New printer

[misi]

My good old Epson Workforce gave up did not respond to the order to print.
Maybe something's wrong with my PC?
Connected to the other PC and tried to print.
Same result, nothing.
OK, no problems, my other printer will do the job.
It's an Epson photo printer, the ink is a little expensive, but for about 30 pages of text it's affordable.
It printed 3 pages then the rest came out with a few lines on them.
Have to buy some black ink for it...
Hmmm...Not available from any shop around my area, only from Epson for $28 plus delivery...
OK, look for something else...
Officeworks is selling an Epson Expression Home XP-235 Wireless Inkjet Multifunction colour printer for $59 with a pack of 4 large cartridges.
Bought it .
Bought an extra cartridge of large black ink for $31
A pack of 4 cartridges cost $71.
Whenever I'll run out of ink I won't buy the cartridges rather a new printer.

Installed it, working great.

 

[aye-aye-Chris]

The fatherless children printer companies have lowered themselves even further with ink, it's cost and policies.

The initial cartridges*** supplied used to be "half" full, or thereabouts with a lower capacity product, but they have improved on that to their benefit.

I have 2 Epson printers, an Artisan 730 and a Work Force WF-2660. The newer of the 2 is the WF-2660 and the cartridges that came with it are for initialising only.

"What?" I hear you say. "What does that mean?"

What it means is the cartridges initialise the ink jets to prepare them for use, the remaining ink in the cartridges is to confirm that all is well. It also means there ain't much ink left, you gotta buy a replacement set, and that means you might as well get them when you buy the printer.

I have been using my Artisan 730 for about 4 years and haven't bought a cartridge for it yet, I did for the WF-2660, but that's another story* and now I don't need to buy any for that either, matter of fact is Mossie wore that printer out** and we had to get a same model replacement.

"How?" I hear you ask. "How the fork do you manage with not buying cartridges?" you scream at me.

I use CISS from Rihac (My recommended brand). After about 2 years of using this with my Artisan 730 I had to buy more ink (Ink, not cartridges). After refilling my 'tanks' I still have some ink left for another refill. Similar with the WF-2660 but in a shorter time-frame because of **(see below)




Sadly Misi, your new printer isn't supported. (yet?) The XP-200 & XP-220 are though.

* My WF-2660 wasn't initially supported so I had to buy cartridges until it was.

** Mossie printed some knitting patterns full colour with full page photos, umm... a few patterns... well... lots of them. Well into a 2nd box of paper. I can't find the recommended PPPM (Printed Pages Per Month) usage but I'm sure she exceeded it, by a long shot.

***From Epson for the WF-2660 - not shown is the Initialising Cartridges 220I

INK CARTRIDGES & YIELDS
STANDARD INK CARTRIDGES 220 Black, 220 Cyan, 220 Magenta, 220 Yellow

HIGH CAPACITY INK CARTRIDGES 220XL Black, 220XL Cyan, 220XL Magenta, 220XLYellow

STANDARD INK CARTRIDGE YIELDS^^ Approx. Black 175 pages, Colour Composite 165 pages

HIGH CAPACITY INK CARTRIDGE YIELDS^^ Approx. Black 500 pages, Colour Composite 450 pages

 

[misi]

The fatherless children printer companies have lowered themselves even further with ink, it's cost and policies.

The initial cartridges*** supplied used to be "half" full, or thereabouts with a lower capacity product,

That's what I thought when I bought the 235.
Bought the black ink to be enough ink to print the 30 pages.

but they have improved on that to their benefit.

It was a real surprise to see the XL on the included cartridges...
I printed already about 50 pages and only from the black cartridge is missing a little.
(very, very, very little)

Sadly Misi, your new printer isn't supported. (yet?) The XP-200 & XP-220 are though.

Don't tempt me!!!

The photo printer ended up in the garbage bin, for the Workforce I don't buy ink because I don't know what's wrong with it.
Going to the rubbish when the council collects the hard waste next time.
Too big to put to the bin.

Thanks for the tip about CISS!

 

[foxidrive]

I use a laser printer at home, but I only print pr0n and that's to send to the local pollie.
I send a colour picture of an rsole once a month.

Nah, kidding. But I do only use a colour laser printer coz I print vary rarely.

 

[misi]

I use a laser printer at home,

For how much can you refill it?

 

[foxidrive]

For how much can you refill it?

I've never done that misi so I don't know.

 

[foxidrive]

To respond to Chris' point which I crapped all over, the CISS is a good thing for those who print a whole lot .

I had inkjet printers and the head clogged with hardened ink because I rarely printed anything.

 

[aye-aye-Chris]

... for the Workforce I don't buy ink because I don't know what's wrong with it.
Going to the rubbish when the council collects the hard waste next time.
Too big to put to the bin.

