Second, there are tools out there that can reset the computer chip in Epson print cartridges so that the printer will recognize it as a new cartridge. You should also be refilling the cartridge when you do this, so it actually will be full when it registers as full. See, these cartridges have no capability of actually measuring the amount of ink left, so they measure how much they've been used instead, and save that to the onboard chip. Once the chip reads empty, the cartridge won't print anymore.

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I've sent my share of inkjet printers to the grave over the years. If the print head is built in, then sooner or later it will clog so badly it can't be fixed, and that's that.

That's a dirty trick with the cartridges - I've had several printers that would guesstimate the ink level and tell you it was empty, then if you just reinstalled the cartridge you'd find there was another third to half left.

Anyway, I don't print a lot now, but I gave up and bought a little desktop Samsung laser printer for $60. I picked up a spare toner for $70. As long as the opened toner doesn't leech too much moisture from the air and clump up, it should be able to survive long periods of no printing quite easily. It can also put out a huge volume of great looking, water resistant (no smearing or blurring) pages very fast. The fuser isn't replacable so eventually 100,000 to 200,000 pages later it may start giving me dirty output, but I'm not too concerned since a new fuser for say, an HP 4xxx costs 4x as much as the whole printer.

I guess if color is needed, HP is the way these days because they still put printheads on the cartridges for some models. It's worth the cost if you don't want to replace your whole printer every year.

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they've got a lovely racket there....

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In actually a lot of cases, you'll find out that after a year, you would have compensated the extra bucks that the laser printer costs with the economy on those f***ing expensive inkjet cartridge.

Oncce, a consultant of a company specialized in printing solution told me that HP and others don't make any money from their inkjet printers... but they make huge loads of cash over the cartridges (he mentionned margins around 80%)

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Canon comes in at a close second.

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