Proper upkeep and maintenance of your laser printer will keep it working properly for many years. With a little bit of time, and these 4 tips, you can keep your laser printer printing as well as it did the day you took it out of its box.

Get in the habit of performing these tips on a monthly basis. You can also use them to correct printing problems such as streaking, gaps in printing, and toner smears.

Tip #1 – Clean the inside of your printer

Cleaning the inside of your laser printer is very important. Toner is just like dust and will build up over time. To clean the inside of your printer you should:

• Unplug the printer and let it sit for an hour to cool down. If you have  not used your laser printer within the last hour, unplug it and proceed to Step #2.
• Remove the paper trays.
• Open the printer and remove the toner cartridge. To avoid leaking toner, be careful not to shake or tip the cartridge. You should also place it on a piece of newspaper.
• Wipe/dust the interior of the printer with a dry lint free cloth or a clean/dry paint brush. The paint brush will allow you to remove toner from hard to reach areas.
• If your printer has them, wipe the corona wires with cotton swaps dipped in isopropyl alcohol. BE CAREFUL! If you break a wire it is going to be expensive to fix. The corona wire is a charged wire that draws toner off the drum onto the paper.
•  Wipe the rollers with a slightly damp cloth to remove any dust.

Tip #2 – Clean the outside of your printer

Keep the outside of your printer clean too. Use a damp cloth to wipe down the outside of the printer. If you ever spill toner on the exterior of your printer (when changing a cartridge) make sure to wipe it up immediately. It can stain.

Tip #3 – Use high quality toner cartridges and paper

You should always purchase quality toner cartridges for your laser printer. Some say you should only purchase OEM cartridges, while others say remanufactured/compatible toner cartridges are just as good. Which you use is up to you, but just make sure you buy your toner cartridges from a reputable vendor. If you do run in to any problems they will support the cartridge and, often, the printer. The same goes for the paper you use . . . Make sure it is quality. Low quality paper can cause paper jams, smeared prints, and increased toner dust inside your printer.

Tip #4 – Use laser cleaning sheets

Laser cleaning sheets are a great supplement to the above tips. These sheets run through your printer like piece of paper would. Their special surface allows them to pick up exess toner and dust as the rollers pull them through.

Happy Printing!

Are you annoyed by poor quality print outs from your inkjet printer? Ever have prints with missing segments, incorrect colors, or horizontal bands running across your print?

Flaws in your printouts are very common, but the good news is that they can be prevented if you adopt a few routine printer maintenance habits.

TIP #1 – Use your inkjet printer regularly

When  your printer is left unused for long stretches of time, the ink in the print head and nozzles can dry and cause printing flaws such as jagged lines and incorrect colors. To avoid this, try to use your printer at least once per week.

TIP #2 – Perform nozzle checks

If you leave your printer unused for a long period of time, you should perform a nozzle check before you use it again. This will make sure your printer prints normally. The nozzle check can often be run thorough your printer’s utility function. Your printer’s user manual will have specific directions.

TIP #3 – Clean the print heads

If your nozzle is clogged, cleaning the print heads should fix any poor print quality issues. Cleaning utilities come with your printer drivers. Some printers even have a print head cleaning button on their control panel. Your printer’s user manual will have specific directions.

TIP #4 – Align the print heads

If your printouts have vertical lines or horizontal bands this generally means that your print head needs to be aligned. This utility can be found with your printer drivers or in your printer control panel. When you align the print heads, the printer will print a pattern on a piece of paper. You then follow prompts from your printer to adjust the pattern. Specific information for performing a print head alignment can be found in your printer’s user manual.

TIP #5 – Replace your inkjet cartridges

Flawed printouts can often be caused by cartridges that are low on ink. Your printer will prompt you when a black or color cartridge reaches a certain level of ink. Printer manufactures say you should replace your cartridge when you receive this warning because print quality will suffer if you don’t. When replacing your printer cartridges, be sure your purchase the correct replacement cartridge and install it as your printer’s user manual directs. Incorrect installation can cause more flawed printouts.