Before it goes to landfill, what model workforce?

Thanks for the tip about CISS!

No problem... btw, Epson now has their own CISS big tank system with some printers. It's one way to do it without you having to fit it yourself.

They "promise" about 2 years printing from the supplied system but they are about $500 whereas Rihac is an add-on for less than $150 with ink enough for 2 years****

In Mossie's case, she wore the printer out before the CISS did. The replacement is running great with the old CISS.

**** in my experience.

 

[aye-aye-Chris]

To respond to Chris' point which I crapped all over, the CISS is a good thing for those who print a whole lot .

Or for those who want to.

I had inkjet printers and the head clogged with hardened ink because I rarely printed anything.

*raises hand* Ooh ooh ooh... another Epson secret.... shhhh... power cycle the printer ~weekly, it gives the heads a little flush and then clean, this doesn't use as much ink as a regular head clean and prevents clotting/blocking..

Pssst, with a CISS, a normal or extended head clean doesn't use as much a percentage of ink as doing it with a OEM cartridge does. i.e 2% of 200ml against 2% of 25ml as an outrageous example.

 

[misi]

Before it goes to landfill, what model workforce?

Workforce 435

About a month ago I could print with it without black ink.
It asked my permission to mix black from the other colours.
The print was perfect.

About a week ago I wanted to use it again, it didn't give any error message,
it took ages to process the picture without doing anything, just round, round, round....
Cannot check how much ink is left, shows nothing.

I can copy a document with it manually, without the computer, seems nothing wrong with it.
How long would last the ink in it? Dunno.
I don't risk to buy any cartridges for it.

 

[aye-aye-Chris]

Workforce 435 .... I don't risk to buy any cartridges for it.

Okies, thank you. And I agree, put good money after bad.

 

[foxidrive]

shhhh..

I can copy a document with it manually, without the computer,

I'd have given it a go on another computer just to-be-sure, to-be-sure.

 

[misi]

I'd have given it a go on another computer just to-be-sure, to-be-sure.

Done:

Connected to the other PC and tried to print.
Same result, nothing.

Round, round, all around...

Dead as a ...dead fish...

 

[foxidrive]

Dead as a ...dead fish..

I had a look at the specs - which interface are you using to connect to the printer?

I'm only asking because there are reasons it could happen and you didn't give those details about it - where you've said that the printer itself is functional.

The printer may be in wireless mode and you're using USB, for example.
Or you use wireless and the wireless security settings were changed at some point.

Other situations are possible too. Not that it matters I guess.

 

[misi]

I had a look at the specs - which interface are you using to connect to the printer?

Using it with USB.

The printer may be in wireless mode and you're using USB, for example.
Or you use wireless and the wireless security settings were changed at some point.

Funny...Cannot change the settings through the PC.
It's not giving any error message, just do not work.
I'll try to check them manually pressing the buttons on it.
Thank you for the tip!

The wireless new printer successfully murdered my touchscreen...
Seems they don't like each other.
Disabling the startup Epson status monitors solved the problem.

 

[foxidrive]

Funny...Cannot change the settings through the PC.
It's not giving any error message, just do not work.

There's often an issue with software itself that makes things go wrong.
Uninstalling the printer software and reinstalling the latest software from Epson is worth a shot too.

http://tech.epson.com.au/downloads/category.asp?sCategory=Multi_Functional&id=WorkForce435&SelOS=Y

Disabling the startup Epson status monitors solved the problem.

That was the drivers that murdered your touchscreen. The printer itself is blameless.

 

[misi]

That was the drivers that murdered your touchscreen.

Road rage...Shoot the buggers!

The printer itself is blameless.

 

[misi]

There's often an issue with software itself that makes things go wrong.
Uninstalling the printer software and reinstalling the latest software from Epson is worth a shot too.

Done.
No improvements.

There is nothing else left but the hardware.
Can be the machine, can be the USB cable.

 

[foxidrive]

There is nothing else left but the hardware

The USB cable could certainly be cactus. I have three dozen of those cables.

There are further things that can be ruled out if you enjoy technical puzzles.

If you check that the printer is visible in Device manager, is there an entry for it?



Can you setup the wireless part of the printer - in case the USB bit is broken but it will still work on the wireless part?

Turning off the modem wireless password for 10 minutes is the most reliable way to test the wireless. Passwords and encryption are then not complicated parts of the setup during the brief test period.

 

[misi]

The USB cable could certainly be cactus. I have three dozen of those cables.

I have only one from the photo printer, I'll try that. Hope it fits.

If you check that the printer is visible in Device manager, is there an entry for it?

Yes, the entry is there.

Can you setup the wireless part of the printer - in case the USB bit is broken but it will still work on the wireless part?

I'll try that only as the last resort. (Don't want to brake my screen again)