Dead Epson printer quick question

[Tom]

Mate of mine has an Epson SX215, it was working perfectly until he put new ink cartridges in (not standard). It isn't the first time he's changed them, he's always used the unbranded ones. Anyhow, it appears to be invisible to his PC now, and invisible to mine too. It still photocopies and stuff like that, but neither PC can see it through a USB port.

So, if the printer is completely invisible to two different PCs (and it isn't the USB cable, I checked), it's safe to say the printer is knackered?

/edit - scratch all that, just tried a different USB socket and it's alive all of a sudden. So obviously a problem with my mate's computer (which is ancient tbh).

 

[caLLous]

Bit unlucky for 2 USB ports on 2 different PC's to die simultaneously. Have you tried other stuff in the dodgy ports on both of your computers?

 

[Tom]

I was trying it with the front ports on my PC, which are low power or something. The rear ports work ok. I'm going to try uninstalling his USB ports and disabling BIOS settings, resetting computer, etc. See if that clears it.