Have an HP 8500 printer. I use very little color. Today, I fire everything up an

Have an HP 8500 printer. I use very little color. Today, I fire everything up and printer tells me I need to replace ALL the cartridges. Cannot do anything till all replaced. Highly unlikely that all cartridges ran out at once. Is there a timer on these printers instead of ink level detection

I have read somewhere, in a recent online news article moaning about this exact problem with HP cartridges, that there is an expiry date on some ink cartridges and, once they expire, you have to replace them.

My understanding was that there is both level detection and the expiry date as using old ink might cause problems with the printer.