Troubleshoot Your Printer : Printer Is Too Slow

2009-06-02

To do this, we recommend that you save your work, and then restart the computer to restart the Print Spooler service. If you don't want to restart the computer, try these steps instead.
   
To change or restart the Print Spooler service
   

You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.
   

• Open Administrative Tools by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Administrative Tools. 
  

• Double-click Services. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.3.    

• Right-click the Print Spooler service, and then click Properties.On the General tab, next to Startup type, make sure that Automatic is selected.  

If the service is not already running, under Service status, click Start, and then click OK. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Get More Related Help at:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/8c11977e-8244-408f-a036-7978a618d7a21033.mspx#EI

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Bolster Small Business Services by Delivering Server Support

2008-09-23

NEW YORK, Sept 17, 2008 -- iYogi, a next generation remote technical support company, announced today the expansion of their small business services to include support for Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, enabling business owners to efficiently maintain their network without maintaining an IT department. With more than 50,000 customers worldwide, iYogi offers support for more than 72 software applications and peripheral devices and offers specific service packages uniquely geared for small businesses, starting at $119.99 per computer/per year. "There are currently 2.4 million small businesses in the United States that have server-based LANs," said Merle Sandler, research manager in the SMB program at IDC. "Solving networking -- related problems can be an area of concern for small businesses, which often lack adequate IT resources."

Windows Server 2003 is a multipurpose operating system capable of handling a diverse set of server roles. iYogi provides the following features and support options:

• Active Directory
• Group Policies
• Rights Management
• Network set-up
• File and print server
• Internet based services
• Virtual Private Network
• Rights Management Services
• Terminal server
• Remote Access Services

Customers can select from the following pricing plans, paying a flat rate per incident or purchasing an annual subscription.

• Single Incident $ 180
• One Year, Unlimited Access To Technical Support $ 1999.99

 

"iYogi leverages India's 20 years of experience in providing excellent technical support to customers across the globe," said President of iYogi, Vishal Dhar. "We have expanded our personal off shoring model to deliver an incredible experience at a revolutionary price. Our support services for Microsoft Windows 2003 Server are provided by Microsoft Certified professionals with years of experience supporting Microsoft's products. They have a passion for helping small business and enterprise customers develop the potential of their technology investments."

iYogi's Remote Service for Windows 2003 Server along with all of iYogi's services is available to customers in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. With a resolution rate of 86% and customer satisfaction rating of 93%, iYogi provides customers with an inexpensive and consistent option for their technical support needs.

ABOUT iYOGI

Headquartered in Gurgaon, India with offices in New York, NY, iYogi provides personalized computer support for small business and home office users. iYogi offers 24/7 phone and online assistance for technologies we use every day and supports products from a wide range of vendors. Utilizing proprietary technology, iMantra, and a superior Microsoft certified team, iYogi delivers higher resolution benchmarks and service levels than competing services. For more information and a detailed list of supported technologies.

Visit us at : www.iyogibusiness.com

Contact Details:

Company Name : iYogi Technical Services Pvt Ltd

Address : iYogi Inc. 12, Desbrosses Street,

3rd Floor New York, NY 10013

Toll Free No. : 1-800-237-3901

Work Number : 1-212-229-0901

Fax Number : 1-888-867-2715

E-Mail : awadhesh.singh@iyogi.net

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iYogi Announces Launch of Monitoring and Performance Tool For SMBs.

2008-08-27

iYogi – a leading provider of technical support services with horizons in the US, UK, Canada and Australia – today announced the launch of its exclusive server monitoring tools for small businesses. The new product offers integrated technology solutions to surmount the users’ unique IT support requirements thereby enabling them to derive and share information, data, enable network performance analysis, and security trends critical to plan and mana ge their set of servers – 24x7.

Uday Challu, iYogi’s CEO commented, “Holding a significant niche for itself in the computer support industry, iYogi has always known to be on the forefront of adapting breakthrough technology to exceed customer service expectations. This time we have developed a tool offering value-add functionality which will help small business customers maximize the business outcomes of IT.”

iYogi’s monitoring tool provides real time observation and monitoring solutions to ensure more robust and reliable IT support and infrastructure for small buinesses. Small Business owners also get a comprehensive assesment of their IT environment to meet technology needs with the scalability for future growth and create preventative measures based on quick analysis of network device alerts, pre-failure indicators, performance benchmark and security issues.

The new Monitoring and performance tool will provide small business with the opportunity to test all technical and non-technical aspects of their servers and help them to strengthen overall IT infrastructure. The array of services will include: Patch Management, Security Auditing, Site Inventory, Real Time Alerting Script Based Management, and Rights Management Services for all critical server issues.

“Irrespective of the business being small or large, when the consumer chooses iYogi, he leverages the potential of an elite taskforce of Microsoft Certified System Engineers and Cisco Certified Network Associates, ready to service their critical assets, using the most advanced network asset tracking and Performance monitoring”, adds Challu.

Another factor where the Company aims to distinguish itself from its competitors is product pricing. Embracing the concept of service quality, iYogi offers competitively priced technical support services at no-haggle, low prices.

As for its small business support, the Company has integrated its exclusive Monitoring and Alerting Services under one price umbrella of just $480 annually. per server i.e. $49.99 per month. The price is certainly hard to find anywhere else.

For more information on iYogi Small Business Support, visit http://www.iyogibusiness.com/

Contact Details: Company Name: iYogi Technical Services Pvt Ltd Address: iYogi Inc. 12 Desbrosses Street 3rd Floor New York, NY 10013 Toll Free no:1-800-237-3901 Work Number: 1-212-229-0901 Fax Number: 1-888-867-2715

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HP Puts Green Labels on Black-and-white Printers

2008-06-19

Hewlett-Packard has set ambitious goals to improve the energy efficiency of its printers and use more recycled materials in their manufacture -- and it intends to draw buyers' attention to the features with a new Eco Highlights labeling plan.

Despite all the work that HP is doing to reduce the environmental impact of its printers, though, the biggest problem is the paper itself. Around two-thirds of the carbon-dioxide emissions caused by printing are due to the manufacturing of the paper, and the simplest way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from printing activities is to use less paper.

That's the motive for HP's focus on enabling duplex printing by default in its printer management software -- and for setting another ambitious goal of having 80 percent of printing in its own offices done on both sides of the paper.

HP still thinks that reducing the carbon emissions of the printers themselves can make a difference, and hopes to draw customers' attention to it with its Eco Highlights labels. Although these are intended to aid in comparison shopping for environmental benefits, this is solely an HP initiative: The company is not working with any other printer manufacturers to introduce comparable labelling.

The company will introduce the labels on four printers: the Deskjet D2545 color inkjet and the LaserJet P4015x, P4515x and P4515xm black-and-white laser printers.

HP wants to increase the level of recycled materials they contain three-fold by 2011, with those materials coming primarily from old HP printers.

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HP Says Green Is The Primary Color Of Its Printers

2008-05-30

The printer industry is known more for fast machines and stacks of papers than being green — but market-leader Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) wants to change that.

HP is going to unveil a set of products and services that aims to show how a dominant force in the industry is focused on the environment. The efforts stretch from consumers to large corporations and include a big focus on energy efficiency and recycled materials.

"It's very important for us to put a strong foot forward around the imaging and printing space," said Tom Codd, marketing manager for the global enterprise business for HP's imaging and printing group. "It's a huge announcement for us."

Going Green To Make Green

HP officials say it's not just helping the environment — but should help sales of printers as well. Today, customers large and small are looking for green, efficient technology products.

 
"I think it's much more important than a few years ago," Codd said.

 
Peter Grant, managing vice president for printer markets at research firm Gartner, says HP could do a better job of telling potential customers about technologies that can save on power use or reduce waste.

 
"I think they're a leader," Grant said. "It's a nice story if people want to buy green."

HP's printer business remains a profit center for the tech giant. In the quarter ended April 30, the company drew more than 40% of its operating profit from the printer unit.

HP has roughly half the market share for inkjet and laser printers around the world, Gartner says.

HP's past green efforts include an aggressive recycling program for its ink cartridges and power-saving technologies. Today's announcement extends those efforts with broad-based initiatives.

HP's "Eco Printing Assessment" service will help companies manage their paper and printer usage with the environment in mind. That could include reducing power usage and paper waste. HP says it could reduce up to 30% of customers' carbon footprint.

As part of that effort, HP is unveiling a carbon footprint calculator that lets customers compare power usage from new printers vs. old printers, among other things.

There's also a new label for customers to easily learn how green a printer product is. These "Eco Highlights" labels might identify whether it has an "EnergyStar" rating, a federal program, or whether it's designed to be recycled.

"I think the education is the most important thing," said John Davies, an analyst with AMR Research. "I think we're going to see just this huge growth in clean innovation."

The label program will later be rolled out to the rest of HP's product lines.

HP has slashed the power consumption of printers by 30% in the past three years, but wants to boost that to 40% by 2011.

As part of the goal, the company is launching "auto-on/auto-off" technology that can improve energy efficiency by more than 20% by allowing printers to go into a deep-sleep mode when they're not being used. He points out printers left on overnight and through weekends continue to burn power.

The on-off tech will launch in 2009 with lower-end printers — and then later be added to more expensive models.

"It will be . . . using 1 watt of power or even a little less," Codd said.

HP also is unveiling a Deskjet printer that's made almost entirely from recycled plastic materials — 83%. The packaging is 100% recycled.

Then there's the paper itself. HP already uses 100% of its everyday, 8.5-by-11-inch paper from forests that are certified to be sustainable. HP plans to have all its photo paper come from sustainable forests by next year, up from 80% now.

For all short of your HP Printer Troubleshoot you can visit Printer Support

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Printers: With Advanced Technologies

2008-05-20

Presently, printers have become an essential part of computers. From postage to snaps, books to blog notes, presentations to official documents, there are various pages of offline and online content that you may desire to print. While the user may think that printers are just a machine and all printers are same, there is a huge range and styles of inkjet printers, with each of them having different capabilities.

In the 1980s, the first printing machine having the inkjet technology in it came into the existence to replace the popular dot matrix printers. These new printers were using droplets of ink onto printer paper to fabricate text and images. In fact, the drops of ink are tinier than the thickness of a strand of hair, so do not expect to actually see each droplet on your printouts. These printing machines are not like the older dot matrix, which were producing generously proportioned drops of ink.

There are numerous major printer technologies available these days, however, the two largest categories are impact and non-impact printers. As you possibly presumed, the printers, which are using impact technologies, work by actually touching the paper to fabricate text and images on it. For example, the dot matrix printers fall under this category. Whereas, non-impact printers do not actually touch the paper, they generally use the blower or bubble technology to take a print out. Both inkjet and laser printers fall under this group.

So what makes an inkjet printer to perform brilliantly? There are a number of key mechanisms found in all such printers that make them tick. The most essential and delicate part of any printer is its print head. It encloses the ink-emanating nozzles. The ink cartridges embrace the actual ink that is noshed into the head. The stepper motor gives power to the print head, thrusting it back and forth cross ways on the paper. A stabilizer bar makes sure that the actions of the print head are controlled and accurate.

Paper is noshed into the printer via a paper feeder. The paper is carted inside the printer by a number of rollers. Obviously, none of these components would function without using the electric power. The computer interacts with the printer through interface ports, most commonly, the USB port.

These printers are categorized based on their costs and purposeful features. Consumers normally prefer a printer that tenders various features at the least possible cost. The terms related to warranty are also the main factor in shaping the trustworthiness of any printer. These issues should be considered for selecting the best among all printers available in the market.

In the market, there are different models available under the non-impact printer category, which are sourced from various manufacturers. Further alternatives are also obtainable to the customers such as buying used printers or purchasing them at wholesale prices. All this makes it awfully complicated to select the most cost effective printer.

To choose the most excellent option, one should perform a relative study and analysis of available alternative of printers. This includes evaluation of costs, consumer feedbacks, manufacturer's profile, warranty period, and after sales service etc. This can be completed with the assistance of product comparison websites available on the Internet. Aspiring buyers can also read customer feedbacks and reviews to make them certain about the advantages and disadvantages of different printer models.

