Kodak Printer Malfunction

[jonty23]

Hi, Printer not printing anything. New cartridges put in, still nothing. I then cleaned all moving parts and found evidence of a previous ink spill. I cleaned it all up and am now getting the message "new printhead detected,calibration required. load plain paper and press START. I have done that but still not printing. I have tried the Kodal web site, but no help there, so if anyone can give me any idea how to sort this out, I would very much appreciate it. Kind regards, Jonty.

[Buenchico]

I have a feeling that you're shortly going to be looking for a new printer but, first, have you uploaded your printer's diagnostics to Kodak UK to see if they can help you?

Select 'all-in-one printers' here and then follow the upload instructions that will appear. Then click 'Continue':
http://support.en.kodak.co.uk/app/contact/selected/true

[jonty23]

Hi Buenchico, I think you are correct, I need a new printer. Answer from Kodak-unable to upload diagnostics data to Kodak .com
Any suggestions as to what is a good relatively inexpensive home printer that does not use too much ink. Many thanks, Jonty.

[Buenchico]

There have been countless threads here about selecting the best printer, with Canon models frequently championed over others. The technical press also seem to give Canon their 'best buy' awards more often than any other manufacturer.

The problem with buying the cheapest printers (from any manufacturer) is that they normally use just a single cartridge for all of the colours and its hard to buy 'compatible' replacements for them really cheaply, so my own preference would be to pay slightly more for a printer that uses separate cartridges for each ink colour and then be able to buy my inks fairly cheaply.

I actually use a Canon Pixma MG5350 which use 5 separate ink cartridges. That might sound as if it would be expensive but I can buy a set of all 5 for £6.95, or 4 full sets for £20.00 (so that's just £1 per cartridge!), from my favourite supplier.

That model has now been superseded by the Pixma MG5550 which, for around £50, is an amazingly good printer:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/printers-ink/printers-scanners/all-in-one-printers/canon-pixma-mg5550-all-in-one-wireless-inkjet-printer-21732484-pdt.html#srcid=11026

Compatible inks for it are a bit dearer than for mine (but still only work out at £1.50 per cartridge if you buy 4 sets of 5 for £30.00):
http://www.inkredible.co.uk/canon-pixma-mg5550-ink-cartridges
(I can highly recommend that supplier, both for the quality of their inks and for their excellent fast service).

So its the Canon Pixma MG5550 that I'd be opting for if I had to buy a new printer right now. (The MG3250, which has also been widely praised in the technical press, is a tenner cheaper but you'd quickly lose far more than that when replacing the inks).

[jonty23]

Hi Buenchico, sorry to trouble you again. Today I purchased a canon pixma mg4250 printer. Now working ok but will not print from my computer. I telephoned Canon helpline and they said they could rectify it but at a cost of £60. Apparently the problem was my Windows 7 was not compatible, despite details on the carrying box saying it was. I telephoned the seller PC World, and they said Canon were wrong but could not think of anything to help. Either I find another ,MG 5550 perhaps. Any thoughts? Kind regards, Jonty.

[Peter Pedant]

My lexmark was showing the dreaded and possibly fatal AIOC,exe error and I have to agree than Pixma had an excellent write up

then the ctr blew up and the lexmark functioned wonderfully with the new thing ( windows 8 ) even tho it wasnt compatible - the recd wisdom being try it and see