Inkjet cartridges

[54aardvark]

Running an Epson DX4400

Because the ink levels are governed by the chip on the individual cartridges, whenever the computer says its empty the whole printer stops, take the cartridge out and you can hear ink sloshing about inside and dribbling out the hole - obviously nowhere near empty.

If one colour cartridge is (allegedly) empty you can't print anything - even black with the software set to "black only".

Is there any way of overriding the chips on the cartridges?

[mikew1972]

You can get a cartridge chip reprogrammer off ebay. Only a few £.
(actually designed to reset the chip after re-filling the cartridge with ink using a syringe)

[dave.m]

Top of the page:
http://www.printcartridge.net/acatalog/ ... tml#aT0715

£4.29 for your printer model.

dave

[lamntile]

On the epson cartridges directly above the centre of the chip there is a tiny reset button that you can push using a paper clip, I was sent an email and video showing it in action

[54aardvark]

Brilliant! Thanks for that, problem solved.

[The Weegie]

I have been using an Epson printer and always thought that there was plenty of ink left in the cartridge. Like Ardvark it wouldn;t allow me to print. I put in a new cartridge last night. Will need to have a closer look in the future.

[54aardvark]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, just thought you may want to know how I got on - absolutely brilliant!

We must have been binning cartridges which were more than half full, the fiver I spent on a chip resetter paid for itself in the first month. I would strongly recommend anyone using cartridges with chips in to invest in one of these - save yourself a fortune.

[kellys_eye]

Printer ink is licenced banditry.

Whilst inkjet refills are fairly expensive, a set of cartridges for our laser printer will set us back £240 !!!

We checked the print output (page counter) and found that we were getting just 165 pages from the black cartridge and 345 from the colour.

I'll not name names but the company initials are L E X M A R K.

We're currently in an email 'battle' disputing the claimed page printing figures (they say 2000 pages per cartridge).

Bandits!

[DIY_Johnny]

Thats a pretty bad design of a printer, the canon ones do tell you that the ink is empty but its just a warning note. You can still print till its truly empty!

Your right about quoted pages, its complete b#l#x !

[thescruff]

What they all say is up to x number of pages, it real life it will be a fraction of the quoted number.

[Inky Pete]

The quoted yield figures on toner and ink cartridges usually refer to an average toner or ink coverage of 4% of the printed page. This is because, historically, a printed black and white business letter with addresses and a couple of paragraphs of text would come out at about that.

None of the manufacturers want to move away from that old standard to something more meaningful because they all know that it will make their yields look crap compared to their competitors.

If you're printing colour images, especially if you're printing out photos, you're laying down dots of all 4 colours on top of eachother across the entire area of the image.

Depending on your image and the quality mode and resolution you're printing at you could easily be generating an ink or toner coverage well in excess of 200%!!

You can get freeware tools which allow you to scan in an image, specify the print resolution, and they'll then count the number of pixels of each colour and tell you what the total coverage of that document actually is. They're not perfect because actual usage will depend on how your print driver software chooses to make up a specific colour from it's 4 component inks, but they'll give an answer which is in the right ballpark.

For a dark, full size, high resolution image I have seen coverage figures as high as the low 300's of percent.

[kellys_eye]

Oh I agree with you entirely - except all we've ever printed were invoices with a colour logo on! No more than the regulated 4 or 5% coverage in my opinion.

Well... perhaps three or four photos too - but nothing else. Either way, the lifespan of the cartridges is ridiculously low. If we went for 500 pages I'm talking 48p per page to print!!! I can purchase colour photocopied pages for 10p/sheet.....

I'm well aware that the manufacturers use the refill costs to offset the original printer production costs - much in the same way as mobile phone manufacturers rely on contracts - but even ONE set of refills would cover the 'missing' costs. At under 500 pages per set of refills they are surely taking the p*ss?

Sadly, it wold probably prove futile to take the manufacturers to court over the 'chipping' technique which is nothing short of electronic fraud BUT I imagine their stance would be that it's there to 'protect' the printer from misuse.

Bandits? Perhaps not.... b*st*rds, YEP!

[wine~o]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, just thought you may want to know how I got on - absolutely brilliant!

We must have been binning cartridges which were more than half full, the fiver I spent on a chip resetter paid for itself in the first month. I would strongly recommend anyone using cartridges with chips in to invest in one of these - save yourself a fortune.

Don't be sorry to ressurrect the thread....you've just saved me some £ notes

[rotciv]

Any ideas re HP deskjet printer cartridges?

[dave.m]

Any ideas re HP deskjet printer cartridges?

Victor,
I use Remanufactured carts from Cartridge Monkey because they are good and a lot cheaper than HP branded carts.
Obviously it would not be too good for you mail order with the carriage to Malta. But HP Printers are normally fine with cheaper carts.
No chip involved so experiment with some to see what the colour and ink usage is like.

dave