The finest inkjet printers should have the standard line screens not less than the number of 85 (dpi/inch) for printing images on the papers and disk. This value is the same as used in newspaper printing. These printing machines are habitually priced at reasonable rates, have a sleek desktop trail, and print at fast speeds. There are numerous companies in the field of manufacturing printers like HP Printer , Canon Printer , Samsung, Sharp, Epson Printer and etc. However, the Epson printer are famous worldwide for their durability and cost effectiveness.

Regular enhancements in technology have amplified the rate of growth of new products and features. More advanced printers are coming with each passing year. So, the buyers should go for an inkjet printer that is designed to integrate new features brought about by technical development.

For your Printer Troubleshoot and support you can visit Printer Support

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Digital Or Litho Printing, Which Way to GO ?

2008-05-14

There are 2 key advantages that digital printing has over its more established litho counterpart namely personalization and Speed of turnaround. I have detailed more detail on each below.

Personalization

Utilizing the right software, a digital press will allow you to produce a mass market flyer come product brochure which you can personalize to each of your individual target audience. This is all driven by the data that you have on your customers/prospects.

Speed of turnaround

Due to the way that digital presses work, they can produce the printed sheet immediately instead of having to go through several processes prior to being able to print as you would with a litho production. This means that for short run lengths it is possible to produce jobs same-day/overnight.

The benefit of Litho

If your project has a print quantity in excess of 2,000 copies then it is more than likely that Litho printing would be more cost effective. It is also still the most accurate process for colour reproduction. The Litho process is also much faster in terms of turnaround if your quantities run into tens of thousands.

A brief summary

A good starting point for helping you to decide which process is the most suitable for your current print project would be the total number of copies required. If your requirement is less than 2,000 copies then there is a far greater chance that your project would be more cost effectively produced using a digital press rather than a litho press. However the pagination and also the quality of the reproduction will also play an important part in the decision making process.
Seeking advice from a printer support professional will help you achieve your desired goals with the minimum of stress and heartache.

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HP Color LaserJet 2605: Printing tips

2008-05-05

hi friends yesterday my girl friend was trying to get some print out on the plastic pape for her fashion work and stuck in between due to the paper jam and after few hours she got agitated a lot regarding that..

 

and then what next ??????

i had to get along with my laptop and started to bang my head with  it.. Just kiding :) google search to get the tips to short out his problems and support her as a printer support technician for her finally managed to make her.. happy with the final print so am shareing this with you all

 

1) Printing materials

You can print on normal printing paper or use special thicker color laser paper.

Depending on paper you are using, you can choose nearest paper option for your print.

Select File / Print >> Properties >> Paper/Quality >> "Type is:" menu.

For color laser paper you can use option "Color".

If you print on transparencies (plastic sheets) use only correct Color LaserJet

transparencies. Wrong transparencies may jam and spoil the printer.

 

2) Assure output layout before you print:

Before making final color print make test print with black and white printer. Please note,

that layout settings may change a little bit when you switch between different printers.

If you print pictures, it is best to insert them in Word or Powerpoint document to have

correct output size. You can also save (print) your document into pdf file with Pdf-Xchange

program to maintain layout settigs intact.

3) Use also print preview to check correct output layout:

Select Color Laserjet printer in File / Print printer selection menu and click close,

Now you can use File / Print preview command for Color Laserjet printer.

4) Printing on transparencies

As mention above, use only correct Color LaserJet transparencies!

After you have selected printer and tested output layout, click icon Properties in Print window:

In Printer Properties select sheet "Paper/Quality".

In "Type is:" menu select Transparency for printing on transparencies.

Click OK and complete your print.

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Acquaint Yourself With ‘Computer Printers’

2008-04-29

A computer printer is a device used for printing text or images on hard copy stored in electronic form, generally on physical print media like paper. Printers are designed to support both local and network connected users simultaneously.

 
Nowadays, modern printers can directly interface to electronic devices like digital cameras. Some printers that come with non printing features are commonly known as Multi-Functional Printers (MFP) or Multi-Function Devices (MFD). It integrates various functions of multiple devices into one. Such types of printers are extremely useful for small businesses and home offices.

 
As opposed to a traditional printer, a multi-functional printer is a combination of devices like Printer, Scanner, Photocopier, and Fax Machine. Likewise, there are numerous other types of printers widely available in the market. Let’s take a look at them:

 
Laser Printer: A laser printer works in a similar fashion as a photocopier does. It has a roller which is charged with electricity. A laser beam is passed to remove the charge from portions of the roller.  The parts hit by the laser are powdered by the toner which is then transferred from the roller to the paper. Finally, the ink is baked into the paper with the help of a heater incorporated in the printer. People generally prefer laser printer because of its ability to give high quality output and high speed. 

 
Dot Matrix:  It has a print head that moves across the page. A dot matrix printer produces characters using a cluster of pins which press an inked ribbon to the paper, thereby creating a dot. Each character is made in the same way. Dot Matrix printers are relatively cheaper and durable. These qualities still attract businesses which use them as invoice printers. 

 
Ink Jet and Bubble Jet:  It works in a manner similar to a Dot Matrix Printer. However, its print head sprays liquid ink onto the page instead of pressing a dry ink against the page. Ink jet and bubble jet printers are better known as predecessors of laser printers. They produce better image quality and run faster.

 
From inkjets to monochrome and color lasers, different printers are designed to accomplish different tasks. Companies like DELL, CANON, LEXMARK, BROTHER, EPSON, and HP HEWLETT PACKARD are most preferred when it comes to buying a printer. Nowadays, computer printer support is widely available on the Internet which saves you from taking it to any expensive technician for troubleshooting.

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HP intros 25 printing solutions at one go

2008-04-22

In its largest ever commercial product launch in the printing and imaging business division, HP has rolled out 25 new printing solutions, including 10 printers, at a media briefing event in Shanghai.

The products are aimed at the SMB business segment, a vertical that is being focused strongly by vendors in the Asia Pacific region.

The additions include new color printers and multifunction devices, which the company claimed, is optimized for producing professional-quality marketing materials, business collaterals and everyday documents, quickly and affordably, in house.

"Today's launch builds upon our Print 2.0 strategy, which will allow our SMB customers to print when and how they want - in house, at retail or through a print service provider," said Herbert Koeck, vice president - Commercial Printing, Imaging and Printing Group, HP, Asia Pacific.

One of the introductions is the Color Laserjet CP1215 printer series, which at $249 is HP's lowest priced desktop color laser printer till date.

HP also introduced a new system rebrand for its ink-based Officejet line-up with printers and cartridges to offer low-cost per page business printing.

It also announced new online tools and solutions like Easy Printer Care software 2.5i which helps SMB customers who do not have a dedicated IT support team, to set-up, maintain and view the status of up to 15 printers on a network.

The Jetdirect 690n wireless network printing server was also rolled out to offer upcoming enterprise customers to share several printers to be shared on a single network using an 802.11g wireless connection.

The company is keen to dissociate the printer as a standalone device used merely for printing in the SMB segment. Instead it is positioning these machines as a complete suite of solution, which includes hardware, supplies and services, which the vendor is valuing at $103 billion globally by 2010.

The company is also betting its money on the in-house marketing opportunity, especially for the SMB, which it is estimating will be around $40 billion by 2010.

To ensure that it has the highest recall in the SMB business segment, the company will invest $300 million into a global marketing campaign which will target SMB and large customers.

It has also enhanced its Office Printing Channel Program and Solutions Business Partner Program with an accreditation, certification and test program for its 64,000 worldwide channel network.

"We have quadrupled the total contract value of HP Managed Print Services, bolstered our Print 2.0 strategy with the recent acquisition of Exstream Software and expanded our focus on imaging and printing solutions that help customers optimize their infrastructure, manage their enterprise and improve workflows," said Cruce Dahlgren, senior VP, Global Enterprise Business, Imaging and Printing Group, HP.

Worldwide HP's IPG business in 2007 grew to $28.5 million in revenue terms, which was a six per cent growth y-o-y.

Globally, it shipped one million Laserjet devices in 2008 while its Indian single function market grew from 3 lakh units in 2005 to over 6 lakh units last fiscal.

source @ CIOL Network

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What Type of Printer Is Best for Photo Printing?

2008-04-17

If you're printing only 4-by-6-inch photos, consider a snapshot printer. They use either dye-sublimation or inkjet print technologies. They take up little space in the home or office, and they're often portable.

To print larger sizes of photos, or to print text documents as well, you'll need a desktop inkjet printer.

Here's a list that correlates a camera's megapixels to print size:

• 2 megapixels = 1200 by 1600 pixels = 4 by 5 inches
• 3 megapixels = 1536 by 2048 pixels = 5 by 7 inches
• 6 megapixels = 2400 by 3000 pixels = 6.5 by 10 inches
• 10 megapixels = 2592 by 3872 pixels = 8.5 by 13 inches
• 12 megapixels = 4368 by 2912 pixels = 9.7 by 14.5 inches

Models with four or more colors of ink generally produce the best quality. For top-quality black-and-white photo printing, look for a model with several shades of gray and black inks.

Most color lasers produce photos that are adequate for many uses, such as real-estate brochures, car insurance claims, and missing-kitty fliers. Many models now let you use glossy paper that helps their images look more like real photos. However, they still lack the color accuracy and print resolution to rival inkjet printers.

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Useful Inkjet Printer Tips

2008-04-10

If ever there was a time for printers to fail us, it would be the holiday season when we need them most. Even if you haven’t turned on your printer in months, chances are you’ll be printing everything from photos, to greeting cards, to recipes. ‘Tis the season.

Here are some tips you might want to keep handy for Printer Support :

Turn your printer on and off if there seems to be a problem. This sounds like a low-tech solution, but the printer will often reset itself if you power it off and on. To do this don’t just shut off the power strip. You’ll have better results if you use the on/off button on the printer because it enables the reset and properly parks the printer head.

If your prints are too light or contain white spots or horizontal lines, you may have a clogged print head. This is especially likely if you haven’t used your printer routinely. Most printers have a “clean the head” option that you can read about in the manual or online.

Use the paper and ink that your printer manufacturer suggests. You’re less likely to encounter paper jams and poor print quality. This is especially true for printing photos. While some third party papers and inks work ok, others do not. You’ll have to do some experimenting.

Run the basic test-print page. Most printers have a built-in diagnostics program to help you troubleshoot. Typically, running a test page involves pressing a button or two as you turn on the printer. For more on the test-print page. Many printers also use a combination of indicator lights to help you pinpoint the problem. You can check these on the manufacturer’s web site. Here, for example is Epson’s printer blog .

Manually cancel a print job by selecting Printers from the Windows Control Panel. If you have numerous printers, then select View Installed Printers. When the Printers window opens, double-click your printer’s icon. You will see a list of current print jobs. Right-click the job you want to cancel and then select Cancel Printing.

When printing photos remember that pixels have a relationship to the size of the print. The average printer has three settings: “Draft,” which is optimized for images 150 pixels per inch; “Normal” (oftentimes the default) which is optimized for 300 pixels per inch; and “Best” which is optimized for 600 pixels per inch or higher.

Clean your inkjet printer cartridge heads regularly. Most printers come with a set of tools for cleaning and aligning the heads. Common wisdom suggest running these once a month, though I suspect most people don’t do that.

Keep the inside of the printer clean using tweezers and/or compressed air to clear out the debris and paper snips from inside your printer.

Check for the latest printer driver. If you’re experiencing problems visit your printer manufacturer’s web site and download the most current printer driver. The driver tells your printer how to talk to your computer and newer drivers are typically improved versions.

Let prints dry thoroughly, especially photos. Remove prints from the printer’s output tray before they stick together. Let them dry for at least one hour; some manufacturers suggest letting them dry for a full 24 hours to be perfectly safe.

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Printer is Printing Slowly is it Spooler Problem

2008-04-04

A print spooler is software that temporarily stores print jobs on the computer hard disk or in memory until the printer is ready to print them. If you have been waiting an unusually long time for a document to print, or if you see an error message about the print spooler, spooler subsystem, or spooler resources, you might need to change and then restart the Print Spooler service on your computer.

