How to Overcome the Problem of Poor Quality Prints from my Printer

From time to time you may experience some poor print quality from your printer in the form of broken text lines or half printed images. This is usually a problem caused by the print head that is located either in the printer or in the ink cartridge itself. The majority of inkjet printers manufactured by Brother, Epson, Samsung, Dell and Advent have print heads located in the printer. These can become clogged with dried ink if the printer has not been used frequently and can lead to poor quality prints. For those of you who only print the occasional boarding pass this will be more of a concern than those who print regularly either daily or weekly.

For the majority of HP and Canon inkjet printers, the print head is integrated in the ink cartridge. The theory behind the logic in locating the print head in the cartridge rather than the printer is that every time you replace the ink cartridge you are in effect replacing the print head. This obviously makes the ink cartridges more expensive to buy and you will usually find the printer will take 2 cartridges, one colour and one black.

In order to clear the blocked print heads you need to perform a simple head cleaning procedure and this can be achieved either through the printer, (if the printer has an maintenance facility) or from your PC or MAC. If you have an interface on your printer you should be able to access the maintenance > Tools > head cleaning. If you have a more basic model of printer that doesn’t have a user interface on the front of the printer simply go to file > print > properties >> maintenance >> head cleaning. It is recommended that you print out a test page following each head cleaning procedure as this will give you the result of your clean. If for some reason the clog on the print head is very sever it may take 5 or 6 attempts at the head cleaning before the blockage is cleared but you should see a gradual improvement on the test print as you progress.

If you have an ink cartridge with an integrated print head it is also possible to remove the cartridge, take a piece of kitchen town and damped with luke warm water and manually gently wipe the area where the ink exits the cartridge. This can help the flow of the ink if there is a blockage that the head cleaning procedure won’t shif but is only worth a try on the intergrated print head ink cartridges.

Source: https://printerinkcartridges.ie/blog/print-head-cleaning-tips/

My Printer will not Recognise my Canon Compatible Ink Cartridges what should I do?

Sometimes when we insert a compatible or non-original ink cartridge into a Canon printer, it's likely that the printer will detect this and give an error message to that effect. The message may be 'non-original cartridge detected' or non-original Canon cartridge detected’, either way it won’t let you proceed with printing.

The first thing you can do is remove the cartridge and try re-inserting it to see if the printer will recognise it, if it still not recoginise the cartridge then simply hold down the stop button (this is the button with the triangle inside a circle) for 5 seconds. This will disable the printer’s cartridge recognition facility and you should be able to print happily without any further interruption. It may be that the ink volume will not display after you have done this (although sometimes it will anyway) but that is a minor inconvenience when you weigh up the savings on the cost of the ink cartridges. If the printer says the cartridge is damaged or will still not recoginise the cartridge then remove the cartridge and gently wipe with a dry soft cloth the copper area for the cartridge (the 'chip') to remove any static that may have accumulated on it and re-insert to see if it will work.

The vast majority of the compatible Canon ink cartridges will work first time but on occasion you might have to try a bit of trouble-shooting to get it going. It’s also possible that the cartridge may be faulty so if you have tried all of the above suggestions then if you have a second cartridge then it would be time to try that. If you don’t have a second cartridge then contact your supplier to see if a replacement cartridge can be issued but make sure you make a note of the error messages that are coming up on the printer each time you insert the ink cartridges as this will help them identify what the problem is. If you are covered by a money-back guarantee then you will have no problem and you will find that the supplier will do all they can to resolve the issue for you but will refund the money to you (after the return of the faulty cartridge) if they run out of options.

All good online ink cartridge suppliers will do all they can to help and usually will resolve the situation and you will be happily printing with Canon compatible ink cartridges that didn’t cost the earth!

Source: https://printerinkcartridges.ie/blog/tips-to-solve-compatible-canon-ink-cartridges-not-recognised-issue/

How to Overcome Problems When Changing from Original to Compatible Epson Expression T1811 Ink Cartridges

Initially when you change over, most likely your black cartridge first, you may get the ink status monitor showing an error with RED X over the black ink section. This will prevent your printing job taking place.

The software is detecting non-Epson cartridges and will be offering you opportunities to only use Epson ink. To resolve this issue, you can try the following actions:

• If you still have it, replace the original Epson T1811 ink cartridge in the tray
• Close the lid
• Power down the printer, leave it off power for 2 minutes
• Power up the printer
• Raise the lid on printer so you can see the ink carousel
• Press the ink button on front right (has a teardrop image)
• The ink carousel will go to an arrow pointer in the middle of the track

This pointer tells you which cartridge to replace first. Replace this one now with the compatible cartridge. Wipe the chip area inside the ink tray and on your cartridge first.

• If it black to be changed shake the black T1811 ink cartridge for a few seconds first.
• Do not shake the other colours.
• Now press the tear drop button again
• If it goes to a second cartridge at the pointer, change this one as the first above.
• Close the lid. Select a print job
• Print

You can at this stage disable the INK STATUS MONITOR function on your printer.

