Dry cartriges!!!

[Torquin]

I once had a decent printer that printed color, now... it doesn't anymore. It went dry... so its just black and white. I recently got a new printer that prints color and photos and is really awesome. So what I'd like to know is how often do I have to print in color (like 1 time a week or something?) to make sure they never go dry? (cheaper to keep em wet so I don't replace cartriges and only ink).

 

[4steve44]

Don't know what kind of printer you have-had but I have never had a ink cartridge go dry. I have used hp ink cartridges that have set for months and they still printed fine. I hope you did not buy a new printer because of one dry cartridge

 

[Torquin]

actually in a way I did... but w/ the way cartriges are priced, it was a good deal... don't worry the old printer is still getting good use... but it was a LONG time since it was using color and... it went dry. But this one is a lexton printer brand new and I got it at some flee market for $40, so good deal... and it even uses voice communication (tells me w/ some persons voice if its printing, when it finishes, if it needs paper, etc.)

 

[4steve44]

actually in a way I did... but w/ the way cartriges are priced, it was a good deal... don't worry the old printer is still getting good use... but it was a LONG time since it was using color and... it went dry. But this one is a lexton printer brand new and I got it at some flee market for $40, so good deal... and it even uses voice communication (tells me w/ some persons voice if its printing, when it finishes, if it needs paper, etc.)

A Lexton printer? or is it Lexmark?

 

[kiwiguy]

I have had a printer (HP) in storage for 2 years, and it printed fine again when unpacked and fired up. But thats probably an exception.

Often its as cheap to buy a new printer as to buy a set of cartridges. Beware new printer cartridges that have only a fraction of the ink of a replacement though. "Starter Cartridges"

 

[mknott]

my mum has a hp printer and the ink dried up.. i did about 30 test pages and used hp tools on it and in the end it printed photo quality again

 

[Torquin]

Lexmark actually, I keep messing it up since I just got it...

wow 30 pages and it worked! maybe I should try that... the dry one is a canon bj-4550 I think... or around there.

 

[mknott]

all i did was print test pages, clean the cartridge, prime them and alline.

generialy all tests that i could do.

in the end i went into ms paint and printed a whole black page and it got the ink working fine again.

 

[Avenger311]

One thing to remember on just about any inkjet printer is to power it down seperately from the computer (don't have it plugged into the same power strip). The printer needs to perform it's own power down sequence (to purge the ink flow lines), and if you don't shut it down through it's own power switch, the ink will just lay in those lines and dry out (the cartridge shouldn't be affected), but it can render the printer useless.

 

[alphanumeric]

The color print head in my Epson printer dried up. I played with it for a while but in the end I had to through out printer. The print head is separate from the ink cartridge on it. My new HP has the print head integrated into the ink cartridge. Each time I replace the ink cartridge I get a new print head too, so I don't worry about it any more. Ironically the print cartridge for the HP is cheaper than the Epson one with no print head.

 

[Torquin]

OK, I'll remember to plug it in somewhere else... or to shut it down before I shut down the strip... it seems to automatically if it hasn't been used for about 30 minutes or so. I know someplace (98 only or OS's as well) you can set that.