To do this, we recommend that you save your work, and then restart the computer to restart the Print Spooler service. If you do not want to restart the computer, try these steps instead.

To change or restart the Print Spooler service and Printer Repair

You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.
1. Open Administrative Tools by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Administrative Tools.

2. Double-click Services. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

3. Right-click the Print Spooler service, and then click Properties.

4. On the General tab, next to Startup type, make sure that Automatic is selected.

5. If the service is not already running, under Service status, click Start, and then click OK. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

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Clear the maintenance count and service message for HP LaserJets

2008-03-30

If the display panel on your HP LaserJet reads “perform printer maintenance”, “perform user maintenance”, or anything along those lines it means your printer needs a preventative maintenance kit, which includes a fuser and various rollers. Once you have installed the maintenance kit the message will only go away if you clear the maintenance count. For example the LaserJet 4000 has a 200,000 page maintenance interval. Once you reach 200,000 pages the error message appears and you need to reset the maintenance count to zero to make the message go away.
HP 4050 display

Reset the maintenance count on an HP LaserJet 8000, 8100, and 8150
The Service Manual indicates you need go into the Configuration Menu and set the SERVICE MESSAGE = to OFF to clear the PERFORM PRINTER MAINTENANCE message. We have found that this does not always work (probably due to different formatter revisions). We recommend the following procedure to manually set the maintenance count to zero.

After installing a maintenance kit, reset the maintenance count to zero by:
1. Enter service mode as described on our entering service mode page.
2. Go to the MAINTCOUNT screen and press + or - to scroll the number to zero (all zeros).
3. Press the Select button to enter the settings into the printers memory (an asterisk will appear next to the zeros).
4. Exit service mode by pressing the GO button.

NOTE: Do not change the MAINTENANCE INTERVAL value, which is another option in service mode. This value is the interval at which a maintenance kit should be installed (350,000 pages on LaserJet 8000, 8100, or 8150 series).

Reset the maintenance count an HP LaserJet 5si
After you install the maintenance kit, you can clear the PERFORM USER MAINTENANCE message by going to the printers control panel Configuration Menu and setting the SERVICE MESSAGE = to OFF. Note: this message will only appear in the Configuration Menu if the PERFORM USER MAINTENANCE message appears.

Reset the maintenance count on an HP LaserJet 4000, 4050, 4100, 5000
“The Short Cut Method”
1. Turn the printer off.
2. Hold down the Item key (minus side of the button) and Value key (minus side).
3. Turn the printer on.
4. Wait for RESET MAINTENANCE COUNT to be displayed and then release both keys.

NOTE: Some versions of the 4000, 4050, 4100, and 5000 will NOT have their maintenance count reset by following the preceding “short cut” method. This is do to the many different formatter board revisions. If the short cut method doesn’t reset the maintenance count then you will need to go into service mode to manually reset the maintenance count to zero.

Reset the maintenance count on an HP LaserJet 4100MFP, 4101MFP, 4200, 4300, 4250, 4350, 9000

1. Turn the product off.
2. Turn the product on.
3. Press and hold down the checkmark (Select) button while the memory is counting. The memory starts counting at 000MB immediately after you turn the power on.
4. Continue to hold down the checkmark (Select) button until all three LEDs are illuminated.
5. Release the checkmark (Select) button.
6. Press the up arrow (Navigation) button until the message New Maintenance Kit appears on the control panel display.
7. Press the checkmark button once.

(Note: on LaserJets 4200, 4300, 9000 you can hold down the checkmark button as you turn the power on, then wait for the three LEDs to illuminate. On the LaserJets 4250, 4350 series you need to wait until you turn the power on and the memory starts counting before you hold the checkmark button.)

A message New Maintenance will appear in the control panel display and the printer will reset.

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HP Reduces Cost of Color Printing up to 50 Percent for Small Businesses

2008-03-24

HP announced new printing solutions that enable small businesses to affordably produce marketing collateral in-house, increase productivity and better manage their printing environments on 4^th March.

The new HP Officejet business inkjet line delivers up to 50 percent lower cost per page than competitive laser printers. The expanded portfolio also includes new color HP LaserJet printers, supplies and accessories as well as new monochrome HP LaserJet multifunction printers.

“Our goal is to offer a complete and affordable small business technical support ,” said Nor Rae Spohn, senior vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP.

HP Officejet Printing System

HP also unveiled a new branding strategy for its business ink portfolio. Now through fall 2008, packaging for all HP Officejet and Officejet Pro hardware and appropriate supplies will be identified with the “HP Officejet Printing System” name.

All hardware and supplies packaging for the HP Officejet Printing System will feature a dark green bar across the top of the box to signify that the entire system – from hardware to ink and media – is designed together to provide small business customers with more affordable solutions to produce professional color documents at up to 50 percent lower cost per page than competing laser printers.

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HP Wont Issue Drivers for Leopard, Though asks to buy New Printer

2008-03-16

So Finally HP has withdrwan its technical support for Leopard a printer driver's which is launched four years back, when asked for assistance this is what one of my friend's came along with ...

He writes:

I recently ditched Windows XP at my house, and have moved to the Macintosh platform (and converted my PC machines to Ubuntu)

I've had zero issues with the conversion, except for my HP "all in one" scanner/pc/fax machine. Although I can get it to work just fine with Ubuntu, I cannot scan from OS X Leopard.

After some googling, I contacted HP support who informed me that there are no plans to update their drivers for Leopard. This is not an old printer, I bought it 4 years ago and I'd think it's in their best interest to support the segment of the market that's moving to Mac.

Instead of solving my problem with a new driver, they're trying to solve it by offering me a "trade in / trade up" program where they want me to buy a new HP printer. The only thing this will serve to do is to kill any brand loyalty I had to HP and cause me to never buy another HP product again.

I find it funny that the open source community can get scanning working just fine on Ubuntu, but a company like HP can't tweak their drivers to get it to work on a mac. C'mon HP, get it together!!!

Here is HP's response-cum-sales pitch:

Hello Matt,

Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.

With the Officejet 6110 & the Leopard OS, you will be able to print dew to the pre-installed print driver with the OS. For scanning, there is no software and drivers that will support this. There will be no software updates for this product and the Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard). We do have a program called trade in trade up. This is where you can trade the older unit in on a newer model. If you would like more information about this program, please reply to this email. Thank you

If you need further assistance, please reply to this message and we will be happy to assist you further.

You may receive an e-mail survey regarding your e-mail support experience. We would appreciate your feedback.

For information on keeping your HP and Compaq products up and running, please visit our Web site

Sincerely,
Scott W.
HP Total Care

For HP printer trouble shoot and support you can visit printer-repair 

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HP Color LaserJet 2600n Printer series

2008-03-11

This printer meets the needs of the small office or home office user who wants to add colour to business documents and also create marketing materials in-house. It is also ideal for sharing within small work teams.

Design and share impressive colour and black and white documents without stretching your budget with this affordable, easy-to-use, ultra-quiet, network-ready printer. Brilliant colour is now within your reach, creating hundreds of new possibilities.

Print your own promotional materials in brilliant, high quality colour, affordably and easily. Save time, space, and money while enjoying the benefits of adding colour to create impressive sales tools, brochures, and marketing documents in-house.
• Designed for the desktop, this compact printer is simple to manage using an intuitive front-panel LCD display. With only four easily replaceable HP Print Cartridges, colour printing is stress-free and low-maintenance.
• Get the performance you need, consistently and reliably from this exceptionally quiet, network-ready colour printer with a fast first page out and speeds of 8 ppm in colour and black-and-white. Count on HP for proven technology and support.
• This printer meets the needs of the small office or home office user who wants to add colour to business documents and also create marketing materials in-house. It is also ideal for sharing within small work teams.

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20 Years of the HP Deskjet Printer Celebrates

2008-03-04

In celebration of the 20 th anniversary of its Deskjet printer, HP announced its two new series: the Deskjet D2500 & F2400 all-in-one Printer. Both printers are Energy Star-compliant, and use HPs new 60 ink cartridges with HP Vivera inks.

The 60 ink cartridges feature dye-based colour and pigment-based black ink, delivering prints that are both water- and –smudge-resistant. They use a new printhead design that results in smaller ink droplets for more detail in images; and come molded from recycled plastic resin, making them environmentally-friendly.

The new Deskjets offer features like one-touch print-cancel, 80-sheet fold-up paper tray, and the ability to print photos ranging from 4 x 6” to panorama. They can also automatically remove red-eye; and seamlessly integrate with HPs photo sharing Website Snapfish.

Each model also includes HP Smart Web Printing, which makes it easy to make prints of Web pages by preventing things like cut-off edges, or tons of pages when the user only wants one or two items.

For printer support & information,  visit  Printer Repair &  Support

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HP Printer Cartridges Go Green

2008-02-25

HP has blazed a new trail in green IT by recycling plastics to produce its inkjet printer cartridges.

The global technology company said its innovative technology, 'closed loop plastic recycling system', uses recycled plastics from sources such as water bottles and ink cartridges.

However, the prices of its inkjet printer cartridges will remain unchanged (even after the announcement of this new technology), said a HP representative.

"By developing the technology to use recycled plastics in Original HP inkjet print cartridges, we have the opportunity to reduce the environmental impact HP products have on the planet," said Michael Hoffmann, senior vice president, Supplies, Imaging and Printing Group, HP.

According to HP, the process first breaks down plastic in printer cartridges made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate). Additives including fibers and resins are added to strengthen and regenerate the plastic, which is then used to manufacture new HP inkjet cartridges.

The process results in inkjet cartridges with 70 to 100 percent recycled content that still meet HP's high-performance standards.

The technology company also claims that its cartridges and the plastics they use are not melted, refilled, re-sold or sent to a landfill in the process.

Since piloting the recycling program in 2005, HP has used enough recycled plastic to fill more than 200 tractor trailers and create more than 200 million HP inkjet cartridges globally, said a HP representative.

HP already runs a Planet Partners return and recycling program in more than 45 countries. This project makes it free and easy for consumers to return HP print cartridges for recycling.

"There are several ways for users to do their part for the environment through the HP Planet Partners program, said a Singapore-based HP representative. "For instance, SMEs (small and medium enterprises) have the choice of returning their original print cartridges to the HP office or at over 80 retails outlets (including the Challenger store). For enterprises, they can also choose to have HP collect their cartridges monthly."

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How to connect Windows to a network printer?

2008-02-12

Hi.. lots of my friends keep on asking me for steps to troubleshoot their printer problems and most of them are some short of connecting their printer with their windows.

So some where I thought why don’t have a post on this issue. So that those who are not directly interlinked with me still be the beneficiary’s.

Microsoft Windows 2000 / XP

1. Open the Windows Control Panel
2. Double-click the "Printers" or "Printers and Faxes" icon.
3. Double-click the "Add a printer" icon.
4. Once in the Printer Wizard click the Next button to get started.
5. Select either "A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer" or "Network Printer" and click Next. This option is different in Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
6. Type the name of the printer's network address. This will be the name of the computer and then the name of the printer. For example, if the computer on our network was called "hope" and our printer was called "hp" the network path for our printer would be: "\\hope\hp", if you are adding the printer on a Microsoft Windows XP computer you can click the Browse icon to browse your network and locate the printer. If you're unable to connect to the printer or browse and see the printer make sure you have the network rights and that any installed firewall is temporarily disabled.
7. Once the path has been typed in click Next.
8. If the printer was located over the network Windows should either install the printer or you may be required to install the drivers for that printer on the computer before completing the installation. If you no longer have the software or drivers for your printer you can locate the drivers for your printer through going to the printer manufacturer’s website.