Doing this will prevent the window appearing on your monitor telling you to buy Epson ink. Disabling this window before following the first procedure will mean you cannot print regardless. It’s recommended you do this for now, and only as and when you see a poor quality print taking place do you go back and re-set the software to identify which cartridge needs replacing and then follow the initial cartridge change as before exactly.

• To disable the INK STATUS MONITOR first identify your printer on your system.
• When you have the printer device on your screen, make sure it is the DEFAULT printer.
• Right click on the printer icon. Go to Printing Preferences
• Go to Maintenance on top column. Click on Extended Settings
• Go to top right column Settings and click on the Tick at Enable Status Monitor 3
• With tick removed the ink monitor is disabled, Click OK to Save

To re-instate the INK MONITOR follow the disable instructions and simply click the monitor setting to brink back the tick and save as before. When you select your next printer job the monitor will show you which cartridge needs replacing.

The above suggestions apply to all Epson Expression printers and in particular the XP205, XP305, XP405, XP322, and XP202 ink cartridges.

Source: http://printerinkcartridges.ie/blog/install-compatible-epson-t1811-ink-cartridges/

Will non-original ink cartridges in Cork work with my Epson Printer?

As the popularity of the non-original or compatible ink cartridges in Cork increases, the demand for generic ink has doubled in recent years. The main concern for most people who have never bought non-original cartridges before is whether the cartridge will work in their printer and how will the quality stand up against the original brand. Addressing the quality of the compatible ink will be the responsibility of any good ink shop in Cork. For everyday general purpose printing the quality of the compatible ink when compared to the original is virtually indistinguishable. If you require photographic quality images printing then it would be advisable to stick with the original brand. There are plenty of good quality compatible cartridges on the market either available from an ink shop in Cork however the best deals for these cartridges will be found online with many suppliers giving away free ink or offering low cost or free delivery.

How to Install Replacement Non-Original Ink Cartridges in your Printer

"Is fitting non-original replacement ink cartridges in my printer any different to replacing the genuine cartridges?" is a common enquiry and the simple answer is no, but it’s possible you may encounter some issues with cartridge recognition. Something to remember is, that when you remove an ink cartridge from your printer either because it’s empty or because it isn’t working, you should always replace it. The reason for this is that you don’t want the print heads to dry out and become a problem later on. If you are replacing the cartridge, always check that it carries the same code as the one you are removing. So, as to avoid putting the incorrect ink cartridge into your printer.

When you are satisfied the ink cartridge is the correct one for your printer, then, unwrap the cartridge paying particular attention to make sure you don’t touch the ‘chip’ with your hands any contamination of the chip may prevent the cartridge from working properly.

Follow Print Head Cleaning Procedure to Get Quality Prints

A common problem with printers is that from time to time it will disappoint you by its poor quality of the documents print outs. The first conclusion people jump to is that the ink cartridge is faulty and replace the cartridge in haste to find that the problem is still apparent. This can happen to any colour cartridge in any printer. The procedure for clearing the blockage is fairly standard and is carried out using the printer maintenance or utility feature. The cause of the ink blockage can be ink drying out in the print head through lack of use or if there is some dried out ink in a new ink cartridge that works it way into the print head and restricts the flow of ink.

Will the ink volume levels display if I use a compatible Epson ink cartridge in my printer?

The Epson compatible ink cartridge is one of the most reliable non-genuine cartridges on the market. The Epson printers will generally accept the compatible version of the cartridge without any issues. The ink volume levels however may not work on all printers, this depends on whether the printer can read the volume levels via the ‘chip’ on the ink cartridge. If not it is safe to print anyway until the ink runs out and just replace when the ink out warning appears.

Very often the cartridge will run until the ink is completely out and then give the message 'cartridge not recognised'. This can be a signal to replace the ink cartridge if the cartridge has been working normally for some time or for what you would consider a normal length of time. If this error message was to appear when you first insert the cartridge then the chances are the cartridge is faulty. The 'chip' that is read by the printer may be damaged, out of position or even missing. In this case try removing and re-installing a few times and if this is still unsuccessful then replace the cartridge.

The print quality of the non-genuine ink cartridge can sometimes be a concern for people who have never used them before. The rule of thumb is that they are fine for every day general printing of text and images. If you are printing photo quality images and the colours are of particular importance then you may notice a slight difference in quality from the original genuine cartridge. In 95% of cases the compatibles are acceptable and the savings of up 70% when compared to genuine cartridges are a big plus. There is also more ink in the compatible ink cartridge than the genuine.

My Brother or HP printer says my ink cartridges are ‘old generation’ and need to be replaced with ’new generation cartridges’

Recently both Brother and HP have made changes to their software in the latest range of printers that will not allow earlier versions of ink cartridge to work in the printer. It’s not common knowledge that many printer brands have more than one printer that uses the same printer cartridge. A good example of this would be the HP364 cartridge. This cartridge works in almost 50 HP printers so is in big demand as a compatible ink cartridge.