TOT Printer

[Mr Pounder]

I have a HP C7180 printer with an empty orange cartridge. When this happens HP kindly stop all printing until you replace the cartridge. You can't even just print in black, I tried all the tricks I could find on Google. Like many others I was disgusted with HP. As I print very little the chances of a new cartridge drying up seemed to be quite high. I probably won't print anything for the next 12 months, and then some. Then, I came across this:

Not having a syringe, I used the red tube from a can of WD40, put some water in my mouth and blew it into the cartridge. The printer chucked death and destruction messages at me which I ignored, but IT WORKS!!!! Four test pages later it still works and if there is a difference in the orange colour I can't see it.

[Ian Jackson]

In message , Mr Pounder writes

Interesting. However, I would still expect that the 'orange' (actually the yellow?) pigment will become weaker as the water spreads through the sponge.

On a similar theme, many printers have at least five cartridges (three colour, photo black and black). If one or more of the colour cartridges (or the photo black) is empty or missing, why don't printers give you the option of printing in ordinary black?

[Clive George]

The official answer will be something like "To reduce potential confusion. Our users expect our printers to produce high quality output all the time, so the printers have been designed to ensure this is possible by checking all the ink reservoirs."

The real answer is the same as for razors. The printers are almost free, the money is made on the consumables, so it's in their interests to make sure there's no way of avoiding buying the consumables.

[Mr Pounder]

Possibly/probably it will get weaker. But I don't really care.

This printer does give the option of black only. Trouble is that the empty yellow (it was yellow) cartridge will not allow it. This is to "prevent damage to the printer". Utter horseshit.

[Michael Chare]

It gets worse:

My Cannon printer/scanner would not scan because of a problem with an ink cartridge.

[Ian Jackson]

In message , Mr Pounder writes

Which is the point I was making. You normally need a full complement of working cartridges even to print in greyscale.

From what you've found out about refilling with water, it should be possible to print in greyscale with only the black cartridge having ink in it, and the others only water.

[polygonum]

Does it still send/receive faxes? (Obviously not print received ones... :-) ) Mind, who really gives a damn about faxes these days? I guess a considerable proportion of faxes these days have a computer at one end or the other. Wonder how many are actually fully computer to computer?

I detest MFPs. Far prefer a nice simple flatbed scanner. Use it wherever I want - on a desk, on the sofa, wherever required. Connects easily to any of the computers in the house.

[GB]

My wife's HP printer does give that option.

HTH

[Bill Wright]

My Canon i9950 lets you continue printing once you acknowledge that there's an empty cartridge. I often do.

Bill

[harryagain]

I get all my cartridges (exchange old for new) from Cartridge World about a quarter price. They also fix printers, my local one often does it for free.

[Chris Hogg]

I would also recommend Internet-ink

[Ian Jackson]

My Canon iP4200 didn't seem to allow that. I recall that it complained the first time you re-filled a cartridge (which it saw as being empty), and asked if you really, really wanted to continue as dire consequences might follow - but I never saw it allowing you to print with a really empty (or missing) cartridge. Maybe it did! However, it went faulty (mechanical clunk when booting up), and now it's awaiting the tip. Pity

- it was a good'un.

[Brian Gaff]

Its probably rust now not ink! Brian

[Brian Gaff]

They used to. I have two 720s and an 840 by hp and they will all print in black if you take out the colour cart completely. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Which is why I'd never buy a combined device. Too many pitfalls. I'd imagine that the things are defeatable if one puts ones mind to it, but most people don't bother. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

And of course a lot of mobiles can now snap documents and even OCR them, so scanners are not really needed.

I notice that the latest trend in printers is the ones that phone home over the web when ink is low, and send you ink before it runs out provided you actually paid their monthly ransom, otherwise they stop. This is a step too far, in that it also circumvents retailers as well, making sure you pay ahead of time and hp get all the profit too.

Disgusting. Brian

[Nightjar]

On 21/10/2014 08:20, Ian Jackson wrote: ...

The trick with refilling cartridges is to have three and insert them in rotation. The printer will remember the ID of the current cartridge and the one before it, but not usually any more than that, so when you insert the third cartridge, it will think it is a new one. You can do this using a couple of empty cartridges, so you don't need to worry about ink drying out in the print heads while they are not in use.

[Ian Jackson]

In message , Brian Gaff writes

I wonder if that's because the two cartridges are also the print heads? There's therefore no risk of things drying out when trying to print with empty or missing cartridges.

>

[Ian Jackson]

I'm sure from the very start, my iP4200 continued to see the first cartridge I refilled as empty (although as it allowed me to print at my own risk, it must have known there was ink in it). It only showed full again on the odd occasion when I treated it to a genuine Canon cartridge. However, I bought it around 2001, so it's a long time ago - and as it's knackered, it's too late now to try it again.

I've now got an Epson XP-610, and bought three 5-cartridge multipacks on Ebay. So far, I've replaced two cartridges (which didn't seem to last long), and the rest are rapidly emptying. It complains bitterly about the replacements not being genuine, but grudgingly accepts them. When I get time, I'll try refilling the two empties, and see what happens.

[soup]

My Kodak C110 is like that too. I raid the colour cartridge from son's printer when I need to use it. This is VERY rare as I VERY rarely print or scan anything. Why scanning should rely, at all, on being able to print full colour is beyond me. But then the initial printer and ink was incredibly cheap, thought I would be doing lots of printing/scanning but in actuality do very little.