Microsoft Windows 95, 98, or ME

1. Open the Windows Control Panel
2. Double-click Printers
3. Double-click the "Add a printer" icon.
4. Click Next to start the Add a printer wizard.
5. Select Network Printer and click Next.
6. Type the network name of the printer. This will be the name of the computer and then the name of the printer. For example, if the computer on our network was called "hope" and our printer was called "hp" the network path for our printer would be: "\\hope\hp", or click the browse icon to browse to the of the printer. If you're unable to connect to the printer or browse and see the printer make sure you have the network rights and that any installed firewall is temporarily disabled.
7. If the printer was located over the network Windows should either install the printer or you may be required to install the drivers for that printer on the computer before completing the installation. If you no longer have the software or drivers for your printer you can locate the drivers for your printer through going to the printer manufacturer’s website.

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HP Printer Cartridges Now Use Recycled Plastic

2008-02-03

Hewlett-Packard said Wednesday that it has developed a method to use post-consumer, recycled plastic inside its printer ink cartridges.

The technique has already been trialed, and now is being put into production. HP said that it has already produced more than 200 million cartridges during the so-called trial, and the company expects to use 10 million pounds of recycled plastic during 2008, partly as a result of the new manufacturing technique.

In all, the recycled plastics content makes up between 70 and 100 percent.

The process requires plastic from HP's existing printer cartridges, which can be recycled using the company's Planet Partners program. They then undergo a multi-phase recycling process that reduces them to raw materials such as plastics and metals, according to HP, which then mixes the plastic with recycled bottle resin and a suite of compounding additives.

"By developing the technology to use recycled plastics in Original HP inkjet printer cartridges, we have the opportunity to reduce the environmental impact HP products have on the planet," said Michael Hoffmann, senior vice president of HP's Supplies, Imaging and Printing Group, in a statement. "HP's considerable investments in building a recycling infrastructure made this achievement possible, and this is just the beginning of what we hope to accomplish."

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How to install a printer driver on a Windows XP

2008-01-24

To install a printer driver locally on a Windows XP based computer, follow these steps:

* Click Start, click Control Panel, click Printers and Other Hardware, and then click Printers and Faxes.
* Double-click Add Printer to start the Add Printer Wizard, and then click Next. Click Local printer, clear the Automatically detect and install check box, and then click Next.
* Click Create a new port, and then click Local Port in the Port type section.
* In the Port Name box, type the path to the printer in the following format, where server is the name of the print server and printer is the name of the printer:
* \serverprinter
* Click Next, and then select a Windows 2000 or Windows XP driver for your printer.

Click Next, and then follow the instructions to finish the wizard.

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HP Photosmart A626 Photo Printer

2008-01-20

The HP Photosmart A626 is a compact photo printer that features a special 4.8-inch touch-screen display and stylus to make printing photos easier than ever. Equipped with a small carrying handle, the attractive, boom box-shaped A626 is designed for you to carry along on trips or special occasions. The A626’s interface is intuitive and innovative.

 

The A626 uses a tri-color ink system, which includes cyan, magenta, and yellow; this means that blacks are processed, or a combination of those three colors, as opposed to a true black ink. As a result, test prints with the A626 lacked depth and shadow detail; the quality of black-and-white photos was especially inferior. But if you’re a scrapbooker or shutterbug looking for a quick, easy way to immortalize your memories in print, the A626 shouldn’t disappoint.

 

Weighing slightly more than three pounds, the A626 is a breeze to unpack and set up. After plugging in the power cord, installing an ink cartridge, loading some paper, and inserting a memory card, you’ll be ready to print. The A626 supports all the major memory cards—CompactFlash Type I and II, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Secure Digital/MultiMediaCard/Secure MultiMediaCard and xD-Picture Card—so you shouldn’t be left out.

 

Unlike most compact photo printers, the A626 has an input tray that can be adjusted to print on various paper sizes—up to 4-by-12-inch panoramas.

Though the A626 supports various paper sizes, the input tray capacity is surprisingly small, holding a maximum of 20 sheets. The input tray is accessible by prying open a cover on the back of the printer, leaving very little space to load paper. The A626’s design could be improved to offer both easier access to its input tray as well as greater paper capacity.

The A626’s strength is its innovative, user-friendly interface. While using this printer, I never had to consult the user manual. Even when it ran out of ink or paper, the printer’s bright screen displayed instructions on how to reload the media. The A626 also makes it straightforward to apply more advanced edits to your photos, such as effects, clip art, and cropping.

In terms of print quality, the A626 leaves something to be desired. The A626’s photos appear somewhat flat and dull; under light, you’ll see that dark colors look a little blotted. 

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How to choose the right Inkjet Printer

2008-01-17

Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Epson and Lexmark are responsible for the majority of inkjet printer sales in the global consumer market. If you have plans to buy an inkjet printer, this blog will definitely help you in arriving at the right choice.

What are the different types of inkjet printers available in the market?

Basic Inkjet Printers:

If you need to print web pages, spreadsheets and text documents, a basic inkjet printer that uses CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and key) or black ink will best suit your needs.

Inkjet Photo Printers:

To create higher-quality photo prints, use six-color inkjet photo printers with CMYK ink as well as light cyan and light magenta. Do you want to print photos directly from your digital camera? Go for inkjet photo printers with an LCD preview screen, PictBridge to transfer images directly from your digital camera over USB and media card slots compatible with the memory cards you use in your digital camera.

Portable Inkjet Printers:

You should select a printer that weighs less than 5 pounds if you travel a lot on business.

Multifunction Inkjet Printers:

This printer allows you to print, scan and copy, all at the touch of a button. However, you will you have to compromise a little on quality. Printers with faxing capabilities are also available.

Online shopping and comparison site BIGshop is a great place to start when looking to find any of the above printers at marked down prices.

What is the maximum printing speed of an inkjet printer?

The speed of an inkjet printer is measured by the number of pages it can print per minute (ppm). A standard inkjet printer has three levels of quality settings: draft, normal and best. The speed decreases if you want high quality outputs. Manufacturers test the speed of a printer by printing basic text at the lowest quality setting, If you plan to print at normal quality settings, the real speed is likely to be about half the speed stated by the manufacturer.

If you often print graphics with your inkjet printer, speed is an important factor. Based on your printer's system configurations, print mode, page coverage, document complexity and software, print speeds vary. In a standard inkjet printer, print speed for black text differs between 1 to 28 ppm. For color photos and graphics, speeds range from 1 to 20 ppm.

What resolution is good for quality printing?

Another area you have to concentrate on is print resolution. Printers are identified as being of good quality if they feature print resolutions in excess of 1440 dots per inch (dpi). The maximum color resolution that an inkjet printer generally has is 2400 x 1200 dpi. Some high-end models have up to 4800 x 1200 dpi. Look for a resolution of least 600 x 600 dpi for text printing and a minimum of 1200 x 600 dpi for graphics and photos. It is important to remember that the quality of output does not depend upon the resolution alone. It also depends upon the inkjet system used by the manufacturer and the colour management system.

In what way can memory capacity and memory card slots assist you?

Memory capacity should be a major factor when buying an inkjet printer because the built-in RAM cannot be expanded. You should check how much RAM is included with the printer you intend to buy. Basic models have 768 KB of RAM while the standard photo model comes with at least 8 MB of RAM for printing high-quality images.

Several inkjet printers feature memory card slots that support CompactFlash, Smart Media, Memory Stick, Secure Digital/MultiMedia Card and XD-Picture Card as well as other more advanced memory cards. Before buying a printer, confirm that it can read the memory cards that you already own.

Are you looking for a printer to share?

If you want to share a printer with other computers over a home or business network, you should check to see whether it has a wired or wireless connection. Inkjet printers connect to your computer through a USB or FireWire (IEEE 1394) port. Today, many printers use Wi-Fi technology to print wirelessly. Some models of inkjet printers are network-ready right out of the box, while others come in standalone and network-ready versions. The most expensive option is an inject printer that support a network add-on. However, this model may be more economical in the long run if you want to share the printer with other people.

What is the paper handling capacity of the printer?

The paper handling capacity should be of great concern to you if you print frequently or in bulk. In such cases, search for a printer that can hold a large quantity of paper at a time. Many inkjet printers have paper trays that take up to 250 sheets. Inkjet printers with ship paper trays can handle only 100 or 150 sheets and envelopes. Few business-oriented models feature option of additional paper trays.

Which type of cartridges is better?

Every standard inkjet printer comes with four ink colors based on the CMYK color method. Normally, the cyan, magenta and yellow inks are packaged in individual containers within a single cartridge. A separate cartridge with black ink is also included.

Today, most professionals use three types of inks for their inkjet printers. Solvent inks are low in price and used for producing vehicle graphics, billboards and banners. UV-curable inks dry quickly and are mainly used for good images. For better color and durability, dye sublimation inks are preferred.

While purchasing an inkjet printer, find out which type of ink cartridges it takes and ensure that replacement of these cartridges is easy. Also check whether you can replace individual ink cartridges or you have to replace the entire bunch at once.

Which are the inexpensive head designs for inkjet printers?

Every inkjet printer has either a fixed or a disposable head design. The fixed head design is built-in and lasts for the entire life of the printer. Most inkjet heads feature micropiezo technology for precise dot placement. With this fixed design, you do not have to replace the head every time the ink runs out. The disposable head design comes with ink cartridges. You will have to replace both the cartridges and print head once the ink is exhausted.

What are the consumables in an inkjet printer?

Many models of inkjet printers have detachable drums, ink cartridges, developer units, fusers and a few other components which need occasional replacement. Combining all these consumables into one cartridge is the best approach. Replacing an integrated cartridge is less expensive when compared to the expense of replacing individual consumables at a time. But if one component fails in an integrated cartridge, then you have to replace the cartridge itself. Also, find out the cost for per-page printing as it differs among printers. The per-page printing cost can be calculated by dividing the price by the evaluated output of a cartridge.

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Learn how to save money for your small business or home office through printer repairs

2008-01-14

What does your company do with malfunctioning printers? With the costs of printers coming down in recent years, many corporate decision makers assume it is less expensive and time consuming to simply buy brand new printers. But while printer costs have certainly come down, so have the costs of printer repair.

Given that America is a nation of do-it-yourselfers, it is surprising that many don't realize how easy it is to fix common printer problems that can save their businesses thousands of dollars. If your company is having trouble with its printers, consider repairing them yourself as your first solution.

Most printer problems are relatively easy to fix - if you have the parts that are included in a standard printer maintenance kit. For example, the printer fuser, the part that fuses the toner onto the paper, is one of the most common trouble spots. Repair "depots" (companies that provide replacement parts and services for major manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, and Canon) say that most of the time, malfunctions are caused by a damaged fuser. Even on top-of-the-line printers, fusers can stop working properly long before the rest of the printer.

Yet replacing fusers is simple if you follow the directions in the maintenance kits available for your printer models. For most model, it simply requires opening the printer, releasing the fuser levers or unscrewing the connection screws, and then replacing the old part with the new. Most other printer problem can be identified and repaired with similar ease.

As companies of all sizes are learning, it's easy to turn printer repair into an opportunity to trim capital expenditures, and there are several companies that provide parts and maintenance kits for do-it-yourself printer repair. Leading companies provide maintenance kits for all major printer models and their web sites also offer free detailed instructions. These printer maintenance kits contain spare parts that have highly predictable wear characteristics, which help eliminate repeat service calls and maximize the paper feed and print quality performance.

In addition to simply providing you with the parts to fix your computer, printer repair depots also provide further means to save money. Here are some common ways to save money through printer repair:

1. By removing the broken parts and sending them to a printer repair depot instead of throwing away the whole machine, businesses are finding that they can save thousands of dollars each year.

2. Even more money can be saved by opting to have the depot's technicians replace broken parts with remanufactured (sometimes called "refurbished") parts. Corporations with staff people assigned to supporting their computers typically want the remanufactured parts because they know that the remanufactured parts need to be tested to comply with the manufacturer's standards and that the depot selling them guarantees their performance. These high volume users appreciate the substantial savings that come from using "good as new" over "brand new" parts.

3. Many depots offer core buy back programs. Companies with damaged printers send the depot the damaged parts and subassemblies for a cash incentive. The depot then repairs, tests, and resells them as remanufactured parts. Everyone benefits: the seller, the depot, and the customer.