TIP #6 – Turn your printer off (the correct way)

Leaving your inkjet printer on for extended periods of time can cause clogged nozzles and flawed printouts. After you finish using your printer for the day you should turn it off using the printer’s own power button. In most printers, the power button initiates a process that seals the print head from outside air, preventing clogged nozzles. If you unplug your printer, or turn it off using a power strip, the print head sealing function may not run.

Happy Printing!

Paper jams! A big frustration for all of us who use inkjet printers. Here’s a few tips to help prevent them.

Tip #1
Paper leaves dust on the rollers, and two sided paper leaves ink residue. To clean your rollers get a bottle of rubbing alcohol and some cotton swabs. Open your printer door and find a metallic bar with some rubber wheels on it. Those are the rollers. Gently place the cotton swab (with alcohol already on it) on the roller. Now, push the paper feed button on your printer and the rollers will begin moving. Let the cotton swab rub on the roller as it moves. Repeat this a few times for each roller.

Tip #2
Allow the paper to feed easier through the printer by leaving a 1/4″ gap between the paper tray guide and the paper in the tray.

Tip #3
Keep the paper more upright and closer to the feed rollers by placing a piece of stiff card stock in the paper feed tray. If you do this make sure you have plenty of paper in your printer so it does not try to pull the card stock through the printer.

Tip #4
Fan your stack of paper before placing it in to the paper tray. This separates the sheets, allowing for the feed rollers to pull a single piece easier. It also releases any excess dust on the paper.

Tip #5
Curl the edge of the first piece in the paper tray. The slight upward curl will help the feed rollers grab the paper easier.

Tip #6
If you are using heavier weight papers (more than 12ml thick) you should check to see if your printer has heavy paper settings. If so, use them! Your printer manual will have more information on this.

Happy Printing!

Disclaimer: These are just paper jam prevention tips, so we can’t assume liability if you use them. Damage could occur. We’ve been using these tips to prevent paper jams for years. So far no problems.

Inkjet printers may look, and feel, like cheap plastic boxes with some electronics inside, but they are quite the opposite. Just look at what you can print with them! They are pretty sophisticated machines. You can’t see what happens while you are printing (if you open the door on the printer, all printing stops), but  you can hear the print head moving back and forth. While it moves, it sprays ink drops, the size of red blood cells, on to predetermined locations on a piece of paper. These drops are sprayed at a rate of thousands per second. Pretty amazing!

To make sure your printer keeps doing an amazing job of printing you need to take care of it. Here’s what you should do.

1) Conduct routine maintenance with your printer software.

Almost all printers have functions called head cleaning and head alignment. The head cleaning function makes sure all ink nozzles are free of obstructions. If the heads are not clean, your printer will begin to print faint in some areas while printing normal in others. Periodic print head cleanings will prevent obstructions and keep your prints looking good. IMPORTANT – If your printer has not been used for a month you should definitely run the print head cleaning utility.

Print head alignment is a software routine that requires a little help from you. When you align your print head, you are making sure all the nozzles are pointing the right direction and firing in the right place. You’ll need to make sure that your printer has paper in the paper tray, then look at the print out after the alignment has run. If you see repeating white lines or grid patterns your print heads are still misaligned. Run the alignment utility repeatedly until they disappear. This maintenance step should be performed once or twice a year, or when you see white lines or grid patterns in your print outs.

2) Conduct routine maintenance of your printer’s roller and feed mechanism.

Standard copy printer paper leaves dust as it runs through your printer. Two-sided printer paper will leave a slick inkjet coating on your rollers. Ink, from your cartridge, can over spray and build up on the rollers. Over time the dust, inkjet coating, and over spray will result in streaks, inconsistent paper feeding, paper jams, or paper not feeding at all. All of these things lead to poor print quality, or no prints at all!

