Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe NYC who wrote (77830)	4/20/2002 4:32:27 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 275872

RE:"I have had both, Epson and HP, and over the life of both, Epson cartridges ended up a lot more expensive, since I had to dump the printer after using up about 2 cartridges. HP is still working fine" I used HP for years. It was costing a fortune. I even tried filling my own. No more than a few fills and the print heads went bad. Then I bought a new Canon 630, later a 750, greatest things since sliced bread. Cartridges are easy to fill. Just buy the bulk ink, pull the plug, fill and tape. Filled the same cartridges 20-30 times saving hundreds even thousands of dollars vs HP cartridges. You can easy see the level of the ink as the cartridges are transparent. Canon uses 3 color ink tanks as well where as if you run out of one color in an HP color cartridge you are done. OEM Canon cartridges are 40% less than OEM HP cartridges but unlike HP there are aftermarket Canon cartridges for as little as 3-4 dollars per color. HP literally fibs about the amount of ink you have left. I pulled a HP black cartridge the other day when it said...low 10% left. In fact the cartridge had 40% of it's capacity left! What a rip! If you are h*ll bent on HP and do a lot of printing there are retrofit, continuous feed systems for about $100. Same for Canon but as easy as they are to refill dunno if it's worth it. Each Canon printer is chugging along at about 2000pages per month.

To: Joe NYC who wrote (77830)	4/20/2002 4:54:08 PM
From: Petz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

(OT - printers) Joe, I had the same problems with Canon printers. If you didn't use them for a few weeks, the printhead had to be replaced at about $60. Eventually that didn't even work. I'm sticking with HP. Petz

To: Joe NYC who wrote (77830)	4/20/2002 9:52:43 PM
From: Bill Jackson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Jozef, There is a guerilla war going on against the replacement ink makers. Ink = monster cash cow, and the printer makers feel that the other fake inkmakers are treading on motherhood, Apple Pie and the American flag. Newest tech is internal chips in the print head that meter useage and kill themselves after one tankful has gone empty. All makers will go this route soon as it gives a lock on replacement cartridges. That chip is the driver bubble driver, when it suicides = cartridge is toast. A lot depends on the volume. If you print a few pages per day you can refill most cartridges with no terminator mechanism quite a number of times. If you let them dry out it takes work and the channels never come all the way clear(I think they put some kind of polymer in there so that when it dries it is like paint.....cross linked and it will not wash out, although a mild alkali like household ammonia might free some that are intractable to alcohol since the ammonia ion is quite small and penetrates the semi cured 'paint', and makes it amenable to flushing) I have a good old laserjet 5 that is an iron horse and if I need color I have a friend who uses a 1200 DPI Epson photoprinter daily. I also have a dried out printer graveyard....I cannot quite bring myself to toss them, nor can i justify buying a set of cartridges for a few prints. Color lasers are OK, but I have so little need. There are people who sell replacement color cartridges for the HP in the three primary colors. That allows you to print color with sequential printing under quark or photoshop, but the registration is poor as they were never built for that task. 25 DPI in 3 color mode + 1 black is about all you can get out of them. OK for short brochures with trapped color and little halftoning. But I do not want to do that either. Color lasers are around $500 bottom end now, but even at that price I do not need one. Bill.