4. And a money-saver that savvy companies know very well: frequently there are environmental compliance costs associated with throwing out computers, printers, and other electronic devices. By repairing printers instead of throwing them out, companies save on trash removal fees too.

Printer repair depots also provide in-depth online resources to help you identify what you need to fix. Many host printer error code library of documents on their web sites. These libraries give specific information on diagnosing many common problems.

Once you have identified the problems with your company's printers, you can purchase the proper parts or maintenance kits and make the repairs. A full inventory of parts plus optional overnight shipping means that you can have your printer fixed and operation regularly the next day. After you have learned how easy it is to repair your printers, you can begin to perform regular maintenance to minimize the chance of printer problems, saving even more money in the future.

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5 Laser Printer Tips

2008-01-09

Laser printers are likely the best printers that you regularly use.  They are also complicated and often misunderstood by end users when problems begin to arise.  Follow these simple tips and you will eliminate many problems and reduce frustration levels...

1.  It's probably the toner cartridge.  If you are having problems with print quality, replace the toner cartridge.  Many times, this is the cause of streaks, light spots, ghosting, and other problems.

2.  Don't blow canned air inside a dirty printer!  Loose toner can find its way onto laser lenses causing worse problems.

3.  Use quality supplies.  This includes Maintenance Kits, Paper, and Toner Cartridges.  Third party products and "refurbs" often fail faster than manufacturers original parts.

4.  Be careful printing on anything other than normal paper.  Envelopes, labels, or transparencies can instantly ruin a fuser by melting and contaminating the fuser roller.

5.  Check your connections.  A loose printer cable can present confusing symptoms.  Some printers (like HPs) will display a printer error, leading you to believe the problem is in the printer!

 

-And ALWAYS unplug a laser printer while working with it.  There are high voltage wires and very hot surfaces inside that can cause injury. 

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How To Extend the Life of Your Cartridge

2008-01-07

The only reason cartridges have a limited refill life is the resistors that control the current to each outlet jet. When a cartridge runs out of ink, the resistors can overheat and burn out. Most printers will warn you of a low cartridge before it completely runs out of ink. At the first sign of low ink, refill or top off your ink cartridge to ensure a long refillable life!

Prevent Print Head Burnout: (HP cartridge types)

Did you know that one of the most common causes of printer cartridge failure is print head burnout?

When the printer gives the command for an inkjet nozzle to print, many things happen. A certain quantity of ink is already in the firing chamber, having been pulled there by capillary, gravity or vacuum action after the last firing. The electronics package (the copper circuitry on the side of the cartridge) instructs the heating resistor to heat the ink in the chamber, causing it to expand. This very quick expansion forces ink to shoot through the print head nozzle onto the paper.

The actual structures that make up the print head are quite small. Each print head nozzle assembly consists of the nozzle plate with hole, a chamber to contain the ink, the resistor plate in the chamber and walls to guide the incoming ink to the correct position. These microscopic structures are very sensitive and delicate, and there are over 300 on the end of a typical printer cartridge.

The ink that flows through this assembly is to the print head what water is to the engine of an automobile. With no water in your car radiator, your engine will soon burn up. The same is true for your printer cartridges. The resistor that heats the ink quickly achieves a temperature of hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit! Without the cooling action of the ink, the microscopic print head substructures crack and begin to break apart, and the nozzle plate begins to warp and pull away from the cartridge.

Once print head burnout has begun, the cartridge can no longer be expected to perform as well as it did. The cartridge may leak, print with streaks of ink on the paper, or may just print poorly -- resulting in banding, poor color definition, bad coloration, missing characters and light / dark text. Printing even part of a page with no ink in the cartridge can damage your print head.

We cannot stress enough how important it is to refill your cartridges before they run dry. Print head burnout is one reason this is so important.

Late model printers may offer an "ink level gauge" letting you know when to replace your cartridge. Unfortunately these software gauges are "guesstimates" of the actual ink level in the cartridges and are based on pages printed, not on any physical measurement of ink levels.

For this reason we suggest that you top off your cartridges on a regular basis. If you know that you use a cartridge every two months, refill every month. Place a sticky note on your printer to remind you when to refill next. If you rely on your printer ink level gauge, be sure to refill before the "out of ink" indicator pops up. Note: If you have ink left over, don't worry, it'll keep!

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Enhance Your Printing Experience with Printer Tips

2008-01-03

There are numerous idiosyncrasies and aggravations that go with getting decent results from your printer. Since different printers interact differently with different machines, I can't get too specific, but here are some tips of general interest.

Find the settings that govern your printer by going through Start or Start, Settings and then choosing Printers or Printers and Faxes. Right-click the icon of the printer you want to tweak and choose Properties. In Win 9x/ME, choose the Details tab and then the Spool Settings button; in 2K/XP, choose the Advanced tab. Why do you care? Because every print job you create goes to a "spool file" on your hard disk before it goes to the printer, and by necessity a spool job is rife with compromises between speed of printing and speed of freeing your application for further use. Depending on your personal needs, you may want to tweak the settings. For a minimum amount of time your app is caught in the print job, choose "Spool print jobs so program finishes printing faster." Then choose "Start printing after last page is spooled." If you'd rather have those pages hit the printer faster, try "Print directly to the printer." If neither of these options makes anything better, restore the defaults by choosing either "Start printing after the first page is spooled" or "Start printing immediately." Note: networked or shared printers may not respond properly to these commands.

Using multiple printers? Choose your default printer by going into Start, Settings, Printers, and look for the icon of the printer you want to set as your default. Right-click it and choose Set As Default. Easy enough.

Your printer may tell you that it's experiencing an error writing to the LPT1 port. This could be caused by various things, from the simple (printer not online, no paper in the tray) to something a little more tricky. The simplest solution is to turn the printer off and back on; that may re-establish the connection. Check your printer cable to make sure both ends are securely attached. If your cable is too old or even too long, the connection may not be clean; consider buying a new, IEEE 1284-compliant bidirectional cable. Your printer driver may not be up-to-date, or may be corrupt. You could try reloading the printer software, but you may end up surfing to the printer manufacturer's Web site for more current drivers. If that's the case, you'll need to open the Printers folder (through the Start, Settings menus), right-click the printer icon, and choose Delete. Reinstall the new driver by clicking Add Printer. Still not working? Hmmmm. Check your PC's parallel port settings by right-clicking My Computer, selecting Properties, and going into Device Manager. Double-click Ports (COM and LPT), double-click Printer Port (LPT1), select Resources, and check the "Conflicting device list" for an IRQ or DMA conflict (i.e. two devices using the same IRQ or DMA setting). Disable the secondary device, or assign it to a new IRQ. You can disable a device by finding it in Device Manager, opening the Properties dialog box, selecting General, and checking "Disable in this hardware profile." If you think you're experiencing a DMA conflict, check to see whether your printer port is configured for ECP, EPP, or Standard. ECP is the highest and least compatible; Standard is slower but more compatible. Lower the configurations until you find a setting that works.

Printing different kinds of documents often forces reset of the printer settings. If you're tired of resetting your printer again and again, try setting up multiple copies of your printer in your Printer folder. Go through Start, Settings, Printers, and choose Add Printer. Use the Add Printer Wizard to create a new copy of the printer you're currently using, then choose Rename and give it a descriptive name, i.e. Two-Sided Printing or whatever suits your needs. Right-click on the newly renamed printer, choose Properties, set the options accordingly, and print OK. Do this for every configuration you normally use. Now when you want to print varying kinds of documents, all you need to do is go into Printers and choose the proper configuration.

You're aware that printers line up documents in a "queue," one after another. If you want to rearrange the documents in a printer queue (i.e. to get your report printed before the yoyo in the next office gets his), choose Start, Settings, Printers and double-click on the printer whose queue you want to manage. Click the name of the document to be printed, called the print job, and drag it to the order that you want it printed. (Unfortunately, you can't drag a job from one print queue to another, separate queue, since the documents have already been translated into RAW format for that specific printer.)

Oftentimes laser printers choke on large documents (especially those stuffed with images). That usually means that your printer doesn't have enough RAM. It's easy enough to stuff some more RAM modules into your printer, assuming that your printer has the slots. You can check your printer manufacturer's Web site for more info on this. Most laser printers use SIMMs, the same type of RAM that your PC uses, so it's possible to find an old, unused PC, take the SIMM modules out of the old chassis, and slap them into the laser printer. If you know what you're doing (and make sure to ground yourself), this can be a simple and cheap way to upgrade your printer's memory.

You don't need to open a file or its native application to print it. The easiest way to do it is to right-click its icon and choose Print. Windows handles all the details while you do something else. Or, if this comes up a lot for you, why not create a shortcut to your printer on your Desktop? Open My Computer, double-click the Printers folder, right-click and drag your printer icon out to the desktop, release the mouse button, and select "Create Shortcut(s) Here." Now, to print a file, just drag-and-drop its icon onto the printer shortcut. Again, Windows handles all the dirty work from there.

If you're networked with more than one printer, you should consider renaming the printers something descriptive or at least amusing. Click the printer icon once to select it, press F2 to activate the Rename function, and type your choice of nomenclatures. Press Enter and you've renamed that printer. Windows recommends you use the printer's factory name, but what fun is that?

Again, for those of us using more than one printer, you might want to set your computer to use a particular printer as your favorite, or default. Easy enough, just right-click the favored printer's icon and choose "Set as Default."

If you frequently print documents using different printer settings, such as black and white drafts versus color documents, you're probably getting tired of changing these settings each time you print. You can avoid this busywork by tricking Windows into thinking you have two different printers. "Install" the same printer twice, then set the Properties for each to match your most commonly used settings. From then on, the only setting change you'll have to make is selecting the printer you want to use. To "install" your printer again, select Start, Settings, Printers and click Add Printer. Follow along with the installation instructions, and when asked, opt to keep the existing driver. Also, be sure to give this "second" printer an appropriate name, such as Color Docs. When the installation is complete, you'll see two different printer icons in the Printers window. To adjust their properties, one at a time, right-click an icon, select Properties, and so on. The next time you want to print a document, select the application's Print command, select a printer in the resulting dialog box, and click OK.

Windows may be starting files that are on their way to the printer in their "raw" form. That's sometimes the default Windows setting. But raw files must be converted from their raw format that the application understood to the printer format. If you instead tell Windows to send documents as EMF -- Enhanced Metafile Format -- files, then Windows doesn't have to work at the conversion. The printer is then responsible for understanding the EMF. That can slow the printer but speed your PC. To send documents as EMF, first choose Start, Settings, Printers. Next, right-click the printer you're using. Choose Properties, Details, Spool Settings. In the Spool Data Format list, choose EMF. Easy enough.

For lots of extra info about printing, consult your Windows CD. Drill down to the \OTHER\MISC\EPTS folder, double-click EPTS.EXE, and the Enhanced Printer Troubleshooter appears. Follow along, answering the questions it asks, and with luck, you'll find a solution.

Color ink jet printers are cheaper than laser printers, but they do suck up the ink. Here's an easy way to save some ink and thusly save on pricey cartridges: turn off the color. If you're not printing color documents (and most of us print black-and-white text documents 90% of the time or more), then having your printer set to print color just wastes ink. Go through Start/Settings/Printers, click the icon for your printer and choose Properties. Poke around in the various tabs until you find out how to change the settings from color to grayscale. Leave it unless you need to print a color document, then change it back.

With inkjet printers, you always need to power the printer on and off by using its own power switch, and not another switch such as the one on your surge protector. The print head needs to be "parked" in a certain place, and that won't happen if you turn the printer off externally.

Clean the nozzles of your inkjet printer periodically. Each printer's software has you perform this task differently, but however you do it, do it at least once every few weeks, particularly if your printer sits unused for stretches of time. The printer "blows" ink through the nozzles to remove dried and gunked-up ink; it may seem wasteful, but you save in the long run by not having to replace half-used cartridges.