To make sure your rollers and feed mechanism always work properly, you should get a bottle of rubbing alcohol and some cotton swabs. First open your printer door then look down the paper tray of your printer. You should be able to see a metallic bar with some rubber wheels on it. Those are the rollers. You should be able to touch them with your fingers. Gently place the cotton swab (with alcohol already on it) on the roller. Now, push the paper feed button on your printer and the rollers will begin moving. Let the cotton swab rub on the roller as it moves. Repeat this a few times for each roller.

After you have cleaned the rollers, use a some canned air to blow any remaining dust and debris out of the printer. This type of maintenance should be done a few times a year, or whenever you notice inconsistent paper feeding.

Happy printing!

Disclaimer: These are just printer maintenance tips, so we can’t assume liability if you use them. Damage could occur. We’ve been using these tips to clean our printers for years. So far no problems.

If you are having some trouble with your Epson printer where can go you for help? Let’s talk about the best places to find Epson printer help.

The first place that will pop in to most of your minds is the Epson website (www.epson.com). After navigating to my local Epson website (North America) I found the easiest way to find information was to use the search box in the upper right corner. I searched for the RX600 and the first result was for technical support. Nice! The technical support screen offers the following options.

Drivers & Downloads
FAQ’s (for the printer)
Troubleshooting Guide
Documents and Manual
Material Safety Data Sheets
Contact Support

A very nice list of services and information, which proved to be quite useful.

The second place that comes to mind for most is their favorite search engine. For most that is Google. If you do a search for ‘Epson Printer Troubleshooting’. Three of the more popular help sites are shown (right under the Epson website); ehow.com, fixyourownprinter.com, and fixya.com.

The information on these three sites are all driven by Epson printer users. Visitors to the sites can post questions or describe the problems they are having. Other members of the community will then share their experiences, hopefully the same as yours, and what they remedied their printer troubles. Chances are your current trouble is something someone else has already experienced. You’ll probably be able to find the help you need within a few minutes.

Most read a title like this, “HP Has Raised Ink Cartridge Prices”, and don’t think to much of it. Cartridge prices are all ready high, right?

Effective July 1, HP raised prices for older DesignJet ink cartridge and print heads by around 10%. This increase is due to the rising cost of production and raw materials.

As discussed in the past, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan are responsible for HP cartridges shortages. The natural disaster could also be responsible for the raw material shortages causing the price increase. The increased cost of crude oil (increased 20% from last year) is another reason. The manufacturing of ink cartridge casings (plastic) and other components in both ink and toner cartridges require crude oil.

This is the perfect cartridge storm! Combine the increased cost of raw materials with a shortage of supplies caused by the Japan earthquake, then add in the rising cost of transportation and HP has unlimited reasons for increasing cartridge prices for as long as they want. Let’s hope they don’t take advantage of the situation.

Hewlett Packard (HP) has introduced their smallest color multifunction printer, the HP LaserJet Pro 100 color MFP M175nw.

This printer has, perhaps, the longest name ever for a printer, but it also contains almost as many features as letters in it’s name. The M175nw is targeted at home office and small-business users with limited workspace. It is only 17 inches wide, 17 inches deep, and 13 inches tall. Easy to fit in small spaces, and easy for one person to move. It features HP ePrint remote printing, allowing users to print from any mobile device (BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm OS).  The M175nw has a 150 sheet input tray, wireless networking, Ethernet connectivity, and a 35 page top loading auto-document feeder. It uses four separate laser toner cartridges.

Other features to note on the new LaserJet include a 150-sheet input tray; wireless networking along with USB 2.0 and Ethernet connectivity; four separate laser ink cartridges; and a 35-page top-loading automatic document feeder for hands-free scanning and faxes.

Multifunction printers always offer a touch screen. HP has decided that this printer does not need a touch screen because it did not get good reviews on their inkjet version of this printer.

The HP LaserJet Pro 100 color MFP M175nw retails for $350.

