For the last 10 years I’ve been telling people that the best way to clear a cartridge’s clogged print head is to soak the print head in a shallow dish of warm water. This tip has worked very well, and saved numerous cartridges for the trash can.

Now comes an update to this tip, thanks to Sanford in Buffalo, NY.

Instead of using a shallow dish of warm water, use a hair dryer. Here’s how you do it.

If ink has dried in the nozzles of your cartridge, remove the cartridge from your printer and run a hair dryer over it for a few minutes. You’ll want to do this until the cartridge is warm to the touch. While the cartridge is still warm, put it back in your printer and start printing.

The heated air, from the hair dryer, thins out the ink, allowing it to flow through the nozzle and helps clear any thick dried ink from the nozzle.

I’m going to put my usual disclaimer on this post. I do not guarantee this to work, but is definitely worth trying if you’ve got a cartridge you need to print with.

Let me know how it worked for you. Thanks!

Okay, here’s the scenario . . .

It’s 3:00 am. You’ve just finished creating a report for the office, or a term paper for class (you pick). You’ve got to print it out and then get a few hours of sleep before you start your day. You click the print button and receive the dreaded message – your printer is out of ink!

Now what?

Well, there are a few places that stay open 24 hours a day and carry printer cartridges, but I suggest you try the following before rushing out the door in to the dark of night.

TIP #1: Using your computer, open your printer’s control panel and see which cartridge is showing as out of ink. Open your printer and remove this cartridge. Once removed, give it a few vigorous shakes and put it back in your printer. See if you can print.

A quick note about shaking: Ink may spatter from the cartridge when you do this, so make sure you are somewhere that is “spatter safe”. Better yet, before you shake the cartridge, hold it within a paper towel.

TIP #2: If Tip #1 did not work, there is still some hope. Remove the same cartridge you just shook and place a strip of clear Scotch tape over the copper/gold colored contact points on the cartridge. Put the cartridge back in your printer and try to print. This just might fool the printer and let you finish printing.

If Tip #2 does not work, then you really are out of ink. It is now time to head out the door and find a 24 hour store that sells cartridges. Sorry!

Keep in mind these tips are not guaranteed to work, so don’t get upset if they don’t. But, if I can save you an hour or two of sleep, it’s all good!

Take a minute and share your late night printer ink tips. Thanks!

We’ve added the Canon CLI-226 series of black and color ink tanks to the web site.

You should use genuine Canon CLI ink for long lasting, beautiful photos and documents. The CLI-226 Black and color ink tanks offer an amazing color gamut and color fastness. The individual ink tank system increases efficiency because you only replace the ink tank you use.

Canon CLI-226 Black Ink Tank

Canon CLI-226C Cyan Ink Tank

Canon CLI-226M Magenta Ink Tank

Canon CLI-226Y Yellow Ink Tank

Canon PGI-225BK Black Ink Tank

These cartridges feature Canon’s ChromaLife 100+ system for optimal photo print results, and work in: Canon  PIXMA IP482, CanonPIXMA MG5120, CanonPIXMA MG5220, CanonPIXMA MG6120, CanonPIXMA MG8120

I am not talking about those of you who have your home computer (home office) set up in your living room! I’m talking about HP’s goal to put a printer in your living room, right inside to your entertainment center and make it an every day computing delivery device. That’s right, your HP printer right next to your Blu-ray DVD player, your DVR, and your 7.1 surround sound stereo.

HP’s new Envy All-in-One has a detachable 7 inch touch screen that can double as a Web browsing tablet. It is designed for quiet use and to fit in with your entertainment center . . . for your living room. You’ll be able to sit on your couch, browse the web (on the tablet), and print anything you wish, or at least this is what HP hopes you will do. These printers will range in price from $99 to $399.

It seems HP is hopping on board the digital content band wagon and trying to make it easier for consumers to print this content from just about anywhere.  Their benefit? They get to sell you more printer ink!

It is well known that printer cartridges comprise a very large portion of HP’s annual revenues. They more they can get you to print, the more revenues they can earn. So, HP’s plan is to make the print as vital a computing device as your computer is. To help their cause, HP has even formed a partnership with Apple to use their AirPort networking capabilities (called AirPrint). To motivate you to print, HP will be expanding its print apps to include apps from Martha Stewart, United Airlines and a few different recipe sites.

Make room in your “remote boat” you now get to add a 7 inch touch screen to your collection.

What are your thoughts on HP wanting to put a printer in your living room? Take a minute and let me know. Thanks!

When deciding which printer you will buy, you should always calculate what it will cost you to keep that printer filled with cartridges (you need cartridges to print, right?). The best way to do this is by calculating the cartridges cost per page printed. Don’t buy/not buy based on the cartridge’s overall price. It will always seem to expensive.

