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Generic Printer Cartridges, Is it Worth It?
By Pinky Mcbanon Platinum Quality Author

The battle for inkjet cartridges rages on – with printer manufacturers insisting that their cartridges are the best and only option for printing and the manufacturers of generic cartridges on the other hand, declaring that their cartridges deliver printouts of as good quality as original cartridges. If you have ever purchased an inkjet printer, and run out of ink, you must have noticed that the cost of one inkjet cartridge sold by the manufacturer of your printer can be as high as 33% of the cost of the printer itself.

Many printer manufacturers sell their inkjet printers at very low cost. The cartridges are expensive to replace – in fact, 3-4 cartridge replacements can cost as much as the printer itself! A printer user would certainly like to cut down on this recurring expenditure while maintaining the ability to generate quality printouts when needed.

This is the reason behind the proliferation of generic cartridges – generic cartridge manufactures claim that their products deliver quality prints that can match those produced using branded ink cartridges at as low as one-fifths the cost.

How reliable are these claims? Can generic printer cartridges provide the cost effective print quality they claim to do? The truth lies somewhere in between.

While generic cartridges give as good quality printouts as original cartridges on normal paper, the differences really show up when printing on high quality paper. Original cartridges give clear, sharp and brighter printouts while generic cartridges tend to yield smeared images on high quality paper, most probably due to the difference in the quality of ink used. Another aspect is the longevity of the printout. Printouts using original cartridges maintain the quality over a much longer duration than those produced by generic cartridges. This is attributed to the research and development efforts of printer manufacturers in maintaining quality of the ink used in original cartridges.

The most important drawback of generic cartridges is the very high incidence of clogged nozzles in the printer. Most of the users of generic cartridges have reported an increase in the frequency of cleaning print heads.

If you want to cut down the cost of printing and are willing to put up with the effort involved in having the print head cleaned frequently, it may be worthwhile to use generic cartridges.

Ms. Pinky is a Computer Support Specialist for more than 25 years. Has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Engineering, MS Research work in Systems Engineering.

Get more free computer tips on her blog at www.computerhelpdeskandsupport.com/

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pinky_Mcbanon class=”related_post”>

A fellow geek purchased a Canon printer recently and, much to his dismay, discovered that it was impossible to operate without first installing the required software. This is one of the reasons I’ve been extremely gunshy about recommending Canon’s consumer products as of late (I’ve about had it with their PowerShot digital camera series, too). He wondered if I had the same problem with a specific HP printer previously reviewed…

So I just stumbled on your review of the HP Photosmart C6380. It’s probably kind of old by now, but I have a question about the required software and drivers, and I think you might be the only reviewer out there who would be interested in listening.

Have you been able to install the C6380 without using the provided software CD? I recently got a Canon PIXMA MP620 which seems to be pretty much the same printer on paper (and I have to agree with you, wireless scanning is something I’ve waited way too long to get). But I was disappointed to find that I had to install a ton of software just to print. Scanning, I can understand the need for some software (although I hope there comes a time when it’s unnecessary), but printing should work right away. I used to have an HP Photosmart 2610 and all I had to do to add the printer to my system was type in the ip address in the “ipp” field. In fact, now that I think about it, I believe Bonjour found it even before I had the chance to think about typing it in.

A network printer is a great thing to have around, since anyone can use it anywhere in my apartment, even neighbors down the hall who need to print out an e-ticket quickly before going to the airport or train station, or a teammate who comes over to work on a project one afternoon and wants to print out a diagram or a proposal so we can draw on it and discuss it together. But if they have to install a bunch of software just to print one thing, it kind of negates that ease of use. Canon, unfortunately, only supports their proprietary “bjnp” protocol, which means there’s basically no way to use the printer without installing their software. Getting it to work on linux took me two hours of googling, downloading, configuring, rebooting, and trial and error. If the C6380 can at least print without installing a bunch of junk, I would immediately box this thing up and pay the difference to swap it for the HP. Have your tried to use it without the provided software, or do you know if it supports ipp or something similarly universal?

Thanks for your time, and for the great video reviews!

