is the ink running low?

Ron Victoria · Post by **Ron Victoria** » 2 Apr 2009 4:40 pm

When I print a page in black, the bottom few lines are light. I'm not getting any message about low ink and can't find any place to check levels. Is it still the cartridge? I have an HP Deskjet F4180.

thanks, Ron

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 2 Apr 2009 9:32 pm

Ron;
The printer usually tells you about low ink in a pop-up box when you begin a print job. To verify this physically, remove the cartridges from the printer and shake them lightly, away from your person. If you hear ink sloshing around they are not empty. If not, order ink refills, as soon as possible.

Richard Damron · Post by **Richard Damron** » 4 Apr 2009 7:54 am

Wiz -

Please educate this old man - and perhaps a few others.

Tired of paying the exorbitant cost of new cartridges and not wanting to endure the minor hassle of mail-order generics, I had my cartridges filled at Walgreen's - $10 for black and $15 for color. To date, I have not noticed any difference or had any problems with them.

Is there a downside to this of which I'm not aware? Probably should have asked first, right?

Respectfully and with thanks,

Richard

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 4 Apr 2009 10:44 am

Richard. How many times have you refilled a cart? Seems like the way to go if it works.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 4 Apr 2009 2:46 pm

Depending on the construction of the cartridges, you might expect to get about 4 to 6 effective refills before problems arise. Some will happen sooner, others later. I had worse luck when I tried doing my own refills. I have no plans to do that again.

On the other hand, when I had a Canon S520 printer, that used 4 color and 1 black ink cartridges, I bought "compatible" new ones from 123inkjets, at very low prices and with no problems whatsoever. They were not remanufactured or refilled, but manufactured to be compatible and work in the specified printers.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 4 Apr 2009 4:03 pm

On issue with refilled cartridges, unless you have a special programmer device that will reprogram the IC chip inside ink cartridges, is that the "ink counter" cannot be reset. If it showed "low ink" when you refilled it, it will still show "low ink". We get a lot of posts about this on the Dell users forum. The Dell ink jets are basically rebadged Lexmarks except Lexmark ink cartridges will not work, you have to have Dell ink cartridges as the internal IC is coded differently. A global problem we see with Lexmark and Dell cartridges (all made by or for Lexmark) is that the internal IC can get corrupted and when a new cartridge is installed the printer will not recognize it and report "no cartridge", or "incorrect cartridge" for a correct cartridge.

FWIW, the internal "ink counter" actually counts ink "droplets" based on what character is to be printed. The IC is programmed according to the amount of ink that is in a new cartridge and it uses the number of ink droplets to determine when it has "low ink" or "out of ink".

Richard Damron · Post by **Richard Damron** » 4 Apr 2009 6:47 pm

Wiz and Jack -

You've answered my question and allayed any fears that I may have had, Guys. For the type and amount of printing that I do, I can enjoy the luxury of waiting until I notice that something is amiss before I run the six miles to my local Walgreen's.

Visited the 123Inkjets site and have put them in my rolodex for future reference. They look to be OK.

Many thanks,

Richard

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 5 Apr 2009 2:18 am

One issue, if you run the ink completely out (dry) and the nozzles become clogged or damaged the cartridge is done for. Refill before it completely runs out.

(Personally, I don't use refilled cartridges, and with Epson's the places that refill cartridges cannot refill Epson's).

Richard Damron · Post by **Richard Damron** » 6 Apr 2009 1:55 pm

Thanks, Jack.

Ron Victoria · Post by **Ron Victoria** » 6 Apr 2009 4:37 pm

Done deal, Walgreen's, $10, works fine.

ron

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 9 Apr 2009 1:43 pm

I too got fed up with high prices for ink replacements, so decided to buy a newly released Kodak AiO 5100 (about a year ago now)for $99.

Their cartridges are still: $9.+ for black and around $14.+ for the colored.

It's an OK printer. Doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but that's OK by me.

What prompted me to buy into Kodak (their first venture into printers, I believe) was the low cost of the ink cartridges. Lower than most other brands.

FWIW.

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 9 Apr 2009 3:00 pm

Chip, I got a Kodak too. I love the low cost of ink carts for these.
However, my printer has its issues. First off, it doesnt want to default to using the Kodak printer and always reverts back to a Microsoft thing whatever that is. Upon installation, I made sure to use the Kodak as the default. I have to reset in manually every time I go to print.
I recently put new carts in, seeing how the old ones started printing a purple color where pink or red should be. Even with the new carts it still prints the purple. I tried to clean the nozzles and do all the maintenance work available in the printer software...to no avail.
Have you run into a problem like this and do you or others have any suggestions what I can do to correct it?

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 10 Apr 2009 6:10 am

Bent,

I haven't had any issues with the printer as being default (I now have PDF Creator which is listed as a printer, too).

But, I never leave the printer on. I hardly ever print anything anymore like I used to do. But when you do have to print something, it's nice to have. That's why I've always been looking around for a cheap, simple printer. So I guess when I turn it on, it just pops up as "here I am".

However, I did have a printing problem a while back and contacted Kodak support. They were extremely prompt. They figured it was the printhead, right off the bat with the details of the problem I gave them.
They said send us your mailing address and we'll send you another printhead. Two or three days later, the 'head' arrived, postage paid and they never asked me to send back the original printhead.

I did let the empty cartridges sit for a month or so before I decided to get new ones, and so maybe by leaving them in the machine, I inadverntly caused the printhead to clog up or something. Don't know.

Try contacting Kodak Support. I'm sure they'll just send you another printhead, too.

OH, just thought of this now. My printer has acted up funny sometimes in the past; especially when updating (which I stopped doing).
So the way I got things back to normal was, as usual, uninstall/reinstall.

Have you tried doing that?
That's maybe all it will take to line things up, for the default issue.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 10 Apr 2009 8:00 am

Chip;
That was excellent advise and commentary on the Kodak printer.

Huzzah!

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 10 Apr 2009 8:54 am

Thanks Wizardo!

Coming from you, I consider that a real compliment.

I'ze tryin'.

Chipper

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 13 Apr 2009 5:08 pm

Chip, thanks. I will do exactly what you suggested.
(sorry for being late..I forgot about it til the next print job)

I will report back to you on my results.
Bent

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is the ink running low?

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