The common practice for printer cartridge manufacturers is to tell how how many pages you can expect to print with the cartridge. Keep in mind this is only an approximate number. The actual number of pages you get will depend on what you print. So, when looking at a printer cartridge box, you will see “Yields up to 540 pages”.

Here’s the catch on this number. We are hoping printer ink cartridge manufacturers are an honest bunch, but if they were to print in draft mode while establishing this number, it would actually be higher that the number of pages you would get (unless you printed everything in draft mode too).  This page yield number would also come out higher if the printer cartridge manufacturer tested using a lower print resolution and a less dense type face.  They should be conducting their tests and developing their page yield number with with printer in standard print mode because this is the mode that 90%  (or more) or printer users print in.

Let’s assume that the number printed on the cartridge box is legit. To calculate your printer in cost per page, you would take the cost of the cartridge and divide it by the number of pages the cartridge will print. Hopefully that number comes out in cents, and the lower the number the better. If you can get 1 cent per page you just did a tremendous job picking your printer (or your math is wrong!). Most people will pay about 2-3 cents per page. If you are in the 4-5 cent range you may want to consider looking at another printer.

What’s your experience been with cost per page. Let me know. Thanks!

With the “sticker shock” most of us experience when it comes to to buy a new printer cartridge, may companies have been working on ways to help consumers save a few dollars when it comes time to buy ink. Here’s one of the latest.

I stumbled upon a company named Ecofont has developed a collection of 15 font styles that are perforated. The characters in the different fonts have little punch holes in the letters, numbers and symbols so, when printed,  they can save up to 25% of your ink (Source: Ecofont). The company also goes on to state that depending on the size of the font you use, are virtually indistinguishable to the naked eye from regular fonts on the computer screen and paper.

The font package and software are not available for purchase yet, but you can download a free sample of one of the fonts. It’s available here.

If you download the font and give it a try, make sure you share your experience with me. Thanks!

Here’s a fun one. Mozy, an online file back up company, conducted a survey in the UK to find out what today’s children tell their teacher when they have not finished their homework. They found that teachers hear at least 20 different excuses in a week.

The all time greatest excuse, “My dog ate it” did not even make the list. Today’s kids are opting for excuses based on technology (e.g., “I finished my homework but deleted it by accident”, “my printer broke”). Technology and computing have changed the way students do their daily school work.

Here are the top 20 most common excuses.

1. I emailed it to you, but I got a bounce-back email

2. I finished my homework but then I deleted it by accident

3. The dog ate it

4. My computer crashed and I lost it

5. My printer broke

6. I finished my homework but was unable to save it

7. My printer ran out of ink

8. My internet was down so I couldn’t do any research or access assignment

9. I spilt my drink on the computer and it broke

10. My house was burgled and my computer was nicked

11. I couldn’t connect my laptop to a printer

12. My computer was hacked and a virus destroyed my hard-drive

13. Windows Vista crashed my laptop and deleted the programme

14. Spilt my dinner over it

15.I lost my laptop

16. Accidently stuck it in the washing machine

17. It fell out of my bag as I walked to school

18. The letters on my keyboard have worn out so couldn’t type

19. Blew out of my hand

20. I put it on top of the TV and the TV blew up

Of course, what would a list like this be without a list of the most entertaining responses.

My goldfish ate it

My pet horse ate it

My keyboard got snapped in half

I went on holiday and airport security took it away

I left it in the sun too long and the ink faded

The dog spilt cake on it

It accidently got put on the bonfire

I put it in the fridge so that I would remember it when I got the milk out for my cereal but I had toast that morning

I was in a car crash

I was walking through the park and a bee stung me so I ran to save myself and dropped my homework

I dropped it in the river and it got caught by the current

My personal favorite . . . “My  goldfish ate it” Imagine the look on the teachers face when he/she hears that. Do you have any excuses that should be on this list? Take a minute to share them. Thanks!

Have a great school year!

September’s coupon codes correspond with events that have happened in world history, no matter how trivial, on the same day the code is released. How many were you able to guess? Answers are below.

CANTON: September 7, 1963 – The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.

CALIFORNIA: September 9, 1850 – California is admitted as the thirty-first U.S. state.

UNATIONS: September 14, 1948 – Groundbreaking for the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

JUSTICE: September 21, 1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court justice.

METER: September 28, 1889 – The first General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defines the length of a meter as the distance between two lines on a standard bar of an alloy of platinum with ten percent iridium, measured at the melting point of ice.

BILLION: September 29, 1916 – John D. Rockefeller becomes the first billionaire.