OLD BEFORE THEIR TIME?

A subject that more and more people are talking about recently is that "printers are now built to just last the term of the warranty then fail". A sore point with a lot of business owners who also point out that printers of what ever size are financially not worth repairing either.

This was pointed out to me by a customer who had spent quite a few thousands on a large format colour laser printer 3 years ago. A fault developed and as always happens the machine was just out of warranty( the lady had taken out the extended manufacturers warranty on purchase). On phoning the printer manufacturers service department, she was informed of a call out fee of over £80.00 just to get some one to come out and look at the machine. Which she did, and then found out it had cost her £80.00 (Plus vat) to find out that her printer was going to cost £1300.00 plus vat to fix! This was on top of the £80.00 as well. The conclusion was it was madness to fix this printer as a replacement printer to the same specification now cost pennies short of £1500.00.

The out come of this is obvious, she purchased another printer, but the costs did not stop there as she had to pay a liciensed IT recycling company to dispose of her 3 year old printer.

So, Are printers designed for a short fixed life? Please post a comment, the results could be revealing.

Cheap CD Printing Fix for Epson R200/R300 and the like

I was sent this e-mail by a customer the other day and thought it may prove useful to R200/R300 owners. Obviously I cannot gaurantee the results but this person seems pleased with it. Any one else who tries it, please post a comment and let me know how you get on.

There is a well-known problem with these printers while printing directly to a cd (one of the main marketing points of this printer model).

After 15 or so discs being run through the machine, the tray will slip while going in. After a while a physical push is needed for the process to even work.

The cause of this is the leading clear plastic edge on the front of the cd tray. This gets worn down and the printer cannot grab it effectively.

The solution I have come up with is simply attaching a strip of Gaffer/Carpet tape to the lip of the tray, and folding it over to the bottom. This will make the lip a bit thicker and easier for the printer to grab. I use Gaffer/Carpet tape because of its durability. Regular scotch tape might work fine, proably not for very long.

I have done this with great success, it’s not a very complicated idea. Just a bit fiddly to do.

Its a heck of a lot better than buying a new tray for £20.00

BORING!!!!!Storage of paper for laser printers

A bit of a boring post today, but a good useful one if you are in hurry and your laser printer starts Eating documents. We print all of our invoices, comp slips and catalogues etc in house, it costs less and we can make changes in minutes as opposed to days. How ever this plan falls flat when the laser printer keeps getting paper jams and the annoying message keeps coming on the screen telling me what I already know.

So once the printer has been switched off and the paper jam cleared which is usually in the fuser unit near when it wants changing or in the rollers when it is a paper fault. You reset the pc to print the required amount of print again and 5 or 6 sheets later it does it again. Annoying is not the word!

If it is not your fuser unit, which is near the end of its life and the paper is jamming in the rollers, have a close look at your paper. No really, is your paper dry and smooth?

Our Laser printer was driving me to distraction with paper jams repeatedly until I replaced the paper in it with some from a fresh ream we had just got in. Problem solved! After I had thought about this and looked at the faulty (I know this sounds like when they tell us we are having a drought it is because the wrong type of rain is falling). But it is valid, my faulty paper had been stored in a cold cupboard which was slightly damp, not wet damp, but enough to stop the printer from picking it up and pushing it through the printer.

It also does it if the paper is not entirely flat and some cheaper brands of paper we have tried do not laser print very well at all, so next time you are buying paper look at the manufacturers recommendations for usage and see if yours is amongst it. A quick look on the packet could save you a lot of lost time and temper.

Strip Off and it will work fine!

My wife called me at work the other day in a somewhat annoyed mood, not good. She never calls me at work normally so it was a surprise. It turned out her frustration was with some printer cartridges I had brought home for her; apparently they did work in her Epson Stylus C44 printer. Upon asking what the problem was she informed me they would let ink through and despite cleaning the print head several times the printer just produced blank sheets of paper.

So upon asking for the part number on the box she read out TO37 and TO36 from the packets in front of her, well they are the right ones I said. Having checked first because I am far from infallible and my ageing faculties some times let me down!

Upon hearing this I asked if she had removed the TEAR OFF STRIP from the top of the cartridge, the yellow strip that says Pull Strip on it. "Of Course I have.", was the reply, and then a grovelling "NOT".

The tear off strip on the top of Epson printer cartridges has to be removed to let the ink out, if you do not pull the strip off ink is held in by a vacuum, so if air cannot get in ink cannot get out!

This is a very common mistake we hear a lot about, so next time your Epson printer will not print, just make sure you have removed the Pull Strip from the top of the cartridge and normal service will be resumed in full colour or black, both cartridges are the same in this respect.

Re setting print parameters with a new printer

OK own up, who has been out, purchased a new toy (sorry much needed piece of business equipment) in the shape of a printer and then found it will not print as you require? It cuts off the bottom of documents by an anoying few lines, it misses the last word in every sentance when printing, it only prints part of your work etc.

This has happend to me when ever I have replaced a printer, despite having religously followed the installation instructions (which although in English are written in "Instruction book ease" and not understandable text), I unpack it as per the instructions exactly, only switch it on when the instalation program says to do so, install the printer ink cartridge on request, and the first time some thing is printed. It will not print what is on the screen! Annoying is not the word!!!!

Now I am sure that some off you reading this blog will be shaking your head in agreement or rolling around the floor with laughter saying, has he not figured that one out yet? Well up to a few days ago no I had not figured it out yet, hands up I admit this!

The problem is that all printer models have different settings for what they print, and we create all our documents /letters etc in a format/settings that our current printer uses, not the settings or formatt our new toy (sorry piece of business equipment) uses. So we now have to go to page set up, first left click on file on your document page, play around withe settings and print off a few copies until we get the settings to do what we want. You also have to select a default paper size, I normally go for A4 paper.

If after all this you want to go and retreave your old printer from the skip(official recycling facility) I sympathise, having been there my self. So yet again you go the printers settings and select the correct paper size/orientation (nothing to do with map reading) etc. Print off some more copies of your document, and in some cases alter the spacing on the document until it prints as you want.

Then peace will be all about you, and the day can carry on, even though you now hate you new toy!

Get More Business and Help the Environment

Do you ever wish you could do two things at once? Being a mere man and not able to multi task as all women can (or so I am told) being able to work twice as productively would be great.

WELL I HAVE FOUND A WAY TO DO THIS!

It's something I've been doing for some time and not realised (I often cannot see the wood for the trees!). Over the last twelve months my regular attendance at a networking event has got me more business, some really good contacts and enabled people there to help the environment.

It’s True, over a good meal I get to tell other people about my business (which usually results in more business) even if it happens 6 months later.

This in turn saves these people money on their printer cartridges (the good turn bit) which because a lot of what we sell are recycled/remanufactured printer cartridges, in turn helps the environment.

You too can do this by going to Total Networking once a month, meet a friendly bunch of people, publicise your business and have an informative evening.

Not a bad achievement for someone who can only do one thing at a time.

Fresh Healthy Water!

What has fresh healthy water got to do with printing you say?

Well, I drink lots of fresh water and notice if I don't - it's back to slug on vallium mode as my wife calls it. So I reckon if something makes you feel good, you perform better at everything you do (in my dreams!).

Still, the theory seems to work in some ways and it sounds good. There fore if putting something into something makes it perform better this has got to be a good thing for all of us.

A customer who deals in water filtration systems, Greens Filtration Systems tells me that since he has been using environmentally friendly remanufactured printer cartridges his HP2550N printer is running really sweetly and so is his bank balance, with the money he is saving!

Proof indeed that being environmentally friendly is good for us all, and our bank balance.