Trials and tribulations of using printers.

[OneeyedJohn]

After a short and unhappy experience with the Canon Pixma 3000 , the one that uses those expensive cartridges that dry up without daily use, I bought the Epson l3110 from Advice in Chiang Rai.

It has inktanks in blue, red, yellow and black and I use it everyday just to keep it ticking over.

Very happy so far, when today in the middle of printing 16 colour pics for my wife, the colours start going weird, more green and blue than yellow or turquoise.

So I stopped and printed the colour wheel as a test - absolutely no yellows oranges greens or purple, only shades of blue and the regular black text.

 

So ran a nozzle check from printing preferences, no change, tried the head clean, no change, then did the Power Clean option, it took some time, and appeared to use some ink whatever, eventually it finished and I printed the colour wheel in all its glory.

 

I was delighted, a printer that can actually do self maintenance when prompted.

[Amusements]

I just scrapped an Epson 210 because the head kept drying up. In the end maintenance tools could not clear it, and the head was inaccessible. So I ended up getting an HP with Wifi and inktank. At least now the print head can easily be changed if needed by putting a new ink cartridge in.

[scorecard]

37 minutes ago, Amusements said:

I just scrapped an Epson 210 because the head kept drying up. In the end maintenance tools could not clear it, and the head was inaccessible. So I ended up getting an HP with Wifi and inktank. At least now the print head can easily be changed if needed by putting a new ink cartridge in.

I bought a HP Desk Jet 2131. Original cartridges ran out within a week (expected), I inserted large size replacement cartridges (says clearly they are for 2131), I click for a print, lot's of loud noises, no print and I get an error message saying 'user intervention needed',  Multiple searches but cannot find any further details about 'user intervention'. Meanwhile I discovered, after lifting the door, that the large cartridges (properly fitted) are preventing the print equipment bar from moving backwards and forwards and it's actually jammed.

 

Printer wasn't expensive but I expect it to work and in 2020 surely HP (and other printer companies) could have designed something much more user friendly/user helpful to quickly fix the problem or provide an easily found set of clear instructions for 'user intervention'. 

[Amusements]

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

I bought a HP Desk Jet 2131. Original cartridges ran out within a week (expected), I inserted large size replacement cartridges (says clearly they are for 2131), I click for a print, lot's of loud noises, no print and I get an error message saying 'user intervention needed',  Multiple searches but cannot find any further details about 'user intervention'. Meanwhile I discovered, after lifting the door, that the large cartridges (properly fitted) are preventing the print equipment bar from moving backwards and forwards and it's actually jammed.

 

Printer wasn't expensive but I expect it to work and in 2020 surely HP (and other printer companies) could have designed something much more user friendly/user helpful to quickly fix the problem or provide an easily found set of clear instructions for 'user intervention'. 

I must admit, I initially had problems with my Tri-colour cartridge, which showed an error on the display, and prevented me from printing anything. The seller sent me a new cartridge, and I had the same problem. In the end HP sent an engineer to my home, who put yet another cartridge in, and got everything working properly. Fortunately my model has an ink tank, so I wont be replacing the cartridge any time soon. I have to say that HP support was better than expected, and my scans and prints are much better than my old printer ever was.  

 

[steve187]

from my experiences here with a few inkjet printers drying up, i changed to a samsung laser printer, black only as that's all i need, but no trouble in 3 years of hardly ever used usage.

[frodo77]

I have had a Canon E400 for a few years. Absolutely no problems, even after a month of no usage.