We have one of the wretched devices that has lived in our garage for at least a year. My darling Marcie now wants to use it and of course it doesn’t work, although it did when I banished it. Is there a way to get the ink flowing in the current cartridges or must I pay the exorbitant price for new ones?
How about re-filling cartridges? Can that actually be done?
You may need to do a deep-cleaning of the nozzles. Chances are, if there were ink cartridges in there the whole time it was in the garage they’ve managed to dry up in the nozzles, mucking them up grandly, as well as having dried-out themselves.
What brand and model is it?
It’s a Lexmark Z32. I expect I should just bite the bullet and get new cartridges, although I can probaly buy a new, working printer for what the dern cartridges cost.
Lexmark has a patent on the cartridge. That’s why it costs you $35 for the cartridge and $40 for a new printer. However, I’ve also noticed that they do tend to put only half filled cartridges in the new printers, which I think they call starter cartridges or something like that.
I’ve heard mixed reviews on refilling cartridges. Some people claim the cartridge never really works right and prints kinda smudgy. Others say it works fine. I’ve never taken a chance on it. There are companies selling refilled cartridges for about half the cost of a new one, which is still kinda steep if you ask me. You can also buy refill kits and try to do it yourself. I’ve heard a lot of bad reviews about doing this though.
I’ve always had great experiences refilling black Lexmark cartridges, for what it’s worth. It’s pretty hard to screw up black ink. In this case, I would suggest setting the cartridge down on a soaking wet paper towel for a few hours, with the print heads down. Hopefully this will cure a clogged up cartridge.
Thanks for the inputs. The printer was a freebie on a new computer purchase. I actually inherited the thing when my father died. If I could, I’d give it back to him. Maybe I can get Marcie to take my OLD HP laserjet 4L so I could get a new one. Probably she’d keep the new one, and make me pay for it. She outsmarts me at every turn.