Non-genuine ink catridges (1 Viewer)

[loquasagacious]

The black ink for my Multifunction Epson CX 3100 ran out, I thought the $40 -ish BigW was charging seemed excessive - didn't see too many other places who stocked them. However I was at Parklea Markets yesterday and saw some imitation ones quite cheap so I bought both colour and black cartridges for $22 total. (the cartridges are the T028 -black - and T029 -colour)

Put in the black used it and it ran fine print quality was very good however fairly soon it came up with a flashing error (on the printer) saying the cartridge was empty, it refused to print at all and the drivers showed it as having an empty or incompatible cartridge.

I pulled the cartridge out and put it back in a couple of times and now it seems to work however I'm afraid it will stop again - are there any more permanent solutions flashing firmware, hacked drivers?? Any ideas?

 

[breaking]

i heard epson printers can be real cunts when it comes to nongenuine cartridges. best bet is to just buy yourself a new printer if you got the cash...... otherwise you're just gonna have to put up with forking out extra for the original cartridge..... however then you can just get it refilled from one of those cartridge world places or whatever


.....how good is parklea markets though! haven't been there in a while, mite go this weekend

 

[Grizzly]

What about those refill kits you can get . I;ve never done it before, but it seems to work for some ppl.

 

[breaking]

really messy!!!!

 

[sunny]

Its ok once you get the hang of it.

But I replace with originals anyway, used refills on an old printer.

 

[superbird]

its difficult to refill epson cartridges as they contain a microchip, which disables the cartridge from being used after a certain number of prints.

 

[redslert]

http://www.wirefarm.com/archives/003624.html

you can actually buy a similar kit online...it's australian based as well or uk....can't remember!
search around on google
i had the site before but i lost it now

also there is a hack for the epson microchip problem
you will also have to search around....

 

[Grizzly]

I think that company "VIKING" , you know, they spam mail you with their catalogues full of business stationery ...well, they sell "generic" style toners for laser printers that seem to be cheaper than the original....

 

[MedNez]

I have an Epson - works fine with cheapo cartridges. Don't do refills - refills are very messy and a pain to get to work properly.

 

[equiski]

I owned an epson, It was the biggest piece of shit i have ever owned. The company really knows how to fuck you over when it comes to ink cartridges. The older printers wouldn't allow you to replace the ink until the software felt that it was empty which often meant you were forced to buy a new cartridge even if the existing one was only half empty or you were forced to print with a dead ink supply. There was a secret way to force it to provide access to the cartridges, but the printer wouldn't detect refills. There was a 50/50 chance that 3rd party refills would work and the official ones were rather expensive.
The printer was noisy and the print quality was sub par; I had to set the quality setting on maximum inorder for text to be readable. I also found that the drive belt was prone to slipping, causing the printer to print only on one side of the paper.

After 3 years of using that printer, I was amazed to how awesome my new HP is in comparison. My deskjet 5550 is happy to take refills and generic brand cartridges. One day I had an important assignment due but i ran out of black ink the shops were already closed. I extracted the colour from a black texta and mixed it into some water. I then filled the catridge with this home made ink and the report printed out fine (though the text was a bit grey, go figure ). I refill my cartridges with there kits from kmart which cost around 10 bucks. Everyday i look at my new (1 year old) printer and sigh, glad that i never have to deal with another epson in my entire life. If i was you i'd buy a cheap new printer for around 100 bucks, they usually come with both black and colour cartridges, which are worth like 60-80 bucks anyway. All the people who i know have owned HPs have been very happy with them.

 

[sunny]

I owned an epson, It was the biggest piece of shit i have ever owned.

How old was it? What model was it? How much was it?

I have no problems with my Epson (or the above ones you've mentioned). Genuine cartridges are only $20 - a price I'm willing to pay for a genuine part.

 

[redslert]

my first printer was a brother black and white, used two days because we wanted colour and traded in for a colour oliverter printer having to change cartridge when printing colour and switch when b&w

and then we got a new one, Epson stylus 600 in 1997....i used this printer until this year 2004!!
so 1997 to 2004 for 8 years i used this printer with not a single problem, yes sometimes it doesn't says the cartridges are out of ink when it isn't...but you can just take it out and put it back in....
take note that for Black cartridge today for this printer costs $8!!! yes $8....colour a tad more but i use it for school work, so Black is the only required colour 90% of the time

i said i used that printer until this year, we upgarded to something more high tech, the epson ACL-900 Colour Laser printer, got it brand new for $450! bargain eh?

so i am really happy with Epson

 

[equiski]

Yeah, i admit; it is pretty closed minded of me to stay away from a company just out of spite for a product i used a few years ago. From memory the printer was a 640 or 660 and we had to have it serviced yearly. The guy who used to fix it for us said that the Epsons usually were more problematic. Maybe my printer was defective from the start and he just wanted me to have problems so he could fix them over and over.

I figured out the take out and put back in technique, but it was a pain not being able to charge the new cart when the old one finally died. I managed to make the most of the Epson, but Its not fair to an average consumer who doesn't want to play around with their printer, especially with big warnings about voiding your warrantee.

Wow, i was paying 40 to 50 dollars a cartridge back in the day.

 

[dangerousdave]

Refill kits are good because they're cheap, but they're very messy and dont last that long before you need to refill again.

 

[Casmira]

i spent $50 on a black, red, green and blue refill ink bottles, each where i think 200mL roughly, best investment ever, they have lasted longer than the printer i now have bottles of ink and no idea what to do with them