printers

[mathsteacher]

I have an epson stylus D88 printer. I have just ordered a lot of new inks for it and as I printed out the receipt for the said inks the printer puts up a note saying that it needs a service and something is near the end of its service, Its working perfectly well upto today......out of warranty, cant really afford new printer, live out in sticks, dont know where to get a service..........any suggestions please....is this something I can do myself or should I look for a new printer? many thanks

[ChuckFickens]

well the first thing i'd advice is reading the "notes" it puts up.... what was the something that it said needed a service?

Second thing is stick the new ink cartridges in it when they arrive... that's probably what the something was.

[shazam74]

My wife has just bought me a Canon MP220 from Argos �39.99 for Christmas as my previous MP170 packed up and I must say I can thoughly recommened it.

[daffy654]

I just bought the Canon MP210 and it is great,an all in one printer/copier/scanner.It prints photo quality pictures too :-) It was �44.00 from play.com.

[kempie]

I suspect that the warning was in response to the protection counter (aka waste ink counter).

The ink you lose in cleaning cycles and priming new cartridges has to go somewhere, and your Epson printer keeps track of roughly how much ink it has dumped into some large absorbent pads in the base of the printer. The counter is suggesting that the pads may be full and further use could cause damage or affect printing. Presumably at some time it will just refuse to print, unless the problem is addressed.

Technically, this condition requires an Epson service engineer to resolve. It is however, possible that you could fix it yourself by resetting the printer and clearing the counter of how much ink has gone to those pads.

Not necessarily the correct method to choose, but you could risk resetting the counter via software...

http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml

[mathsteacher]

Hi
Thank you all for your answers.

I use epson printers as I can get the look alike inks....I use loads of them each year so your canon sounds cheap but I know expensive when replacing inks.

I have a seperate scanner, printer and copier set up so they all don't go wrong at once!!!!!
Notice says that some parts ...it doesnt identify which! very helpful.

Now, Kempie I think you could be right....I do use lots of ink and I do a lot of printing for work. I have done what you suggested and printer is printing again but this time carries a big note just saying service needed! How long can I go on using the machine...a couple of hours, days, weeks???
Do I need to do anything else to the printer please?
Dont get paid til end of month so cant replace it yet...should it last out til then?

Many thanks

[kempie]

You could open your printer and replace the pad(s) with some handy absorbent material - note: this will be a messy (and I mean messy) job - or you could choose to ignore and carry on regardless. The counter is an estimate of how clogged the pad has become; there may be capacity for many more years usage.

Your printer may continue to give many thousands more pages of print before it fails or it could die tomorrow. It is impossible to predict how much life remains in the printer before service or replacement is necessary. Not knowing how important or time critical your printing needs are, I would be inclined to use it until it no longer produces the results you want and replace it then.