Hi,
my officejet 6700 exhibits the same behavior as described by the original poster. Quite frequently, it starts checking the device. Apparently, it also consumes a significant amount of ink during this process.
GeorgeFN wrote:
This document not only has answers to your questions about what it's doing when it's checking itself and why color cartridges are needed to operate, but also how to set it up to print black only.
George, I did not find an answer to this problem there: your link points to an explanation what to do when some colors are missing in the print-out; there is neither explanation of what is happening during device check nor why it is performed this often. Also, there seems to be nothing about the problem in the FAQ.
Ingolf