Printer Problem

[Elton]

Got in from walking the dog at about 8am and the printer had already arrived. Can't moan at that!!!

[Guest Ferret1959]

I've got a solution, but it involves the bin and my credit card

 

 

What's going in the bin, printer or card?

 

If printer, save it I'll give you a couple of quid fer it.

If card keep it, I couldn't keep up with the interest on it.

[Elton]

Dave,

 

I've binned loads of printers lately

 

I see my old ones as disposable now, as the toners/cartridges are often so expensive to track down, that I don't bother.

[Excalibur]

Dave,

 

I've binned loads of printers lately

 

I see my old ones as disposable now, as the toners/cartridges are often so expensive to track down, that I don't bother.

 

If you compare prices to genuine cartridges, it's nearly as cheap to buy a new printer as genuine cartridges! Crazy.

[chesters1]

thats where the firm makes its money ,i buy cheap carts and refill a couple of times and chuck them .

now my HP 1220c is working again (broken track on logic board) i'm scouring the boot fairs for cartridges ,tesco sell them for £11 which is far cheaper than the £26 to £49 i'v come across (£10 saving just walking across the road) beware though HP carts come in 2 sizes "light user" is a low capacity cart which to the glance looks cheaper than the others ,it is but theres less ink.

Epson carts are easily refilled but need a zap-it to reset them .

carts are better refilled before they are completely empty,as soon as you get the low ink warning fill them.

toner carts can be refilled as well (although rarely done except by scrooges like myself) as long as the green roller is ok its ok to fill them ,i got a load of obselete toner carts from a skip that were still wrapped and my hp laser is on its second refill.

my hp 1220c (and no doupt a few more) have a cartridge "memory" (fooled me till i spotted it in a forum posting) it remembers the last couple of carts and even if you refill it reports it with the unhappy face ,now i have 3 (and my plea for empty ones confirmed this) its perfectly happy once a couple of others have been put in to confuse it.

never tried fooling a printer to except a empty cart and just print in black as the carts i got at a boot fair for £2 each i have never needed to .refilling is the best way to get value from a printer ,messy but well worth the effort .dont be fooled by the hype that non "real" carts are inferior/bad for your printer its just sales hype.

 

The zap-it i mentioned is needed to reset (in my case) the epson 5 colour cart ,strangely pc world sells them but fails to sell (well a couple of months ago) the 2 "light" colours needed to refill the cart ,their "engineer" didnt know they existed when i enquired i have failed to find those colours in any local pc shop as well so its bought online

Edited February 3, 2006 by chesters1

[Elton]

If you compare prices to genuine cartridges, it's nearly as cheap to buy a new printer as genuine cartridges! Crazy.

 

That's what I reckon these days. plus, the technology has usually moved on. I was blown away by the speed of this laser.

[kempo]

go get a cartridge chipper from wilcos for about 6 quid and fool the cartridge into thinking its full.

then print in black only.

[Elton]

go get a cartridge chipper from wilcos for about 6 quid and fool the cartridge into thinking its full.

then print in black only.

 

Didn't know they existed (the chippers, that is.)

 

Nice one

[kempo]

Didn't know they existed (the chippers, that is.)

 

Nice one

 

yes the way Epsom cartridges work is on a timer type setting in the chip, and the printer knows how many times that the cartridge will print and once it has been used for a certain amount of time the cartridge will appear empty.

but you will probably still have ink left in the cartridge so all i do is put the chipper on the cartridge and that re sets the chip on the cartridge so it makes the cartridge look full again, and wallah the printer tool box shows a full cartridge again.

its real simple to do.