Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up. I
don't print much. So I have to buy a $50.00 print cartridge every time
I want to print 2 pages. I think I should get a rebate on the ink left
in the old cartridge. The cleaning cycle most of the time don't clear it up.
I'm thinking of going back to dot matrix. Do lasers have the same
drying up problem from lack of use?
I would call an ink jet printer a failed invention if it can't work on
demand. Maybe they need a law suite slapped on them.

"Snap Whipcrack.............." wrote in message
news:wz1Ih.11644$ig.2390@trndny01...
Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up. I
don't print much. So I have to buy a $50.00 print cartridge every time
I want to print 2 pages. I think I should get a rebate on the ink left
in the old cartridge. The cleaning cycle most of the time don't clear it
up.
I'm thinking of going back to dot matrix. Do lasers have the same
drying up problem from lack of use?
I would call an ink jet printer a failed invention if it can't work on
demand. Maybe they need a law suite slapped on them.

Is it by any chance an Epson ...??

Arfa

Arfa Daily wrote:
"Snap Whipcrack.............." wrote in message
news:wz1Ih.11644$ig.2390@trndny01...
Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up. I
don't print much. So I have to buy a $50.00 print cartridge every time
I want to print 2 pages. I think I should get a rebate on the ink left
in the old cartridge. The cleaning cycle most of the time don't clear it
up.
I'm thinking of going back to dot matrix. Do lasers have the same
drying up problem from lack of use?
I would call an ink jet printer a failed invention if it can't work on
demand. Maybe they need a law suite slapped on them.

Is it by any chance an Epson ...??

Arfa

Yup, Epsons are famous for this. I trashed a very nice Epson a couple
weeks ago because of this problem. No amount of cleaning will help it,
and I'm talking about much more aggressive cleaning than just running
the CLEAN cycle.. The problem with Epson is that the print nozzles are
part of the machine, and hence are not replaceable (in a practical
sense). Other mfrs, including HP, put the print head in the cartridge.
The nozzles can still dry out, but at least replacing the cartridge gets
you clean new print heads.

I read somewhere - I think on the HP website - that if you are not going
to use your printer for a while, you can prevent dried out nozzles by
putting your cartridge in a zip-lock baggie with a piece of moist paper
towel. Of course, some printers (is it Epson again?) won't let you
reinsert a cartridge once you have pulled it ...

Can you still buy a dot matrix printer???

Bill

"Bill Jeffrey" wrote in message
...
Arfa Daily wrote:
"Snap Whipcrack.............." wrote in message
news:wz1Ih.11644$ig.2390@trndny01...
Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up. I
don't print much. So I have to buy a $50.00 print cartridge every time
I want to print 2 pages. I think I should get a rebate on the ink left
in the old cartridge. The cleaning cycle most of the time don't clear
it
up.
I'm thinking of going back to dot matrix. Do lasers have the same
drying up problem from lack of use?
I would call an ink jet printer a failed invention if it can't work on
demand. Maybe they need a law suite slapped on them.

Is it by any chance an Epson ...??

Arfa

Yup, Epsons are famous for this. I trashed a very nice Epson a couple
weeks ago because of this problem. No amount of cleaning will help it,
and I'm talking about much more aggressive cleaning than just running
the CLEAN cycle.. The problem with Epson is that the print nozzles are
part of the machine, and hence are not replaceable (in a practical
sense). Other mfrs, including HP, put the print head in the cartridge.
The nozzles can still dry out, but at least replacing the cartridge gets
you clean new print heads.

I read somewhere - I think on the HP website - that if you are not going
to use your printer for a while, you can prevent dried out nozzles by
putting your cartridge in a zip-lock baggie with a piece of moist paper
towel. Of course, some printers (is it Epson again?) won't let you
reinsert a cartridge once you have pulled it ...

Can you still buy a dot matrix printer???

