printers

Jose bought an Epson EcoTank printer and wants to know if it has the same problem of the ink drying out and being unusable. Leo says that's a common problem with inkjet printers. Epson says that they have put a new coating on the print heads to prevent the ink from drying out. So it's not supposed to. If he only prints a few times a week, then Leo says a laser printer is a better option.

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Thomas has an Epson EcoTank ET2550 printer, but the printer is leaking. Leo says that when moving a printer with tanks, it's vital to keep it level. But Thomas says it won't stop leaking. Is it worth fixing? Leo says it probably just needs to be thoroughly cleaned. That ink should dry sooner or later, though. The key concern is if it dried onto the printer head. Leo also recommends using it to keep the ink from drying out on sensitive parts. Some rubbing alcohol will work great for wiping out all the ink.

Mike has an Epson EcoTank 4550 and now it won't print because he's used it too much. Leo says that the EcoTank has enough ink for two years, and since Mike has refilled it once, Leo suspects that the print head needs to be replaced.

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Jeff has a Brother printer, and every few hours, it loses its connection to his network and he has to sign back in. Rich says that the printer may go to sleep and if he presses the button on the printer, it wakes it up and the computer finds it again. But Jeff says he has tried it, and Windows still says it's offline. Jeff says it may also need a firmware update.

Felicia had her HP printer ink cartridges refilled, and now her printer won't accept the cartridge. It just says it's incompatible or counterfeit. What can she do? Rich says that printers are cheap because they can make up the cost on ink. Rich also thinks, however, that the contacts on the cartridges may just be dirty. So she should clean them with some distilled water and a coffee filter. Nothing that has threads to it. She should give it a good wiping down and try again. It should be able to see it then.

Nam bought a new router, but now he can't print. Leo says it's a good idea to delete the connection in his printer, then go into the printer settings of his computer and delete the connection there. Then reinstall. It could be it just needs to be reacquired by the OS.

Dennis' Canon printer isn't working anymore. He's replaced the cartridges, but it still doesn't print. What can he do? Leo says that if he goes into the printer setup and looks in the maintenance manual, there will be a "clean print head" utility. There's a good chance that ink has dried into the head and the clean print head utility will clear that out. He should run it several times. If he still gets nothing, there's a good chance the print head has died. But some models replace the print head when replacing the cartridges.

Benny wants to know what's a good all-in-one printer. Leo says his favorite is Epson's EcoTank series. However, a laser printer is a better option if the printer won't be used much.

Barry needs a new printer that can print on Legal paper sizes, but can also fax. He's looking at a Brother, HP and Epson. Leo says that it depends on how much you use it. If he's rarely going to print, then a laser printer is a better choice because the ink doesn't get dried out in the nozzles. But if he's printing a lot and needs color, then an inkjet will certainly suffice. All three make good printers, but Leo prefers Epson. However, Brother makes very inexpensive yet very good laser printers.

Peter wants to know why his printed color pages have lines in them. Leo says that if he doesn't print a lot with an inkjet printer, lines will occur because the ink simply dries up in the print head. He'll need to run the ink check/self cleaning utility on the printer to clean the printer head. The downside is that will use up a lot of ink. That's why Leo says that inkjet printers really aren't a good idea for people who print seldomly. A laser printer is better because it uses a dry toner.