Thursday, February 16, 2006

na na...na na na na...techno techno techno tech no!

I seem to have had many people who have trouble with there printers. And I myself have had my fair share. Now I will go through a few little tricks to keep them working better. And although most of these tips will be common sense and apply to all the software is only for Epson printers. My own personnel printer is made by Epson I have always used them so I am biased. And most people who seem to complain about there printer use another make.

And that brings me very neatly to me first tip and that is “buy an Epson”. Now I am not talking about big pro printers or Laser colour printers that cost over £500 but the sort of thing that most of us have at home to print letters kid’s home work and pictures etc. There are lots of different makes out there but in my opinion the Epson range is good value. The trouble is that when you buy a package PC they usually put in another make of printer as part of the deal and it is usually nasty as a result. So whether you need a photo printer or the cheapest printer for letters in my opinion based on what I see buy an Epson when the other dies. With a well thought out software packages included and inks that are amongst the cheapest on the market it’s all good news.

Ok then tip two do not buy an all in one printer, fax, and copier. They are more complicated and go wrong more often and the individual parts tend to be of a lesser quality than if you bought them separately. Yes it might cost you more but you can’t get away from the old adage you get what you pay for. Buy separates you will not regret it.

Tip three think about where you are going to put the printer. Sounds stupid I know but bear with me. This is a machine that has a liquid ink in it and putting it on a shelf above a radiator for instance is asking for trouble. The same goes for any very hot central heated room. Most printers produce shit prints or no prints because they dry up in the ink head. The warmer the room the quicker it will dry simple really. In fact the whole Pc will benefit from a cooler environment.

Tip Four use it regularly because ink jet printer dry out over time they need to be used. Most people recommend at least every other day as a minimum and preferably every day for best results. And not just to print a quick letter you need a full colour photo printed at photo quality. I have a photo saved on my machine that has a good range of colours and some total black areas. I print this if I am doing nothing else at least every third day. I know I can hear you saying what a waste of ink and paper but it is cheaper and uses less ink that cleaning the ink heads when they block (which they will) with the built in head cleaning utility.

Tips five do not believe the hype that after market inks will damage or ruin you printer. Companies that make printers sell them at a loss and they make there money on ink sales. I have never put a drop of original Epson ink in my R800 since it was new and its fine. The big manufactures will tell you that the colours are not going to be as good or they will fade. They are scaring you I buy all mine from
http://www.choicestationery.com/
Great company, great products and service, even if you need stuff for non Epson printers. They do a fantastic range of special head cleaning cartridges that can rescue even the worst printers just in case it all goes wrong and dries up like menopausal fanny (sorry)

Lastly tip six and this is only for Epson printers. The ink monitoring and head cleaning software that come with these printers is good but not great. I have been using a little program for a year or so that give more control and allows you to separate cleaning of the colour and black cartridges. It will also allow you to “hot swap” cartridges so you can refill and reset the counters if necessary. The ink monitor is also much more accurate than the supplied one which will tell you that you need to change cartridges when you still have 20% ink left.
http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml
The link to download it is above. Have fun.
Matt

1 comment:

samsub said...

I never buy all in one printer, they are the piece of trouble. Similarly, printer companies are making a lot of money from the ink cartridges. In case of some inkjet or bubble jet printers, the ink cartridge costs more than the printer itself.

samsub
---------------------------
Epson T060