HP Deskjet light keeps blinking

I had an HP DeskJet 1360 that just kept blinking the one led it has on it. This is obviously not helpful at all. In windows it said the printer is offline. It turns out the black cartridge had gone bad in the middle of its lifespan and made the printer refuse to print. If I took the black out leaving just the color cartridge in then it worked. The black ink is simulated from the color ink and makes a kind of brown result. I think this would be similar for most DeskJet printers. The DJ 1360 uses HP 21 and 22 cartridges.