Clearing Common Errors on Your Printer

Ever have blinking lights on your inkjet or laser printer that just will not go away? Ever install a new ink cartridge in your printer and it still thinks the old one is there? Well, instead of just getting angry at the printer or hunting around for your manual, you can try one simple thing: unplug it.

This technique has a few names that all mean the same thing: cycling the printer, resetting the printer or clearing the printer’s memory. Now unplugging your printer may seem like a low-tech solution to complex problems, and in reality it is. But, for problems like blinking error lights it is the only solution and also, it is typically the first one that will be recommended to you by a technician working for HP, Lexmark, Epson etc. They will recommend it right away if you install a new cartridge and it is registering as empty. If your printer isn’t registering it full, then that means it still thinks the old cartridge is in there and the memory needs to be cleared by unplugging it.

The first thing to remember about this solution is that unplugging the printer is not the same as turning the printer off. If you have error messages or cartridge communication problems, then turning off the printer is not going to do anything. It has to be physically unplugged from the wall or the back of the printer itself (you don’t have to unplug the printer from the computer). The second and most important thing is that the printer must be unplugged for at least one minute. It takes at least one minute for all the electricity to be cut off from the printer to allow it to completely reset and clear its memory. If you just unplug it for a few seconds, when it comes back on it is going to pick up right where it left off.

While this technique will not fix every problem, it is still a very quick and easy solution to a lot of annoying printer problems and it is always the best place to start when one of those problems arises.

Computer Printers Cut Your Costs

When you buy a new computer it almost always comes with a free printer. The free printer is almost always an inkjet model. The printer manufacturer gives these to the computer manufacturer for a knock down price as a loss leader. What most people never consider is the cost of replacing the inkjet cartridges in a few weeks time, and on a monthly basis after that.

The actual laser printer has now fallen to a price where it is comparable to an inkjet printer, even for home use. Many families have 2 printers, an inkjet, for color work, and a laser as the default printer.

Even if you have to pay for a laser printer its running costs will work out a lot less than the free inkjet. Once people take the cost of ink into account a monotone laser printer is only about a third the annual costs of an inkjet. The best thing you can do is to set up your laser printer and the free inkjet. Make sure the laser machine is set as the default printer. Unplug the inkjet to prevent it being used unnecessarily.

What about refilling the inkjet cartridges? Forget it, the quality of the refilled is just unacceptable.

Remanufactured laser cartridges are worth considering, especially for every day and internal use like as an Internet printer. Laser toner cartridges are highly engineered for precision use. Yet many people just throw them away, rather than sending them away for re-use. Re-use is always less costly to our environment than recycling. Re-use involves replacing worn parts and refilling the cartridge with toner powder. Recycling involves, breaking up the cartridge and melting the various plastics down separately.

There are many companies offering this service and once you find one that provides quality remanufactured cartridges for your model of printer, you would be well advised to stick with that company. You can always find cheap, allegedly remanufactured laser cartridges, but these are just refilled and often have none of the worn components replaced.

Insist on a "money back if not satisfied" guarantee.

Inside Your Inkjet Printer: How Does It Work?

Have you ever wondered how your inkjet printer works?

How does the ink get from the inkjet cartridge to the paper? Why is the print quality is so clear? Why the printing is so quiet?

Generally, all that most people know is that there's some movement and a faint high pitched sound when it's printing something -- and then the finished document comes out.

Unlike dot matrix and character printers that strike ribbons to create an image, inkjet printers do not physically touch the paper.

All inkjet printers function using the same basic principles. Tiny ink droplets are "jetted" (or pushed) out multiple holes onto paper in a controlled and systematic fashion. This is where the term "inkjet" comes from.

The size of ink droplets, speed and reliability of this type of printer has been continuously improving since its inception. In 1993, Epson was the first manufacturer to produce an inkjet printer using micro-piezo technology. The Epson Stylus 800 was the first printer to use the multi-layer actuator printhead (the printhead is the part of the printer that holds numerous tiny nozzles that actually squirts the ink onto paper).

This specific printhead utilized an electro-mechanical element that acted like a tiny control room. When pulses of electricity passed through, it that gave specific signals to fire individual or multiple nozzles loaded with ink.

Micro-piezo technology utilized a tiny crystal in each individual nozzle that when electrically energized, would vibrate or bend causing a controlled amount of ink to be forced out onto paper. When the electrical current is off, the crystal bends back to its original shape, creating a vacuum, thus pulling ink into the nozzle from the reservoir for the next commanded fire.

The Epson printhead was fixed to the carriage so it never needed replacing (the printer carriage is what moves laterally across the paper). This also kept the cost of ink cartridges low since they were little more than reservoirs of ink.

This breakthrough printer produced a whopping 360 dpi (dots per inch) that was deemed, almost "letter quality" at the time. With a printing speed of 150 - 180 characters per second, the new Epson became the user favorite printer for home and office.

At the same time, HP was using a similar technology. A thermal jetting system was utilized in their printhead. The printhead still acted like the control room but each individual nozzle was instead independently super heated by electricity, which caused the ink to explode onto the paper. HP claims the temperature of a fired inkjet nozzle approaches that of the surface of the sun.

HP elected to put the printhead on the inkjet cartridge itself instead of mounting it permanently to the carriage. Since each inkjet cartridge would have its own printhead, replacement cartridges would be more expensive for these printers.

HP inkjet cartridges also could not print as fast as Epson because each nozzle needed to cool after firing. This heating technology also limited the types of inks that could be used.

In the 1990's, Canon, Epson and HP engineered printheads that applied even smaller droplets of ink, drastically improving dpi and resolution.

While Canon and HP could produce a 6 - 10 picoliter droplet size from one nozzle, Epson was about half the size (between 3 - 6 picoliters). Currently, there are printers available which will produce an amazing 1 picoliter droplet! To get an idea of how small this is; a human hair is about 12 picoliters in diameter. Most human eyes can't see one jetted droplet of ink on paper.

Inkjet printers have come a long way since their first inception.

Printers today are twice as fast as their predecessors were, and are cheaper than ever. Many printers can easily produce color photo quality images in at an incredible 6000 dpi.

As time goes on and as demand for printing remains high, the quality, speed and features of inkjet printers will only continue to improve.

About The Author:

Bob Stephens is director of operations for ASAP Inkjets. ASAP Inkjets offers ink cartridges & toner at up to 80% below retail. Signup for their free newsletter for tips & discounts at: http://www.asapinkjets.com/ or email: subscribe@asapinkjets.com

Eli Fry is president of ASAP Inkjets. ASAP Inkjets offers

inkjet cartridges and laser toner at up to 80% below retail.

Signup for their free newsletter for tips & discount coupons at

http://www.asapinkjets.com/ or email: subscribe@asapinkjets.com

Service Tool for Canon iP1200, 1600, 2200 Resetter Printer

This tool can reset waste ink for canon ip1200, 1600 and ip2200 permanent

User guide:

1. Unzip downloaded file.
2. Run GeneralTool.exe
3. Select the connected USB port number from USB port
4. Click LOCK RELEASE, and select the applicable model name in SET DESTINATION
5. In CLEAR WASTE INK COUNTER, select MAIN or PLATEN. The selected waste ink counter will be reset. MAIN resets the main waste ink counter, PLATEN resets the platen waste ink counter.
   If both the main and platen waste ink absorbers are replaced, reset both the main and platen waste ink counters.

http://www.savefile.com/files/1016479

The Epson Chip Resetter: Maintaining the efficiency of your printer

When you rely on your printer to produce quality printouts on demand, there is no time for a delay due to misinformation from your printing machine. Unfortunately, a common occurrence in the new Epson model ink jet printers is that the chip will think the printer is out of ink when in fact it is not. In order to guarantee that this does not happen to you, it is wise to use a chip resetter.

Beginning in 2000, Epson began the addition of chips onto the 870 series cartridges. These cartridges, referred to as "intellidge," can now be found in all current Epson printers. The chip essentially sits on the cartridge and is connected to the circuitry in the printer. When the chip detects that the micro-droplets printed have reached their maximum, it disables the printer. Despite the fact that your cartridge may not actually be empty, the chip will still prevent you from completing your print job displaying an message that you are out of ink. The presence of this chip will also prevent your printer from recognizing when you refill the same cartridge with ink as it will only remember the amount of ink printed. In principle, it is useful to have a way of monitoring the life span of your cartridge, but if your printer is constantly being overruled by an overzealous chip, you need to find a way to rectify the situation. The addition of an Epson chip resetter will ensure that your print jobs are not interrupted unnecessarily.

The Epson chip resetter has the ability to override a difficult chip that is telling your printer that it is out of ink. With a resetter tool, it is possible, whenever necessary, to reset the memory chip. This simple resetting process allows the printer to recognize that a new cartridge has been installed and is full.

To make the addition of a resetter tool even easier it is possible to purchase a universal resetter that can reset any Epson printer cartridge chip. To use your new tool, remove your colour or black cartridge from your printer and place the resetter against the green chip on the cartridge. A light will flash then become solid green, indicating that your chip has been successfully reset. Now you are ready to replace the cartridge into your printer.

No one likes it when a mechanism that is designed to make life easier, actually makes life more difficult. Unfortunately, the addition of the Epson chips onto the cartridges of many printers has had just that effect. To ensure that your print job is never unnecessarily interrupted again, and to safeguard the efficiency of your printer, use an Epson chip resetter. The tool is easy to use and in the end, will spare you aggravation and save you precious time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A recent grad from Concordia University's English Department, Marisa uses her computer technology skills along side her writing skills to be the webmaster for The Print Pot. Sharing her interest and expertise about ink jet refill kits has helped convince many of the advantages of refilling rather than discarding empty cartridges.

Marisa can be reached at marisa@printpot.com