Inkjet printer advice needed
Anyone out there know anything about aging inkjet printers? See, I have one: specifically an Epson Stylus Color 680.
It's approaching five years old now, and for some time I've been having trouble with the black ink. Initially, every time I put in a new cartridge, the print quality would be terrible for a while, to the extent of it not really printing in black at all. No amount of cleaning the heads helped, and the only thing to do was to print through several sheets ('using up' about a quarter of the ink in the cartridge in the process - even though nothing was actually coming out onto the page) until the ink eventually 'came through' and started working properly.
Now, it has got to a stage where the black ink simply isn't coming through at all. Cleaning still doesn't help, and although the printer thinks it is printing in black, nothing is appearing on the page. Meanwhile, the colour cartridge is fine, but then obviously I've always used that much less.
What I want to know from people with more experience than me is: is this something which just 'happens' to inkjet printers after a while, i.e. has some inaccessible part just worn out? Or is there some hint or tip I could apply to sort this problem out? In other words, do I need to buy a new printer or not?
It hasn't been a problem over the last year, since I've had a perfectly good printer in my office at work, so I've just printed everything there. But it suddenly is going to become an issue in September, when I move back to Oxford and am reliant on my own equipment again for at least a month.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice!
It's approaching five years old now, and for some time I've been having trouble with the black ink. Initially, every time I put in a new cartridge, the print quality would be terrible for a while, to the extent of it not really printing in black at all. No amount of cleaning the heads helped, and the only thing to do was to print through several sheets ('using up' about a quarter of the ink in the cartridge in the process - even though nothing was actually coming out onto the page) until the ink eventually 'came through' and started working properly.
Now, it has got to a stage where the black ink simply isn't coming through at all. Cleaning still doesn't help, and although the printer thinks it is printing in black, nothing is appearing on the page. Meanwhile, the colour cartridge is fine, but then obviously I've always used that much less.
What I want to know from people with more experience than me is: is this something which just 'happens' to inkjet printers after a while, i.e. has some inaccessible part just worn out? Or is there some hint or tip I could apply to sort this problem out? In other words, do I need to buy a new printer or not?
It hasn't been a problem over the last year, since I've had a perfectly good printer in my office at work, so I've just printed everything there. But it suddenly is going to become an issue in September, when I move back to Oxford and am reliant on my own equipment again for at least a month.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice!