Cartridge is in printer, but where is it?

Everyone I know has had it at least one time that they installed their printer cartridge into the printer, only to have the printer fail to recognize it.  So what is a person supposed to do in that situation.

1.  Double Check the cartridge – Is it the right cartridge for the printer.  Some times it is that simple that the wrong cartridge was purchased.  If you can try to return it if it happens to be the wrong cartridge.

2.  Is it installed correctly – Is there anything that needs to be removed?  Some printer cartridge manufactures put a blue tape over the printhead or yellow tape over the air intake, these need to be removed.  Do not remove the copper contacts from the cartridge.  This is not tape, it is how the cartridge talks to the printer.  Think of them like the nerves in your hand, take them out your hand is still there, but it will not do anything.  Also, make sure the cartridge is in the right slot.  I have seen it a couple times that a person has installed the cartridge into the wrong location.  This can possibly harm the cartridge or printer or both.  It can be removed, but is not easy.

3.  Electrical failure – This is the most common problem that happens, with both new and refilled cartridges.  Sometimes the contacts do not want to work.  There is nothing you can do for this.  However, if three different replacements do not work, look at the printer instead.

4.  Software – Does the printer’s software know you installed a new cartridge?  Some printer’s driver need to be told that a new cartridge has been installed.  Lexmark and Epson are the most common with this.  Canon can do this as well, but with refilled cartridges sometimes you have to push certain keys on the printer or AIO.

HP’s New Color Lasers cartridges – Good Deal or Not?

HP announced on March 4th, 2008 that they were going to help small businesses reduce the cost of color printing.  After reading the press release and details on the cartridges, I decided to look at the cost per page for the new CB540 Series of color cartridges and compare them to some of the older series and even some of HP’s color inkjet cartridges.

Now in all fairness, I do not look at the cartridges that come with the printer, as they are not full cartridges, but look at the ones you will be able to buy from O-ink and anyone else who sells HP products.

Black CB540A cartridge is suggested retail for $70 and is rated for 2,200 pages per cartridge.  Now remember, this is based off from 5% coverage, not real life numbers.  This means that the cost per page is 3.2 cents.

Compare that to the Q6000A black cartridge, which cost around 3 cents per page.  Compare both of them to the HP 88XL Black, which runs about 1.5 cents per page, you tell me what one is cheaper?

Now since all color cartridges cost the same and yield the same pages, let’s take a look at one of the color cartridge for those three.

CB540 Series Color Cartridge – Page Yield is 1,400 – Suggested Retail is $64 – Cost per page is about 4.6 cents for one color or 13.7 cents for all three colors.

Q6000 Series Color Cartridge – Page Yield 2,000 – Suggested Retail is $82  – Cost per page is about 4.1 cents or 12.3 for all three colors.

88XL Color series – Page Yield 1,210 – Suggested Retail $25 – Cost per Page is 2.1 cents or 6.2 cents for all three colors.

Well that takes care of it for cartridges, what about the printers?  Both the Q6000 and CB540 Series print no faster than 12 pages per minute, black or color, while the 88XL printers get rated for over 30 pages per minute, black and color.

What about cost of the printers themselves?  Both of the Q6000 and CB540 Series start at around $300+, while the 88XL printers start at $149ish.

So what is my take on saving small business money?  Looking at just the numbers, HP is trying to make the small business owner think that they are saving customer money with the new color laser printers.  While in reality they are costing about double in consumables (cartridges), at lower speeds.  The major problem is that there will be small business owners who think that is a great buy.

Do not expect the big box office supply stores or HP to point out the differences, it is not in their interest to do that.  I recommend anyone looking at a color laser printer for a small business to come and email me or call us 1-800-989-6465 to see if that would be the best bet for your business.

As for the printers that take the CB540, I can not recommend a single one.  The cost out weighs any benefit that their might be.   I hope that HP will steer away from marketing like this, but I do not foresee any reason for them to do as such.  I just hope we at O-ink can make some small business owners realize the difference before they spend their hard earned money.

Lines in Print, OH NO!!

It has happened to every one I know that has a printer.  You start printing out something and you notice that there are horizontal lines running across the page.  FREAK OUT!!

This simply means two things, either your printhead (print nozzles) are plugged up or dirty, or it means that your cartridge is running out.

Now for the latter, it is a simple fix, get a new cartridge or get it refilled.  I like getting mine from http://www.oinkinkstore.com

What about the nozzles or printhead?  Well this is a little more involved.

1.    Run a cleaning cycle.  The software that runs your printer (printer driver) does more than just tell your printer to print.  It also can change paper size, quality, colors, and maintain your printer.  Easiest way to find it is (in Windows, I do not have my Mac hooked up to a printer yet) by going Start>Control panel> Printer & Faxes>Right Click on your printer>Printing Preferences.  From there find a button or tab that says Services/Maintain/Utilities.  In there it will have a cleaning function.  Now you might have to run it a couple times (up to 5 times).

2.  Manual Head Cleaning. Now this can only be done on printers that have the printhead attached to the tank (HP, Lexmark, and Dell are the main three that do, however, there are about ten Canon’s that are like this).  Get a warm damp paper towel (we use distilled water, but tap is fine). CAUTION You can Damage your printhead by doing this so be careful, and proceed at your own risk!  Wipe the printhead slowly across the paper towel, using a little force to clean any gunk (dried ink) off.  Then firmly press the printhead on the towel and hold it.  If it is a color make sure you get all three colors, and black, well you get the idea.  You still might have to run a cleaning cycle on the printer, but it should look better.

Now if you notice a ding or dent in the silver area on the bottom of the cartridge (The printhead), your cartridge is toast, and needs to be replaced.

