Printer hijinx

[Gray]

Around 2 years ago i purchased a new printer, i think it was because it was one which was mentioned on here, due to its cheap price and reliability.

Reliable it was - Until it needed its ink changing.

Since i only sparsly used the printer, i made sure that every month or two i would print out test pages to assure the ink wouldn't dry up. So in fairly it lasting about 18 months was grand.

But it eventually needed its ink changing, so in September i purchased both a black and colour ink set, they weren't directly from the manufacturer, or branded as such - But they where for the printer.

Thats when the software for the printer started acting up, once i removed the old black and colour, i immediately replaced it with the new black and colour - But the printer software didn't recognise this, and the error code my printer was giving me said the same as well.

When in the process of printing, i would get an error box prior to the print saying the ink has run out, and the only way i could get it to print is if i "forced" it too by pressing a button on the printer directly. The graphic showed that the ink was low.

The printer also gave a digital error message which previously was "E 1,3" - Which according to the manual was "The ink is low". Now however, the error is "E 1,6" which basically means the ink has run out. I forced through another colour test page - and the ink was fine.

I'm at a loose end now, it is frustrating the crap out of me - Because i know there is definately ink still in the cartridges, but the software and printer keep telling me otherwise, making a simple job take twice as long as it needs to be...

The printer i have anyway is a Canon Inkjet MP190 (Or, long name - Canon PIXMA MP190 All In One Multifunction Colour Inkjet Printer)

Admittedly at the time i only paid like £30 for it, and the reviews where all positive - But i am unsure if they had any issues afterwards...

 

[Kryten]

Welcome to the world of re manufactured carts. They are often a pain in the arse - certainly more trouble than the cost is worth in some cases. Admittedly Canon never used to be too bad for that (Brother and HP were terrible) so this is the first I've heard of issues on their inkjets.
As a result it would be hard to diagnose a fault until you mortgage your house and buy some originals. They will probably work absolutely fine, in which case it might be worth experimenting with different brands of remanufactured jobbies.

As with many printers there are ways to reset the printer ink status and a quick google brings up this for Pixma machines:

* Disconnect the power supply to the printer by removing the power lead from the back
* Press and hold the Power Button whilst plugging the power lead back in, then whilst continuing to hold the button down press the Reset Button (the one with the red triangle inside the circle) twice
* Release the Power Button and after around 10 seconds the display will show ‘0’
* Press the + Button to change the value from ‘0’ to ‘1’
* Press the Colour Button; you’ll notice that both the A4 Plain Paper and A4 Photo Paper LEDs will now be on
* Make sure that there is some paper in the paper feeder
* Press the Power Button twice; the printer will now print some random information which you can discard
* Now open the printer cover (not the scanner cover) and remove the cartridges. With the printer still open, remove the power lead from the back of the printer once again
* Close the printer cover
* Replace the power lead and press the Power Button to turn the printer back on
* Now replace the cartridges and the ink level monitor will be reset