Bill

I had good luck cleaning the black cartridge on my old HP with isopropyl
alcohol and paper towel. Didn't work so well for the color though. With the
nozzles on the cartridge theirs nothing to lose.

"Bill Jeffrey" wrote in message
...
Arfa Daily wrote:
"Snap Whipcrack.............." wrote in message
news:wz1Ih.11644$ig.2390@trndny01...
Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up. I
don't print much. So I have to buy a $50.00 print cartridge every time
I want to print 2 pages. I think I should get a rebate on the ink left
in the old cartridge. The cleaning cycle most of the time don't clear it
up.
I'm thinking of going back to dot matrix. Do lasers have the same
drying up problem from lack of use?
I would call an ink jet printer a failed invention if it can't work on
demand. Maybe they need a law suite slapped on them.

Is it by any chance an Epson ...??

Arfa

Yup, Epsons are famous for this. I trashed a very nice Epson a couple
weeks ago because of this problem. No amount of cleaning will help it, and
I'm talking about much more aggressive cleaning than just running the
CLEAN cycle.. The problem with Epson is that the print nozzles are part of
the machine, and hence are not replaceable (in a practical sense). Other
mfrs, including HP, put the print head in the cartridge. The nozzles can
still dry out, but at least replacing the cartridge gets you clean new
print heads.

I read somewhere - I think on the HP website - that if you are not going
to use your printer for a while, you can prevent dried out nozzles by
putting your cartridge in a zip-lock baggie with a piece of moist paper
towel. Of course, some printers (is it Epson again?) won't let you
reinsert a cartridge once you have pulled it ...

Can you still buy a dot matrix printer???

Bill

I too drop-kicked my second Epson down the garden a couple of weeks ago,
after repeated clogging episodes and having to use a gallon of ink that's
dearer than rocket fuel every time, to get them to clean. I have watched
them clog whilst the piggin' thing is actually printing !! What really used
to gall me, was that you could not run a clean / purge cycle on individual
heads, which meant that sometimes you virtually emptied half full cartridges
that were not even giving a problem. My take on the problem, is that Epsons
don't go to sleep when they are not in use. I like to have my printer on
24/7 and ready to roll. I can't be doing with waiting half an hour whilst
the printer grunts and wheezes and checks that it's on line and that it has
ink and that it has paper and on and on and on ... I want to just hit
"print", and 30 seconds later, have a piece of printed paper in my hand. But
when you leave an Epson on, it just leaves the heads out where it finished,
and that, I think, is where the problem lies. I have now gone back to an HP,
as I always had in the early days of home PCs. This one, unlike my previous
HPs, does not have the heads built into the cartridges - they are part of
the printer itself. However, the trick is that when this printer detects
that it has not been used for 20 minutes or so, it goes to sleep and parks
the heads back up, presumably sealing them onto the purging station. This
results in the printer being ready to go within seconds at all times, but
without dried up heads.

Arfa

Arfa Daily wrote:
But
when you leave an Epson on, it just leaves the heads out where it finished,

This is not correct, all Epsons I know park the head in its sealed
sleep place a few seconds after printing.

The fact that it sometimes clogs up while printing is not because it
actually clogs but because there is insufficient ink pulled from the
cartridge or air drops inside. This could indicate a weak or jammed
pump or because you don't turn it off doesn't make enough pumping
cycles to bring new ink to the reservoir inside its printing heads.
Turning off overnight would be a good idea.

Epsons are a good design but they fail on their princes, they should
sell their ink cheaper. I have an old Epson Stylus color Pro and am
very happy with it, cheap and big cartridges (the compatible ones of
course) and never clogs.

"Jeroni Paul" wrote in message
oups.com...
Arfa Daily wrote:
But
when you leave an Epson on, it just leaves the heads out where it
finished,

This is not correct, all Epsons I know park the head in its sealed
sleep place a few seconds after printing.