You should run your ink jet printer's cartridge-cleaning utility fairly regularly. Don't wait until print quality starts to degrade. Most printer software comes with self-test features under the Properties\Utilities section of their main screens; run the tests and see for yourself if the test produces less-than-excellent results. Run the cleaning utility and run the test page program again. Really badly clogged cartridges may need multiple runs of the cleaning utility. The downside: the cleaning process uses a disproportionate amount of ink, so running the utility without need wastes ink.

More inkjet caveats: Store old but usable cartridges in Ziploc bags or something else relatively airtight. Stick to using the paper recommended by your printer manufacturer (if you don't know what to use, go with the standard 20-pound copier paper); also never mix paper types in the same batch, and be careful about setting your paper guides, as many inkjet printers are rather flimsy. Keep the inside of the printer clean, using tweezers and canned air to clear out the debris and gook from the inside. Lastly, if your printer maker posts new printer drivers for your particular model, download and use them.

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How To Clear Incomplete/Stuck Print Jobs From Your Print Queue

2007-12-26

When print jobs are initiated they are stored in a print job list, also called a print queue. If the printer does not complete the print job, due to a pause (the printer being off-line, or a failed print spooler,etc.), your print jobs will build up in the print queue causing it to become locked-up. Follow the steps below to clear your print queue of incomplete print jobs.

Open the Printer folder by following the steps below. (For Window 98, Me, and 2000):

- Click Start.

- Click Settings.

- Click Printers.

For Windows XP:

- Click Start.

- Click Control Panel.

- Click Printers and Other Hardware or Printers and Faxes.

(NOTE: If you have the Printers and Faxes option in this screen, skip to step five, if not, continue to the next step.)

- Click Printers and Faxes.

- Select View Installed Printers.

- Double-click the Printer to open the print queue.

- Click Printer in the menu.

- Select Pause Printing if it is not already selected. This will stop all printing to the printer.

- Click Printer again and select Purge Print Documents or Cancel All Documents, then click Yes to confirm the action.

If there are any documents left in the queue, un-pause the print queue by clicking Printer then Pause Printing to resume printing.

- Click Printer again, then Cancel All Documents or Purge Print Documents.

If there are still documents in the queue, restart the computer. Once the computer has restarted, check the print queue to insure that it is clear. In some instances the queue will still not be clear (most commonly this happens in Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP). If this is the case, stop, then restart the printer services by following the steps below.

For Windows XP:

- Click Start and then Control Panel.

- Select Performance and Maintenance.

- Select Administrative Tools.

- Select Services.

- Select Print Spooler to open the properties window.

- Click Stop to stop the service. Once the service is stopped click Start to restart the service.

- Click OK to close the Print Spooler Properties window.

How to print a Photo-Proof Sheet

Have you ever wanted to print picture thumbnails on one piece of paper? If you're using Windows XP, this is what I suggest:

1) Go to the folder where the photos are that you want to print (usually saved in My Pictures).
2) Double click on one of the photos. The Windows Picture and Fax Viewer will come up.
3) At the bottom, there's a group of icons. Double click on the printer icon (fourth from right side).
4) This opens up the Photo Printing Wizard. Click Next.
5) Here you can select which photos you want to print (Select All or just the ones you want to print). Click Next.
6) This brings you to Printing Options.
7) Select your printer and printing preferences. Click Next.
8) This brings you to the Layout Selection. One of the options is Contact Sheet Prints, where you can print 35 prints per page. Click Next and your thumbnail pictures will print.

Go ahead and play with it a bit. When you're happy with the layout, print it on good photo quality paper. Now you can take it with you to show family and friends.

What Happens When You Click "OK" to Print?

There is a sequence of events that take place, seemingly, in the blink of a eye:

1. The software application you are using sends the data to be printed to the printer driver.

2.The driver translates the data into a format that the printer can understand and checks to see that the printer is online and available to print.

3. The data is sent by the driver from the computer to the printer via the connection interface (parallel, USB, etc.).

4. The printer receives the data from the computer. It stores a certain amount of data in a buffer. The buffer can range from 512 kilobytes random access memory (RAM) to 16 megabytes RAM, depending on the model. Buffers are useful because they allow the computer to finish with the printing process quickly, instead of having to wait for the actual page to print. A large buffer can hold a complex document or several basic documents.

5. If the printer has been idle for a period of time, it will normally go through a short clean cycle to make sure that the printheads are clean. Once the clean cycle is complete, the printer is ready to begin printing.

6. The control circuitry activates the paper feed stepper motor. This engages the rollers, which feed a sheet of paper from the paper tray/feeder into the printer. A small trigger mechanism in the tray/feeder is depressed when there is paper in the tray or feeder. If the trigger is not depressed, the printer lights up the "Out of Paper" LED and sends an alert to the computer.

7. Once the paper is fed into the printer and positioned at the start of the page, the print head stepper motor uses the belt to move the print head assembly across the page. The motor pauses for the merest fraction of a second each time that the print head sprays dots of ink on the page and then moves a tiny bit before stopping again. This stepping happens so fast that it seems like a continuous motion.

8. Multiple dots are made at each stop. It sprays the CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) colors in exact amounts to make any other color imaginable.

9. At the end of each complete pass, the paper feed stepper motor advances the paper a fraction of an inch. Depending on the ink-jet model, the print head is reset to the beginning side of the page, or, in most cases, simply reverses direction and begins to move back across the page as it prints.

10. This process continues until the page is printed. The time it takes to print a page can vary widely from printer to printer. It will also vary based on the complexity of the page and size of any images on the page. For example, a printer may be able to print 16 pages per minute (PPM) of black text but take a couple of minutes to print one, full colour, page-sized image.

11. Once the printing is complete, the print head is parked. The paper feed stepper motor spins the rollers to finish pushing the completed page into the output tray. Most printers today use inks that are very fast-drying, so that you can immediately pick up the sheet without smudging it.

So, now you know! Printers are truly a wonderful technology!

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Printing Tips & Trick to Exploit Your Printer to its Full (Part I)

2007-12-20

It is often that we are not able to exploit our printer to its full extent and get along with all useless contents being printed from a document where we only need that last 2 pages or in between 2 para or just some text from a webpage. So to get out of this mess here are some printing tips that will help you along your due course of printing experience. Printing Tips & Trick

Expand Your Printer's Allowable Printing Area

Most printers have an "unprintable" border area for each page printed. Check your printer's manual for its minimum settings and make sure they match the settings listed in Windows under "Unprintable Area."

Click Start > Settings > Printers  to open the printer's dialog box. Select your printer, choose File/Properties, then click the Paper tab. If the settings are too high, lower them to increase the printable area. ** Don't lower them past what your printer manual calls for. Experiment to get the printable area you want.

How To Print Only the Part You Need

Here's a tip to help you save on ink and paper...

Want a printed copy of only part of the information on a web page and don't want to copy the entire page or multiple pages? There are a couple of options:

1) Highlight the part of message desired, then copy and paste to a blank email and print it without sending the message. Cancel the email and you have a copy of the desired information.

2) If you are using Internet Explorer: From the web page you are on, highlight the text you want to print. Click on File/Print. In the print dialog window, under "Print range" click on "Selection" and then click the "OK" button at the bottom. Only the text you have highlighted will print.

Print Preview: Add it to your browser's tool bar.

Printouts don't always come out looking like you'd expect, especially when printing from the Web. For instance, when printing directions from Google Maps, I usually get a page at the end of the print out with nothing but a header and footer containing the site's url, date, time, etc.(what a watse of paper!). When this happens it pays to use your browser's Print Preview function to make sure what you see is what you'll get.

You can always go to the File section of your browser's tool bar and select Print Preview to determine what going to be printed from the Web, but adding the Print Preview button to your browser's toolbar will make it even easier to use. Here's how:

In Internet Explorer select View -> Toolbars -> Customize. In the "Available toolbar buttons" box, select the "Print Preview" line, click on "Add", then "Close."

How To Clear PC Memory Space For Printing

Are you getting a "Not Enough Disk Space to Print" message on your PC screen? Memory, or lack of it, could be the problem. Here are some steps you can take to clear up space:

-Click the desktop Start button.
-Select Find and then Files or Folders.
-Type "*.TMP" in the Named box.
-Type "C:\" in the Look In box.
-Make sure that the Include Subfolders box is checked.
-Click the Find Now button.
-Highlight any temporary files returned in the Search Results list by choosing Edit and then Select All.
-Click File and then Delete to delete the files. *If any of the files are necessary to Windows, then Windows will not allow them to be deleted.
-Double-click the Recycle Bin to open it.
-Click on File and then Empty Recycle Bin to remove the files from your system.
-Click the X in the upper right corner of the Recycle Bin to close it.

Note: Before printing large, graphics-intensive documents, close other programs to free up virtual memory space and don't mess with your computer during large print jobs. ;)

Watermarks... Add some class to your Word documents!

Watermarks, images barely visible behind text, add a touch of class to your Microsoft Word documents. Inserting a watermark once took some effort, leading many users to buy paper with preprinted watermarks. But Word 2002 makes it very simple to print pages with your own custom background images and text. Here's how:

1. Choose Page Layout from the View menu.
2. Go to the Format menu, click Background and choose Printed Watermark. * For picture watermarks, click Picture Watermark and Select Picture. Find the image you want to use on your hard drive and click Insert. * For text watermarks, choose Text Watermark and type the text you'd like to use.
3. Tweak your options and press Apply.

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Don't Let the Cartridge Dry Out.

2007-12-18

The number one refilling problem is waiting too long to refill your cartridge. If you run out of ink, leave your cartridge in the printer. Don't let your cartridge dry out.   Inside just about all inkjet cartridges with a built-in print head, there is a foam sponge. When the cartridge runs out of ink, the sponge may dry up and go hard, especially when the cartridge is removed from the printer. Once the sponge has hardened the cartridge is "done for". Even if you refill the cartridge before the sponge becomes useless, dried ink can clog the microscopic holes (jets) in the print head.   It's always better to refill the cartridge before it runs dry. Topping off the cartridge every 200-300 sheets ensures that the cartridge always has ink in it to stop the sponge from drying out, and preventing you from running out of ink in the middle of a job.   The print head of an ink jet cartridge can reach temperatures of 500 degrees centigrade and the ink itself serves as a coolant, so allowing the cartridge to run dry can destroy the print head.

If you are out of refill ink supplies and want to preserve, your cartridge for future refilling, wrap your cartridge in a slightly moist paper towel or cloth and seal it in tightly a plastic baggie. Remember to get as much air out of the baggie as possible. This will buy you time to get resupplied.

Note:   If you've refilled a cartridge and find that it's clogged up and won't print, there is something you can try before discarding it.   Place the print head of the cartridge (just the nozzles where the ink comes out) in a small bowl containing roughly a half cup of very hot water and hold it there for five minutes.   In some cases this will dissolve the dried ink that's obstructing the nozzles, and, if it works, you should see a little ink bleeding from the print head into the water. This procedure can be repeated two or three times if you wish.   Once it looks as though the nozzles have been unclogged, you should gently wipe off the entire cartridge, especially the copper electrical contacts, with alcohol on a soft, lint-free cloth, insert the cartridge into your printer, and run it's print head cleaning cycle (consult your printer's manual if necessary) before you try printing.   If this doesn't fix it, you should discard the cartridge but you may wish to recover the ink from it first.

All Printers Require Good Preventive Maintenance.
The number one complaint about poor print quality, specifically streaking print, white lines through the print, or no print at all, can be avoided by frequent use of your printer.   These print problems are caused by ink drying up in the print head or nozzles, clogging them and preventing ink from reaching the paper. If you don't use your printer regularly you can help keep it in working order by printing a test page or running a print head cleaning cycle once a week.   Consult your printer's manual for additional, or more specific preventative maintenance tips.

Power Down Properly.
Always use your printer's power switch rather than the switch on a surge protector to shut the unit down. Most ink jet printers have a print head parking function that's triggered by the printer's own power switch. This ensures that your cartridges are 'sealed' properly and not exposed to the drying effects of ambient air.

