the second test value to the predetermined trigger value; and deactivating the color cartridge based on the comparison of the first or second test value to the predetermined trigger value.