Printer woes

Life Technology
1

My sister gave me an Epson 830U that has a continuous ink system pre-installed, It has pretty much no ink and I figured I could revive the printer with heavy cleaning. So I spent about 800nt buying inks, paper, and a USB cable (she lost the cable) and proceeded to clean the printer getting things to work. At first about 2 colors were dead and so I tried to clean it by injecting cleaning solution into the nozzle. Then for some reason more colors decided to quit and only Magenta could print (and not very well at that either). So I took the print head off (it wasn’t hard, just 2 screws and cables) and cleaned it manually. When I did that most of the colors would come back but after half a page ALL colors are gone!

I can still easily squirt ink through the nozzle so I think I cleared the jammed nozzle but the paper came through the printer white as snow and I am just about given up. Have I damaged the nozzle?

Any recommendation on a mostly maintenance free/trouble free (apart from adding inks/toner)? I could go to a print shop but its a bit far away and I do need one in my shop to print work contracts and other stuff (like printing patterns for inlays, etc.)

2

I can’t say anything about the particular model you have, but my experience with Epson printers over the past 10 years is that they suck. Really suck! This was not always true. Indeed, my first Epson printer (a 9-pin dot-matrix) was excellent, I just couldn’t wear it out. But that was then and this is now. Their inkjet printers all seem to suffer from problems like what you’ve described. Even their dot-matrix printers have fallen in quality.

I guess my rant doesn’t help you. Well, since you can remove the print head, maybe try soaking it in warm water. Don’t be surprised if that doesn’t work. I’ve had three Epson inkjet printers drop dead on me in a similar manner, none of which were terribly old or heavily used, and I couldn’t revive them.

For your next printer, you might consider going laser. I’ve got an HP Laserjet P1006 and it’s been fine. Of course, it’s black & white only. Color laser printers are really expensive.

good luck,
DB

3

[quote=“Dog’s_Breakfast”]I can’t say anything about the particular model you have, but my experience with Epson printers over the past 10 years is that they suck. Really suck! This was not always true. Indeed, my first Epson printer (a 9-pin dot-matrix) was excellent, I just couldn’t wear it out. But that was then and this is now. Their inkjet printers all seem to suffer from problems like what you’ve described. Even their dot-matrix printers have fallen in quality.

I guess my rant doesn’t help you. Well, since you can remove the print head, maybe try soaking it in warm water. Don’t be surprised if that doesn’t work. I’ve had three Epson inkjet printers drop dead on me in a similar manner, none of which were terribly old or heavily used, and I couldn’t revive them.

For your next printer, you might consider going laser. I’ve got an HP Laserjet P1006 and it’s been fine. Of course, it’s black & white only. Color laser printers are really expensive.

good luck,
DB[/quote]

I bought a Samsung b/w laser a while ago, the drum seems to be broken because I can’t get a clear image out of it. I feel like if I go laser I gotta get those huge copy/print/scan office machines (you know the ones you see at 7-11, those aren’t cheap!)

I just thought I could revive the printer and use it to print stuff… besides now that I think about it inkjets suck because the inks tend to run and those epson pigmented inks clog the printer even more. The problem is lasers aren’t immune either because like inkjets, they make the printer very cheap and sell it at or below cost then charge an arm, leg, and a kidney for the ink/toner cart. I think those business models should be illegal because its very bad for the environment when people are throwing printers away after a few months.

In fact I think the whole IT industry is very bad for the environment… everything is made to be thrown away and because of that, every Taiwanese has that mindset when it comes to anything!

Back to printing, I am really considering getting a dot matrix printers… I’ve never seen one fail, and I’ve worked at convenience stores long enough to know that those receipt printers (which are usually dot matrix) NEVER fails. The only maintenance they need are ink ribbons and they’re so cheap. I mean they’re more expensive than even lasers new and the output doesn’t look good but for business use it fits the bill. How reliable are the newer dot matrix printers, or do you think I should buy older dot matrix printers?

4

My HP Laserjet has been good, but I admit that I don’t use it much. I’ve had it three years and I’m still on my first toner cartridge!

I agree that dot-matrix printers are the most reliable. At least they used to be. As I already mentioned, my first printer (circa 1986) was an Epson FX80 9-pin dot-matrix, and it just refused to die despite heavy use. I later owned a Panasonic 9-pin dot-matrix that also ran forever. I wound up giving both these printers away when I moved abroad. About five or six years ago I bought an Epson LQ-680 24-pin dot-matrix and the print head went bad after just one year of moderate use and a new head was NT$2000. An Epson repair guy told me that periodically spraying the pins in the head with WD40 can help prevent this problem. It might be that a 9-pin is more reliable, but they don’t sell those in Taiwan anymore.

Unfortunately, Epson seems to have a near monopoly on dot-matrix printers in Taiwan. Here is their web site with the list of printers that they sell in Taiwan:

epson.com.tw/Printers/Dot-Matrix/List

Any printer that has the suffix “C” (like LQ-690C) is a Chinese printer, and you pay extra for that feature which you really don’t need. You can still print Chinese without of of these C series - you’re paying extra for a Chinese interface.

Of the Epson dot-matrix printers show for sale in Taiwan, this one is cheapest:

epson.com.my/epson_malaysia/ … -300plusII

You can search on pchome.com.tw. Here are the characters for “dot-matrix printer”:

點陣印表機

Results I get are almost entirely Epson, all 24-pin.

Be sure that any dot-matrix printer you buy has a USB interface. Some of them are still stuck on serial and parallel interfaces, which don’t exist on new computers.

5

I have seen other bands like Futek and Panasonic.

Honestly I don’t think they will ever sell 9 pin printers in Taiwan because they are useless if they can’t print Chinese. Most of them seem to be used by business users who prints multi part forms…

Are all dot matrix printers tractor fed or is it possible to use regular A4 papers on them?

6

By default configuration, I think that all dot-matrix printers are tractor feed, but some models have an expensive accessory paper-feed tray that will allow you to use standard A4 paper. However, there really is nothing wrong with tractor feed, especially if you use the printer a lot. What other type of printer allows you to load 2000 sheets of paper at one time?

7

I second that. Sure it’s only black and white but I’m never printing anything other than text. I’ve had it for over 5 years and have only changed the cartridge once. It has never done that classic printer crap where it just decides not to work.

8

Trying to sell the ink back on yahoo auctions with the printer… looks like no one’s biting.

If it was in the US I’d fill the printer with a pound of Tannerite and shoot it with a .308