Keep The Print Head Clean.
Care needs to be taken to ensure that the print head is kept clean in order to stop ink clogging in the print head. Some printers (Hewlett Packard for example) don't do a very thorough job of cleaning the print head when you run their normal cleaning cycle. Deposits of ink can build up on the print head, causing the cartridge to function poorly. You can help circumvent this problem by occasionally cleaning the print head with a soft cotton cloth or Q-tip (don't use tissues and be gentle) dipped in water. Snap the cartridge in and out a couple times to get a good connection after cleaning. Keeping the print head clean will result in a maximum number of successful refills. You can also purchase Inkjet Printer Cleaning Kits to aid you in this.

Preventing "Color Mixing" When Refilling.
When refilling a three color (or more) cartridge, there is a chance that you can have the cartridge turned the wrong way and get the colors on the ends backwards. In other words, you might put the magenta ink in the cyan chamber. To avoid this from happening and ruining your cartridge: use three tooth picks and insert one of them into each fill hole, deep enough to pick up some ink. Mark the cartridge with a marker or piece of tape to help you remember which chamber is which color.

Warning when refilling color cartridges be sure to follow the instructions provided with your refill kit very carefully.

Do Not Run Back-to-Back Cleaning Cycles.
Give the cartridge a chance to let some ink flow in between cleaning cycles. This will purge air bubbles or foamy ink that a cleaning cycle may have created.   Print a test page or a color balanced image. If the printing quality hasn't improved, run another cleaning cycle and test it again. Repeat the process as often as needed.

Purge the Cartridge.
Purging the cartridge regularly is one of the most important steps in ensuring a long cartridge life. The purging cycle is not the same as the cleaning cycle. If you don't know how to do this, read your printer manual, It's all in there. The purge cycle consists of a process that heats all the jets in the cartridge and then cleans them from the inside out. All purge cycles produce a grid which consists of vertical and horizontal lines which represent all the jets in the cartridge.

Prevent Printhead Burnout.
One of the most common causes of printer cartridge failure is print head burnout.   When the   command is given for an inkjet nozzle to "print" many things happen; ink has been brought to the "firing chamber" by a combination of gravity, capillary action, and vacuum caused by the last firing. The circuitry applies current to the heating resistor which rapidly heats the ink in the chamber, causing it to expand. This quick expansion forces ink to shoot through the print head nozzle onto the paper.   There are over 200 of these microscopic expansion chambers on the end of a typical printer cartridge.   The ink which flows through them also serves to cool them off. The resistor which heats the ink achieves very high temperatures and without the cooling action of the ink, the print head very rapidly begins to deteriorate. Printing even part of a page with no ink in the cartridge can permanently damage the print head. Most printers will warn you of a low cartridge before it completely runs out of ink.   At the first sign of low ink, refill your cartridge to ensure a long refillable life.

Late model printers may offer an "ink level gauge".   Be aware that these software "gauges" are not accurate measures of the ink level in the cartridge and should not be trusted.   For this reason we suggest that you top off your cartridges on a regular basis. If you know that you use a cartridge every 2 months, refill every month. Place a sticky note on your printer to remind you when to next refill. If you rely on your printer ink level gauge, be sure to refill before the 'out of ink indicator' pops up.   Note:   if you have ink left over don't worry, it'll keep.

Pressure Equalization.
When some cartridges are refilled the cartridge may require time to reestablish internal equilibrium.   Some may require you to re-pressurize them with a plastic squeeze bottle while others require only time to stabilize before being inserted into the printer. This superior refilling method greatly reduces the amount of foaming (bubbles) within the tank.

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HP Photosmart C7280 All-In-One

2007-12-09

Most ink-jet-based all-in-ones (AIOs) emphasize either photo-related or office-centric features. The former are best suited for a home, while the latter work well for a small office or home office. The HP Photosmart C7280 All-In-One is strong in both departments. It offers photo-friendly features and high-quality photo prints, and also sports an automatic document feeder (ADF), standalone and fax, network connector, and Wi-Fi capability, all features that any office would welcome. All these capabilities make it a great choice for the dual role of home and home-office AIO.

On the photo-centric side, the C7280 can print from memory cards, PictBridge cameras, and USB keys. You can review photos on its 2.5-inch color LCD. Most important, you can print high-quality photos. It uses six ink colors with a separate cartridge for each color-cyan, yellow, magenta, black, light cyan, and light magenta-a common choice for photo printers.

As for its office features, it can print, scan, scan to e-mail (launching your e-mail program and adding the scanned file as an attachment), fax from your computer, and work as a standalone fax machine and copier. It makes quick work of scanning, faxing, or e-mailing multipage documents, thanks to a 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF). It can even scan legal-size pages using the ADF.

Still another feature that helps the C7280 fill a dual role is its network connector and Wi-Fi support, which make it easy to share on a home network. Setting up on a network is straightforward. The AIO measures 9.8 by 17.7 by 17.5 inches (HWD). Simply find a spot for it, remove the packing materials, plug it in, turn it on, and load the ink cartridges and paper. Then plug in the network cable, run the automated installation program, and wait while the software installs.

While you're waiting you might contemplate the paper handling, which is a mixed blessing. The C7280 includes two welcome touches: a duplexer for automatically printing on both sides of a page, and a 20-sheet, 4-by-6 photo tray so that you can switch between printing on standard paper and on 4-by-6 photo paper without having to swap paper. Unfortunately, the primary tray holds only 100 sheets. Refilling it could quickly get annoying if you print, fax, and copy more than about 20 sheets per day, making the C7280 suitable only for those offices that have the lightest of printing needs.

As for output quality, the C7280 is a little weak on text, but strong on graphics and photos. The text quality is typical for an ink jet, though on the low side of the range. I would call the text good enough for schoolwork or most business use, but not suitable for, say, legal contracts with small fonts or anything approaching desktop publishing, such as a client newsletter.

Graphics are easily good enough for any internal business use, including projects like PowerPoint handouts. Thin lines tend to disappear, which is a common issue with printers. Otherwise, the graphics are good enough to give to an important client or customer you need to impress with your professionalism. If you print full-page graphics, you may want to spend a little extra on better-quality paper. With the plain paper we use in our tests, full-page graphics tended to make the paper curl slightly.

Color-photo quality is terrific, close to what you expect to see from a more expensive photo printer or a professional photo lab. The one flaw worth mentioning was a color-balance problem in a monochrome photo.

And the photos should last. HP claims a 200-year lifetime for photos kept in dark storage, as in an album, 40 years for photos behind glass, and 30 or more years for photos exposed to the air.

HP competitor Dell also offers a 968 all-in-one wireless printer with a Dell Internal Wireless Adapter for the wireless technology , 802.11b/g Wi-Fi  and Optional Bluetooth adapter

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5 Simple Tips To Save Money On Printing

2007-12-02

Printing can be expensive because of the need to replace the ink cartridges. However there are still ways of saving money on printing . Below are five simple tips to help you to do so.

Tip No1 - Always proof read before printing

Most modern word processor program has spelling and grammar check functions. So use them to check on the completed work before printing. This way any mistakes you may make can be corrected. If not, a lot of ink can be wasted printing pages only to discover there are mistakes in them and the need to correct and reprint.

Tip No 2 - Print only the pages you need

Print preview function is available in word processor programs and Internet browsers. Make use of this function to see how a document look likes before printing. When used, look over the document for the pages you wanted to print and take note of it. Then when you select the print function, enter the desire page range for printing. Further notes on printing pages from the web, beside print preview, switch off printing images or advertisements and just print the text. You may also look for the "printable version" link of the web document if available. By practicing these steps you save paper and ink.

Tip No 3 - Use draft mode

Always print the document in draft mode for proof reading. When printing in this mode, the printing will be in black and white and uses minimum ink. This will save ink and extend the usage time of the ink cartridges. Setting up draft mode can be done by going to the printer driver of your PC, then select the printing preferences and from there select draft mode. Draft mode is also known by other terms like gray scale or low print quality. Another plus point of printing in draft mode is that the printing will be faster, hence saving time too.

Tip No 4 - Use compatible or remanufactured ink cartridges

Using both types of cartridges will save considerable money as they cost less than O.E.M (Original Equipment Manufacturer) cartridges. Remanufactured cartridges are used printer cartridges and are specially refurbished. During the refurbish process, the cartridges are cleaned, worn parts replaced and recharged with new ink. Using remanufactured cartridges can save 50 percent or more off the price of new O.E.M cartridges. On the other hand compatible ink cartridges are new cartridges manufactured to O.E.M specification. They too cost less than new O.E.M cartridges.

Tip No 5 - Buy in bulk

If you are doing a lot of printing, you can save a lot by buying your ink cartridges in bulk. Sellers normally give extra discount and even provide free delivery when buyers buy in bulk. More savings can be realized if you buy remanufactured or compatible ink cartridges in bulk.

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10 Buying Tips to get the Best Printer

2007-11-28

When it comes down to buying a printer for yourself, the real key is finding the best printer for your needs. And how do you find the best printer? Ask questions! Here are 10 great questions to ask yourself in order to find the absolute best printer for all of your printing needs.

1. Is the printer going to be the only printer in the home or office?

If yes, then you need the printer to be able to do multiple functions like print pictures, print text fast, and do it all effectively. But very few offices have one printer, and even some homes have more than one with the price of printers on the market. So it might not be a bad idea to buy two printers for your home with one for photo printing, and one for everything else.

2. Do you need a multifunction (all-in-one) printer or not?

Nowadays you can buy printers that scan, copy and fax. Will you need your printer to perform any of those things? If you don't necessarily need the printer do any of those things, then it will not be a factor you need to consider. If not, your buying decision will be much more speedy.

3. What are you going to use the printer for?

If you have a need for one particular function in a printer, look for just that at first. For instance, if you want scanning capability, look for that first and then go for the printing part. This means what are you going to use the printer mainly for? Here are some common printer uses, usage levels and the type of printer that may be best suited for this usage:

• Light everyday home use: occasional printing , mainly text, maps for directions, a few photos here and there. (Basic entry level inkjet printer).
• Heavy home use (Or home office, light office): High number of pages, still mainly text or no photo images (no color needed then b/w laser printer, if color is needed a good fast inkjet printer, and if budget available than an entry level color laser).
• Home photo printing: Uses a few mainstream paper sizes, print family photos, cards, scrap booking, but nothing in high volume (entry to medium level photo printer depending on the budget).
• Professional photo printing: High quality photo printing (high end photo printers).
• Printing marketing materials. Small businesses, real estate agents, etc. (color laser printers small-to-high end).
• Heavy office use for mainly text: if black/white is enough (b/w fast laser printer).
• Heavy office use with also a lot of images and color: a lot of text with graphics, company newsletters, brochures, graphs and presentations. (a good high end color laser printer)

4. What is your budget for buying that printer?

You can start by coming up with a budget and then try to get the best printer that fits your needs in that budget. This can work several ways. Most likely, however, you will think of a number that looks great on paper. After a bit of research, you may find that you overestimated or underestimated the cost of a printer that fulfills all of your needs. Then, you'll come up with a more accurate budget and go from there. Be sure to consider the cost of printer ink cartridges in your budget as well, as they will be a recurring expense.

5. What is the true cost of printer ownership?

Things to keep in mind:

- Laser printers are less expensive per page (always) especially just black/white lasers as they are great for heavy printing.

- Off Brand Printer Cartridges. Not all of them are good. Some stores sell not-so-great quality off-brand or after market products but if the seller is reputable and has a guarantee then why not try it?

- Laser Printer Cartridges. Most of the time, if the model is popular enough, you can find good remanufactured cartridges. If you do this, buy remanufactured cartridges that have a new drum, as this will make a big difference. For less popular printer brands and models you may not be able to find cheaper cartridges so check before you buy.

- For inkjet printers, most HP, All Lexmark, Xerox and some Canon do not have compatible new generic brands but do have cheaper--but not by much--remanufactured cartridges. Most Epson, Brother, Some Canon, Oki and Xerox have good compatible affordable cartridges. You can forget Dell. And Lexmark has old technology and inferior printers with expensive supplies that you can buy only from Dell.com directly but some cheaper remanufactured cartridges do exist.

