Number 297 - February 2008

The Cartridge Family
by Grant Fuller, Big Blue and Cousins: The Greater Victoria PC Users' Association, December 2007
We're beat. I hate to admit it. I come from more innocent times when fairness was something to strive for. Family values were not measured by the Sopranos but by families with more law-abiding objectives.    I hate to give up without a fight but I do not hold much hope for us. If you have a printer that functions well by refilling cartridges, keep it. Repair it when it becomes necessary and show it your unconditional love. The new printers come with chips on the cartridges that the "dealers" say are for telling us when our ink levels get low. Those chips also tell the printer to stop printing after a certain number of nozzle firings or page counts and I strongly suspect that one of my printers is set to refuse a cartridge that was removed and replaced.	I bought some replacement cartridges that were substitutes at a much better price than the gouging name branders, but the trick to beating the dealers required me to remove the chip from the old cartridge and put it on the new one. This is much easier than it sounds, an exacto knife can pop the chip out of its little plastic holder, and it can then be slipped into the ready and waiting slot on the new cartridge.    I replaced the colour cartridges and the printer began flashing lights in the tank bed as each cartridge was replaced. It took me a while to figure out what it was trying to tell me but I should have known right away. I assumed that my chip replacement skills were not up to par or maybe I had been swindled while attempting to swindle the other swindlers. Out of curiosity, I took one of my black cartridges out (this printer has two blacks) and checked it for ink, still lots. I replaced it and the blinking light began on this slot as well. The same thing happened with the other black.    Apparently, there is more going on with this little chip than meets the eye. Well, actually, nothing meets the eye, it's all too small, but this new aggravation raises the stakes. Now the ink re-filling industry has a chip resetter that we can buy which presumably sets the chip to its original state where it says to the printer, "I am brand new and full." I have not tried this but I would like to hear from anyone who has, preferably, if you have had success. If I can find a way to beat these printers I own, I will keep them in good repair. The price of ink for inkjets is beyond outrageous and some people are getting very rich. I can only try to imagine what wonderful gifts we would find under the tree of the Cartridge Family this year.    Copyright (c) 1990-2008 by Big Blue and Cousins: The Greater Victoria Personal Computer Users' Association.
Number 297 - February 2008