Back in March I wrote about possible HP cartridge shortages caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan (Possible Printer Ink Cartridges Shortages). While HP doesn’t necessarily manufactured their inkjet and toner cartridges in Japan, they do source components from a partner (Canon) that has a manufacturing facility in Japan. It’s hard to say how hard this partner was hit by the disaster, but it is becoming evident it was hard enough to cause shortages in some of HP’s more popular printer cartridges. In March, HP announced that it would be limiting the distribution of some of its toner cartridges.

Here we are, the first day of July, and distributors are seeing (feeling the effects) of the limited distribution. First the good news, HP has lifted the restriction on the 78A (C6578A) printer ink cartridge. Now for the rest of the news!

The HP 85A Black Toner Cartridge (CE285A) is still in very short supply. So is the high yield HP CE250X Black Toner Cartridge. Distributors are finding both of these cartridges to be very hard to come by. Consumers should be seeing the same.

If you typically shop at the larger office super stores you may not see the effects of this shortage. HP, as most businesses, will always make sure the shelves of their largest suppliers are always stocked. If you prefer to buy your cartridges from other vendors, you may find yourself being forced to look to someone new. Don’t expect your current cartridge vendor to have these cartridges in stock.

Finally, if you learn that an order you placed for one of these cartridges is back ordered, make sure you check with the vendor to see when they expect to have the cartridge back in stock. Despite what you are told, make sure you have a contingency plan in place. The vendor may have a time line, but HP’s supply restrictions will dictate what that actual time line is. Unfortunately, it is out of the vendor’s hands.

You want to recycle your printer cartridges? Use the links below to get more information on recycling your inkjet or laser toner printer cartridges.

HP - http://www.hp.com/recycle
HP offers  an easy way to recycle HP brand computer equipment, printing cartridges, and rechargeable batteries.

Lexmark - http://www.lexmark.com/recycle
Lexmark offers services for recycling your empty inkjet cartridges, toner cartridges, and printers.

Dell - http://www.dell.com/recycle
Dell offers services for recycling printer cartridges, computers, and printers.

Canon - http://www.canon.com/recycle
Canon offers recycling services for toner cartridges only.

Epson – http://www.epson.com/recycle
Epson offers recycling services for printers, scanners, projectors, and more.

Xerox - http://www.xerox.com/recycle
Xerox offers services for recycling toner cartridges.

All of the above services will provide you with a paid shipping labels you can use to send your empty cartridges or hardware to the manufacturer. If you are looking to get a little something in return for your recycling efforts, you might want to try out the recycling programs offered by the office superstores.

Staples - http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/products/3dollar_inkrecycle/
Staples offers rewards points for select printer cartridges. They are currently offering $2 per empty cartridge with a max of 10 cartridges per month.

Office Depot - http://www.officedepot.com/a/promo/pages/0912_green/
Office Depot’s Worklife rewards programs rewards customers for recycling printer cartridges.

Last week I told you about a printer you should avoid. This week I need to balance that off and tell you about a printer you should consider buying. It’s not good practice to tell you what not to do, then fail to give you an alternative that you can do.

That said, get yourself an Epson WorkForce 840 printer. For everything that last week’s Dell printer was not, this printer is.

Let’s start with cost. Epson’s suggested price on the 840 is $299.00, higher than your average All-in-One printer but the additional features it offers makes up for that. Make sure you take some time to search the web though, this printer can be found for as low as $185.00. You’ll pay shipping on that price, but will still be well below the $299.00 mark.

This printer is fast and produces great quality prints. The additional features that make is worth the higher price include autoduplexing (2 sided printing), built in wireless networking, support for mobile printing, an autodocument feeder, and ports that make USB and wired network setup easy. Keep in mind that while the printer does come with USB and Ethernet ports, it does not come with cables. That’s an added expense you will have to assume.

For those that hate having to replace the paper in your printer, the WorkForce 840 can hold a whole ream of paper in its paper tray!

The 3.5 inch color LCD makes using the printer easy because Epson has grayed out buttons that aren’t to be used on a particular screen.

If you are in the market for a new All-in-One printer, the WorkForce 840 might just be for you. Head out to a retail store and check it out before you do any online shopping.