I could certainly use the printer outright – and yes, it was quite available on the network. Of course, it was good to have the software installed – but I didn’t feel I needed to in order to access basic printing functions. I’ll actually be doing a future comparison between that HP printer and a similar Kodak model (to test ink cost theories).

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So many people get frustrated when their printer messes up, and end up just buying a new one. Here are some tips to help you keep your printer humming along in perfect shape.

• Check the ink. Many printer manufacturers have made it very easy to tell which ink goes where using a variety of numbers, colors and shapes on the ink cartridge and its caddy. Yet even the best of us have been known to put them in wrong. Check to make sure the color cartridge is in the color caddy and the black and white one is in its proper caddy. Make sure it is for the proper printer model as well. But one thing people fail to realize is that ink cartridges DO go bad and have expiration dates printed on them. I discovered this was a real issue when many of the departments at my school decided to save a few bucks by using recycled and refilled ink cartridges exclusively. When many of our Ink jets started functioning strangely, I checked the ink after exhausting all other efforts. Sure enough they were using recycled ink in a cartridge that expired 2 years ago! I popped in a new, brand name (albeit, pricier) cartridge and the issue was fixed.
• Do the power hokey pokey. I developed this routine over time to the point where many of my users now know it by heart and can fix the issue themselves, though I am still trying to work it into a song. Sometimes, an ink jet (or any printer for that matter) just needs a good reboot. In the same way that rebooting your computer seems to fix almost anything. Hold the power button down on the printer while it is on. While holding it in, unplug the printer’s power. Once the printers power is unplugged, continue to hold in the power button for 5 or 6 seconds. After about 10 or 15 seconds of doing nothing, plug the printer back in and press its power button. This solves an amazing amount of issues. An even easier solution that works many times in certain situations is to just unplug the printer from its power source and plug it back in. Some buildings (like the one I work in) are grounded very poorly. After a good southern thunderstorm in an Alabama summer, it seemed like half of my ink jets simply didn’t turn on no matter how hard one might press the power button. Unplugging the printer and plugging it back in seemed to discharge some sort of mysterious static electricity “bubble” that prevented it from getting power. I can’t explain this in anyway, I just know it has worked many times.
• Learn to speak printer-eese. Many times, the printer simply tells you what it wrong with it with a series of lights. You just need to learn to decode the message. Most printer manufactures list what these lights and their blinking sequences mean on their website. Finding out what these lights mean can help you realize that the problem may be nothing more than a sheet of paper jammed up inside the printer. The website will also tell you or even show you illustrations on how to correct the issue.
• Saving the worst of last; Reinstall the latest printer drivers. Yes, it’s that age-old trump card than any computer tech throws down when all else fails. But seriously, printer drivers can become corrupt for any number of reasons, and uninstalling your printer and installing the latest drivers (found at the manufactures website) can do nothing but good things for you, even if this doesn’t fix the problem at hand. Many times the problem can be fixed just by popping in the CD that came with your printer. If your CD ROM is set to auto play, the CD should give you the option to uninstall or even reinstall the drivers. You won’t get the latest drivers, but you will get the original drivers your printer came with, and the ones it was using when it worked properly.

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

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http://live.pirillo.com/ – Everyone probably has various devices attached to their computers, but we can guarantee that most everyone has a printer. But, which one is better: inkjets or laser printers?

The last time Chris used an inkjet printer was about 7 years ago. Since then he has switched to laser and never went back. The problem with inkjets is that even though they're cheap, the ink costs a ton of money: inkjet manufacturers generally sell their printers at a loss with the hopes of making up the money in ink sales.

Which one is better? It really depends on what you need to do. If you just do some printing every once in a while, and those prints don't need to stay around for a longtime, you can probably stick with an inkjet.

On the other hand, if you do a lot of printing then laser is the way to go: the cost per page with a laser printer is drastically reduced compared to the current inkjet industry. You'll pay more up front for the hardware, but you'll pay less for toner over time (they're more expensive, but you don't need to replacement nearly as often).

So, to recap: for quick jobs, or college students, you may just want to pick up an inkjet printer (in the case of a college student, use your universities computer lab). If you're in a professional setting or do a lot of printing, you'll probably want to stick with laser printers.

What do you recommend?

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