Trouble using refilled ink cartridges

Bill Myrick · Post by **Bill Myrick** » 12 Jul 2009 3:49 am

I have two HP printers 6310 all in one and Photo Smart D5160 for printing CD s . When I use a refilled ink cartridge the printers sometimes makes me jump through all kind of hoops before they will go on and print the job. This is particularly true with the photo smart. I am running Vista home edition in my computer. It will usually give me a "problem with inker" message and I have to unplug, reboot and mess around and finally it will go ahead and print.
Is there some way I can set it to not recognize the used inker or is this something I need to live with ?? Thanks, Bill.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 Jul 2009 5:11 am

Most ink cartridges are "smart cartridges" and have an internal IC. One of the things the IC does is determine what the ink level is in the cartridge and reports this to the printer. Unless you have a device to reprogram the internal IC (and I've only saw one for a Canon that was referenced on here, no where else) once it detects, for example low ink, there is no way to reset it and thus the printer will always display low ink. Places that refill cartridges such as WalGreen's, Office Max, etc or that sell refill kits don't tell you this.

This is the manufacturers way of making you buy a new OEM cartridge. They sell the printers at or near cost and then make the profit off of the ink cartridges.

Bottom line, if you want to use the refilled cartridges you will have to live with the inconveniences. Refilling a cartridge before it gets to the "low ink" or "out of ink" condition won't help as the IC is programmed to count ink drops and after it has calculated "X" number of drops it will report for example the out of ink condition.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 12 Jul 2009 6:15 am

I have an Epson Photo printer and think the cartridges are rather high priced from Epson. Lately, I have benn buying "reconditioned" cartridges from an online sounce and, so far, haven't encountered any problems.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 Jul 2009 8:34 am

The Epson's are a different design. Places that refill cartridges will not fill Epson's. I have two Epson's that print on CD's - an all in one and a printer (both take the 78 series cartridges). I've bought some of the "remanufactured" cartridges and they worked OK, but it looked like they were really new cartridges just marketed that way to get around any problems. They were made in China (I think). The "remanufactured" were very slightly different color and it was noticeable on photo prints. Just looking at them they were OK but comparing them to ones that were printed with Epson cartridges there were slight variations.

Don Sulesky · Post by **Don Sulesky** » 13 Jul 2009 3:19 am

I have the HP Photo Smart C5280 that I use for printing and for CDs.
I find that it does a great job and I don't get CD jams like I did with my Epson.
The major fault I find with the HP is that I'm always buying black ink each month although the ink is cheaper than it was for my Epson.
I always keep a spare black Cartrige in case I run out of ink.
Jack is right about selling the printers near cost.
I worked in the camera industry for 31 years and we sold the cameras near cost but the instant film was very expensive and was where the profit was made.
Don

Doug Rolfe · Post by **Doug Rolfe** » 13 Jul 2009 6:45 am

I have a photosmart 7250 and buy my refills at a place called "cartridge world" in the INDY area. They reprogram the chip and I am having no problems with it. It is considerably cheaper than buying new ones

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 15 Jul 2009 4:13 am

I'm now using a Kodak AiO 5100 printer (about $99 2 years ago) and their black cartridge cost $9.++, and the color cost $14.++.

Those prices are still the same today. I just bought a black cartridge about 3-4 weeks ago.

Of course, the 5100 doesn't come with a lot of bell's and whistles, but the printing quality is excellent. Good enough for me.