Brother MFP - IDLE inks dry out???

I have a Brother Multifunction color copier/fax. I almost never use the
color for copying and have not received but a few faxes. Total printing on
these [OEM] cartridges are probably 75 pages at most. We unplugged the
machine for a couple of weeks and probably haven't used it much for over a
month and a half while we redid an office. When plugged back in, it gave an
"out of ink" error for all 4 cartridges. Though I would think only the black
one could have been close to being used up, however all cartridges
suspiciously went empty at the same time.

I am now wondering if just leaving inks in the machine for a season of
inactivity causes them to dry out??? This is a real waste if so, since I
would never get enough use of any cartridge to make it worth the money.

Thanks
Jeff
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jefferis Peterson, Pres.
Web Design and Marketing
http://www.PetersonSales.com