If those tips do not help, take the cartridge to where you purchased it and see if they can help you with fixing the problem. Remember that regular use keeps the cartridge fresh.  Think of them like an ink pen.

HP’s New Office AIO Printers

HP just announced four new AIO printers for the spring this past week.  All of these are color inkjet AIOs that have faxing, scanning, printing, and copying capabilities.  Here is a break down of each one:

Officejet Pro L7590:  Base model is $300, 35 pages per minute (12 pages per minute at laser quality speed), wired networking, built in duplexing, use the HP 88 and HP 88XL individual cartridges.  Other models offer more feature like wireless networking, but do cost more.
Officejet J6400: Base model is $200, offers wired and wireless networking, built in duplexing, 31 pages per minute, and uses the 74/75 series of cartridges.

Officejet J4500: Base model is $100, 28 pages per minute, uses the new 901 series of cartridges (built using recycled plastic).

Officejet J3600: Base model is $100, no flatbed scanner, 20 pages per minute, attached phone, Uses the HP 54 black cartridge and 22 color cartridge.

I am mostly interested in the OJ Pro L7590 and the J4500.  The Officejet Pro series in the past year and half has proven to be very robust and economical to own.  The J4500, I am interested in the new 901 series of cartridges to see how they work.  One thing to note, only the J3600 fails to offer an XL cartridge that does 2-3 times the number of pages compared to the standard cartridge.

HP until the Fall of ‘08 is focusing on their Officejet line with new packaging and marketing.

Bait and Switch by Lexmark??

This past week we had a customer come in and purchase replacement cartridges for a Lexmark 28 and 29 cartridges, which she pulled out of her Lexmark X2580. They didn’t work for the customer, and we were closed, so they went to a big retailer and purchased the official Lexmark Return Program 28 and Return Program 29 for their printer. By the way, they pulled out the 28 and 29 from their printer when they became empty.

Those didn’t work. Strange that the exact same cartridge that was pulled out didn’t work, especially since it was from Lexmark. The customer actually called Lexmark for troubleshooting. What was the problem, she was buying the wrong cartridges.

But how could they be the wrong cartridges? They matched to the number to what she pulled out. Well according to Lexmark’s Website they will not work. They take the #2 Color and or the #3 Black. And the X2580 is not the only printer affected. Here is the list of printers that will take the #2 and #3:

Item	Printer	#2 Color Cartridge	#3 Mono Cartridge	#31 Photo Cartridge
1	Lexmark Z738	Yes	…	…
2	Lexmark Z1380	Yes	Yes	Yes
3	Lexmark Z1480	Yes	Yes	…
4	Lexmark X2480	Yes	…	…
5	Lexmark X2580	Yes	Yes	Yes
6	Lexmark X3480	Yes	…	…
7	Lexmark X3580	Yes	Yes	Yes
8	Lexmark X4580	Yes	Yes	Yes

So if you have one of those printers, which you can only purchase at Circuit City in the USA, do not get the number 28 or 29, you need the 2 and 3.

Currently O-ink has the #2 replacement available for the public to purchase at our website.  We also can refill the #3 cartridge through our mail in program.

*UPDATE* – O-ink now has the #3 replacement available at our stores and our website.  Here is the article.

HP turns 20 and New Cartridges

HP announced this week that the Deskjet printer that we have all grown and love is turning 20 years old.  This actually makes me feel old, I am older than the Deskjet printer (26).  So how do they celebrate this?  The come out with two new series of printer cartridges and new printers, surprise.

It seems that everytime we turn around the printer companies are coming out with new printer cartridges.  While it has slowed down in the past couple years, most companies are coming out with at least 2 different cartridges series.  HP just announced the HP 60 series and the HP 901 series.  So I ask, what changes from cartridge to cartridge?

Most of the time it is very small things, mostly the printheads or the electrical componets.  But why come out with new cartridges all the time?  One reason only, money.  This is how companies like HP, Canon, and Lexmark make their money, and lots of it.  As anyone in manufacturing knows the longer a product is out, the cheaper it gets to make.  The process gets slimlined. While the cost of the goods may go up, the cost to put those goods together typically goes down.

The longer a cartridges is out, more money the companies make.  However, we have been stuck in the mentality that we need to get bigger and better.  While we may not need a new printer, we want a new printer, which means new cartridges.

Will this process ever stop?  Possibly some day, but not anytime soon.  So what is a person supposed to do, before you buy a printer, think, do you need one?  If so, look at the cartridges that go into the printer, or talk to someone like me that deals with printer cartridges and knows the good and bad ones.

Printer Drivers, where to find them

Many times we get questions about, I got a new printer, but lost the CD where do I get the software for it?  Or I had to uninstall my printer and I have no Idea where my CD is at any more.

Well here are the links for the major companies.

HP Support

Lexmark Support

Epson Support

Canon Support

Dell Support

Brother Support 

So if you lose your CD, get a yard sale printer, or have to reinstall it, look at those sites to help you get the software for your printer.

Have Vista?  Check the websites first to see if you get get your printer to work with Vista.  Most of the older printers are no longer supported.  That means you have to get a new printer.

Welcome to the new Blog

For a while I have been trying to find a place that we could promote our new products, services, promotions, and inform the customer on their printer. Wanting this to stay as cheap as possible, I have now found wordpress.com. So what should you expect? Quite a bit of this blog will contain helpful hints on how to make your printer run smoothly. We at O-ink will take the questions we get from our customers in our store, and put them here on the web. When we come out with new products, like the Canon 8 colors, they will be posted on here. Plus every now and then include a coupon for our website. We at O-ink look forward to helping people out with their printer problems. If you have a question, please email me. Thanks