The fact that it sometimes clogs up while printing is not because it
actually clogs but because there is insufficient ink pulled from the
cartridge or air drops inside. This could indicate a weak or jammed
pump or because you don't turn it off doesn't make enough pumping
cycles to bring new ink to the reservoir inside its printing heads.
Turning off overnight would be a good idea.

Epsons are a good design but they fail on their princes, they should
sell their ink cheaper. I have an old Epson Stylus color Pro and am
very happy with it, cheap and big cartridges (the compatible ones of
course) and never clogs.


I was actually told that the heads didn't park on the Epsons by someone who
was involved a lot with the sales / service side, and as I don't believe
that I ever heard either of the two Epsons that I owned do anything after
they finished printing, I just accepted what he said, and took it to be a
valid reason for the continual problems that I had, right from day one, on
both of them. You might ask why, having had problems with the first one, I
went and bought another. Weeelll.... you see there was this very good
salesman who assured me that the design had moved on since the first one I
had, and the latest model had all sorts of bells and whistles and really did
represent exceptionally good value for money especially as they had them on
offer and well, stupidly, out came my wallet ... I really had gone to the
shop with every intention of buying an HP, but a nice new model really
couldn't be as bad as the previous one, could it ?

Within a couple of weeks, I was regretting ever having heard of Epson. I
had much e-mail exchange with the monkeys that they have trained as
technical advisors, and got nowhere. They don't even seem to understand the
most basic fundamentals of problems with their products, and just trot out
form replies. Anyway, a few weeks back, I got really mad on the back of yet
another head clog, and went and bought an HP. I use it in exactly the same
way - that is it's powered and in standby 24/7. So far, it hasn't missed a
beat. Whether or not it is actually any different from the Epson in what it
does after it's finished printing, I don't know for sure, but some minutes
after a print is finished, there is a brief flurry of internal mechanical
activity which sure *sounds* like the heads parking, before the LCD goes
dark, and it all goes to sleep. I never heard either of the Epsons do this.
Whatever, anyway, on the HP the standby mode does not cause a problem. On
the Epson, it does.

The print quality is superior to the Epson. The ink useage is superior. The
cartridges are cheaper, and best of the lot, it's a network printer. The
software that came with it, particularly that for controlling the scanner,
is better in every way. I am really glad that I went back to an HP. I will
never EVER buy an Epson again.

Arfa

"Jeroni Paul" wrote in message
oups.com...

Epsons are a good design but they fail on their princes, they should
sell their ink cheaper. I have an old Epson Stylus color Pro and am
very happy with it, cheap and big cartridges (the compatible ones of
course) and never clogs.

I have an Epson I don't use so much now. I bought a sack each of Epson brand
ink on eBay - I figure the printer will die before I use it all.

"Bill Jeffrey" wrote in message
...

Can you still buy a dot matrix printer???

Yes, but they're expensive and only used for multi part printing.

On Fri, 09 Mar 2007 11:04:20 -0700, Bill Jeffrey
wrote:


Can you still buy a dot matrix printer???

Bill

Yes. OKI still make dot matrix for example. You will pay a bit more
for these because they are not so widely used these days. They are
still the only type of printer which can be used to print multi-part
forms such as airline tickets etc.

"Snap Whipcrack.............." wrote in message
news:wz1Ih.11644$ig.2390@trndny01...

Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up.

Some printers have a cover you can put over the cartridge. Others don't let
you pull the cartridge. Best to do one color job a week.

Do lasers have the same
drying up problem from lack of use?

No.

"Snap Whipcrack.............." wrote in
news:wz1Ih.11644$ig.2390@trndny01:

Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up. I
don't print much. So I have to buy a $50.00 print cartridge every
time I want to print 2 pages.....

Do lasers have the same drying up problem from lack of use?

No. They can sit unused for weeks and print the next page perfectly.

I got a small laser printer (Brother HL 2040) two years ago and am
completely satisfied. The cost of a new toner cartridge is somewhat
higher than a new ink cartridge, although it lasts longer. But that is
minor compared to having no ink problems!

Solution:
Create a Notepad document with TESTTHEPRINTER repeated 3 abreast and 40
down. Bold font. Also, create a MYC color stripe set in your paint
program. Save these to a desktop folder named PRINTER. Open and print
each one once a week, and the printer won't dry up. The "clean the print
head" utilities with most inkjets are designed to use up lots of ink.
Don't use them unless absolutely needed.
JR

Snap Whipcrack.............. wrote:
Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up. I
don't print much. So I have to buy a $50.00 print cartridge every time
I want to print 2 pages. I think I should get a rebate on the ink left
in the old cartridge. The cleaning cycle most of the time don't clear it up.
I'm thinking of going back to dot matrix. Do lasers have the same
drying up problem from lack of use?
I would call an ink jet printer a failed invention if it can't work on
demand. Maybe they need a law suite slapped on them.


--
--------------------------------------------------------------
Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth

Snap Whipcrack.............. wrote:
Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up. I
don't print much. So I have to buy a $50.00 print cartridge every time
I want to print 2 pages. I think I should get a rebate on the ink left
in the old cartridge. The cleaning cycle most of the time don't clear it up.
I'm thinking of going back to dot matrix. Do lasers have the same
drying up problem from lack of use?
I would call an ink jet printer a failed invention if it can't work on
demand. Maybe they need a law suite slapped on them.

I had the same problem. My solution was a cheap laser, it's not only
cheaper per page than an inkjet (especially if you have to discard ink
cartridges because they've dried up), but much faster. I have a
Brother HL1440 which is nice because the toner is replaceable
separately from the drum unit.

Jerry

Snap Whipcrack.............. wrote:
Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up. I
don't print much. So I have to buy a $50.00 print cartridge every time
I want to print 2 pages. I think I should get a rebate on the ink left
in the old cartridge. The cleaning cycle most of the time don't clear it up.
I'm thinking of going back to dot matrix. Do lasers have the same
drying up problem from lack of use?
I would call an ink jet printer a failed invention if it can't work on
demand. Maybe they need a law suite slapped on them.


I've had some with this problem, the HP 840C I have now has been on the
same cartridge for almost a year now and occasionally goes for months of
disuse.

No, lasers don't dry out, color lasers are expensive but if you do
mostly B&W printing they're great.

James Sweet wrote in
news:dxpIh.238$vb.59@trndny04:

Snap Whipcrack.............. wrote:
Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up. I
don't print much. So I have to buy a $50.00 print cartridge every
time I want to print 2 pages. I think I should get a rebate on the
ink left in the old cartridge. The cleaning cycle most of the time
don't clear it up.
I'm thinking of going back to dot matrix. Do lasers have the same
drying up problem from lack of use?
I would call an ink jet printer a failed invention if it can't work
on demand. Maybe they need a law suite slapped on them.


I've had some with this problem, the HP 840C I have now has been on the
same cartridge for almost a year now and occasionally goes for months
of disuse.

No, lasers don't dry out, color lasers are expensive but if you do
mostly B&W printing they're great.


You can manage to buy a color laser printer for the price of 10 to 20 ink
cartridges these days.

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I guess you have an Epson printer - bad choice. My HP sits for months at a
time, then prints nicely when I need it to

David - who stupidly bought an Epson 400 but gave it away because of heads
clogging up


"Snap Whipcrack.............." wrote:

Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up. I
don't print much. So I have to buy a $50.00 print cartridge every time
I want to print 2 pages. I think I should get a rebate on the ink left
in the old cartridge. The cleaning cycle most of the time don't clear it up.
I'm thinking of going back to dot matrix. Do lasers have the same
drying up problem from lack of use?
I would call an ink jet printer a failed invention if it can't work on
demand. Maybe they need a law suite slapped on them.