6. Have you heard of the printer brand before?

Usually, very few printers have breakthrough technology and designs that can last. Try something that has been tested by the market--you can read reviews for it and supplies are and will be available.

7. What do professionals and customers think about it?

In this day and age, we spend a lot of time and money on our printers so it really is worth it to spend ample time on research. Some good printer review sources you can use include: Amazon , PC Magazine website, PCWorld Magazine Website and CNET reviews

8. What do your friends think about it?

Ask friends and family about their printers if you think they use one similar to yours. There's nothing like a good review from a close personal friend or relative to encourage you to make that purchase-if you trust their opinion, that is.

9. Have you thought about non-traditional brands?

Consider other brands besides the usual suspects like HP, Lexmark, Epson, Canon or Dell. A lot of new good printers are out there like Brother and Samsung. Even Kodak is coming out with new printers these days. Doing your research means digger deeper than the label.

10. Where will you buy the printer from?

Many people opt to buy products online these days, which is great. But a major purchase like a printer gets tricky. Buy the printer from a local store and if you are going to use it a lot, and the printer is expensive it might worth it to get their store warranty. Don't try to save a few bucks ordering online. Printers are still delicate equipment and can get broken during shipment. Also, you might want to return the printer after you try it out and it's much easier to walk into the store to do so.

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HP Printer Models

2007-11-26

HP printers are one of the best printer models in market due to its unabated experience in the printing industry. As a PC maker, their printer models are top of the line and one of the most anticipated products every economic quarter. HP products are geared from small to medium business companies to large scale models. With their top of the line HP printer models and printing supplies and accessories such as printer ink cartridges, every new product always have people piqued with interest.

One of HP latest multifunction and HP LaserJet printers is the HP LaserJet M2727 MFP. With the small office in mind, the HP LaserJet M2727 MFP is a mono laser printer with an automatic document feeder, Ethernet connector, duplexer, and efficient capability. It is geared toward all-business use with its gray and bulky body that is 16 inches deep and 18 inches long. The HP LaserJet M2727 MFPs reliability and high performance values features a fast 27 ppm with an instant-start technology that allows fast printing just as it is turned on. The HP LaserJet M2727 MFP is also a fast solution to for your faxing needs with its print to fax feature.

The HP Photosmart A626 is also one of the new middle-line printer offerings for this season. It is sleek and small making it very mobile with a large touch LCD screen and adjustable panels on the side. The HP Photosmart A626 gives a fun twist to photo printing by adding in captions and messages in printed photos. With a 12 inch touch screen, the HP Photosmart A626 provides clean editing that can rival the integration of Kodak camera and Kodak Easyshare integration.

Another HP printer model for review is the HP Photosmart D7360. This class follows the line of affordable printers that can do special tasks such as DVD printing and on-board duplexer. The HP Photosmart D7360 black resolution measures up to 1200 dpi with the color resolution are 4800 dpi. It can print up to 32 pages per minute in black and white mode with the color printout printing for 24 pages per minute. The HP Photosmart D7360 features the uniform photo look design that has patches of white and gray smartly mixed together to produce a nice business fixture for offices. The HP Photosmart D7360 also has on-board printing from its color LCD displays.

These set of HP printer models are coming into the limelight as a top printer class for 2007. They are just catching the wind of the holiday season for families or businessmen looking for new tools to play with. These HP printer models also have OEM printer ink cartridges in the package. However, affordable alternatives such as a refurbished printer ink toners and printer ink cartridges will make these HP printers run more efficiently.

iYogi  offers a 24-hour support on all Printer Trouble Shoot and Service. Our helpdesk will set up a mutually convenient time to schedule our experienced, factory trained and industry certified technicians, combined with up-to-date technical knowledge and practical skills, ensures the expertise needed when servicing and supporting a wide range of past, current and future printer, fax & photocopier brands and models. Our high standards enable us to preserve your printers to their maximum productivity.

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8 Quick Tips for Printing Better Photos

2007-11-19

Use these tips to print better photos and to help choose the HP Photo Printer that's right for you.

1) Choose the right resolution for your print

Most digital cameras offer a range of resolution settings. It's a good idea to use a higher-quality setting if you plan on printing larger-than-wallet-sized pictures. Here are some general guidelines:

• The more pixels your photo has the more clarity and detail it will retain as you increase its dimensions.
• Resolution is sometimes expressed by the width and height of the image as well as the total number of pixels it contains.

2) Select the best format for your image files

Chances are, your digital camera shoots in JPEG. It's the most common file format, and is especially well suited to:

• Use online
• E-mail
• Most printing needs (4" x 6", 5" x 7", panoramic)

Some cameras let you change the format you shoot in to TIFF or RAW. These are best for:

• Large format printing
• Prints made from cropped photos

Tip: These formats have the least amount of compression, meaning the photo will take up considerably more space on your memory card and computer. The advantage of these formats is that you get very clear prints, and in large sizes. Check your camera's manual to see if you can change the format.

3) Edit images for printing

Use a photo-editing program, like free HP Photo smart Essential-to do basic photo editing such as cropping, contrast and color changes for your digital photos.

• Use the auto-fix button in HP Photosmart Essential to adjust contrast and brightness automatically-one click and you're done.

4) Pick the right dpi

Dots per inch (dpi) is a measurement of print resolution that indicates how many individual dots a device can create on a page per square inch of area.

• For crisp, colorful, professional-looking prints, choose a printer with at least 600 x 600 dpi.

5) Match print quality to the job

You can designate the "quality" of the print, depending on what you're printing. For routine print jobs, such as letters or recipes, "draft" or "fast" is probably sufficient. Reference your printer's manual to learn how to change quality settings.

• Choose "Best quality" for most photos
• Use "Normal" for wallet-sized

6) Adjust paper settings

Paper settings control the amount of ink that's laid down on paper, so using the setting in your printer software that matches your photo paper is essential for quality good prints.

• When you find a setting that works for a particular paper type, make note of it so you'll be able to get the same results when you use the paper again.

7) Match paper and ink

There's a good reason to use genuine HP supplies-they're specifically developed to work with your HP printer. HP's newest generation of inks, HP Vivera inks, deliver optimum color and fade resistance, and they're engineered for the absorption properties of HP photo paper.

• Choose HP Premium Plus photo paper for prints that will last generations.
• Choose HP Advanced photo paper for quick drying and water resistance.

8) Give prints time to dry

Before you frame a photo or add it to a scrapbook, be sure to give it enough time to dry.

• It's best to allow the print to dry for about 24 hours prior to framing or placing it in a photo album.
• If you're printing multiple pictures, remove them from the printer as they emerge and set them aside. This will eliminate accidental smearing or running.

Enjoy your prints for years to come and remember all of your great memories with your photos!

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HP Printer Models

2007-11-19

HP printers are one of the best printer models in market due to its unabated experience in the printing industry. As a PC maker, their printer models are top of the line and one of the most anticipated products every economic quarter. HP products are geared from small to medium business companies to large scale models. With their top of the line HP printer models and printing supplies and accessories such as printer ink cartridges, every new product always have people piqued with interest.

One of HP's latest multifunction and HP Laserjet Printers is the HP LaserJet M2727 MFP. With the small office in mind, the HP LaserJet M2727 MFP is a mono laser printer with an automatic document feeder, Ethernet connector, duplexer, and efficient capability. It is geared toward all-business use with its gray and bulky body that is 16 inches deep and 18 inches long. The HP LaserJet M2727 MFP's reliability and high performance values features a fast 27 ppm with an instant-start technology that allows fast printing just as it is turned on. The HP LaserJer M2727 MFP is also a fast solution to for your faxing needs with its print to fax feature.

The HP Photosmart A626 is also one of the new middle-line printer offerings for this season. It is sleek and small making it very mobile with a large touch LCD screen and adjustable panels on the side. The HP Photosmart A626 gives a fun twist to photo printing by adding in captions and messages in printed photos. With a 12 inch touch screen, the HP Photosmart A626 provides clean editing that can rival the integration of Kodak camera and Kodak Easyshare integration.

Another HP printer model for review is the HP Photosmart D7360. This class follows the line of affordable printers that can do special tasks such as DVD printing and on-board duplexer. The HP Photosmart D7360's black resolution measures up to 1200 dpi with the color resolution is 4800 dpi. It can print up to 32 pages per minute in black and white mode with the color printout printing for 24 pages per minute. The HP Photosmart D7360 features the uniform photo look design that has patches of white and gray smartly mixed together to produce a nice business fixture for offices. The HP Photosmart D7360 also has on-board printing from its color LCD displays.

These set of HP printer models are coming into the limelight as a top printer class for 2007. They are just catching the wind of the holiday season for families or businessmen looking for new tools to play with. These HP printer models also have OEM printer ink cartridges in the package. However, affordable alternatives such as a refurbished printer ink toners and printer ink cartridges will make these HP printers run more efficiently.

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Hewlett Packard Printer - Dependable and Reliable Printers

2007-11-05

Regardless of whether you are working in your home and creating professional appearing documents or commercially creating printed materials, you can always rely on The Hewlett-Packard printer to help get your job done. Over many years, one of the most trusted partners when it comes to providing excellent quality prints at the most efficient and fastest timeframe is the Hewlett-Packard printer.

Since Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded HP in 1939, the company has made some breakthroughs in the field of desktop publishing. From the dot matrix technology to the present laser printing technology, Hewlett Packard printers have been one of the most innovative in the industry.

Digital Printing at its Best

Whether you are printing books, brochures, business cards, catalogs, greeting cards, magazines, manuals and other forms of documents, you can always count on the Hewlett Packard printer to deliver the best quality there is. The HP Indigo series for commercial printing will surely make a big difference if you are in the printing business.

If you are turning out volumes of printed materials every day, you might want to check out the HP Indigo Press 3050 for high volume printing. This type of Hewlett Packard printer is designed to handle heavy daily loads and you can always count on it to give high quality printing with its two print engine that delivers high speeds up to 4,000 duplex (8,000 numerical) 4 color A4 images per hour.

If you were engaged in the label printing business, the HP Indigo Press ws2000 would be great for your business. This Hewlett Packard printer is very efficient when it comes to giving you the definitive edge in the label printing business. Designed to produce short-run, high quality-labels, this Hewlett Packard printer is really the best when it comes to delivering the right quality of labels at a very short notice.

Personal Use Printers

For personal use at the office or in the home, you will always be able to find a Hewlett-Packard printer that will take care of your needs very well. There are numerous models of HP printers you can pick from and when you desire to have some efficient and reliable printers for personal use. If you are looking to rent some quality pictures from your computer, you may want to take a look at those smaller color laser printers that are now available on the market. These particular HP color laser printers are very efficient and affordable.

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Hewlett Packard Printer - Dependable and Reliable Printers

2007-10-29

Regardless of whether you are working in your home and creating professional appearing documents or commercially creating printed materials, you can always rely on The Hewlett-Packard printer to help get your job done. Over many years, one of the most trusted partners when it comes to providing excellent quality prints at the most efficient and fastest timeframe is the Hewlett-Packard printer.

Since Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded HP in 1939, the company has made some breakthroughs in the field of desktop publishing. From the dot matrix technology to the present laser printing technology, Hewlett Packard printers have been one of the most innovative in the industry.

Digital Printing at its Best

Whether you are printing books, brochures, business cards, catalogs, greeting cards, magazines, manuals and other forms of documents, you can always count on the Hewlett Packard printer to deliver the best quality there is. The HP Indigo series for commercial printing will surely make a big difference if you are in the printing business.

If you are turning out volumes of printed materials every day, you might want to check out the HP Indigo Press 3050 for high volume printing. This type of Hewlett Packard printer is designed to handle heavy daily loads and you can always count on it to give high quality printing with its two print engine that delivers high speeds up to 4,000 duplex (8,000 numerical) 4 color A4 images per hour.

If you were engaged in the label printing business, the HP Indigo Press ws2000 would be great for your business. This Hewlett Packard printer is very efficient when it comes to giving you the definitive edge in the label printing business. Designed to produce short-run, high quality-labels, this Hewlett Packard printer is really the best when it comes to delivering the right quality of labels at a very short notice.

Personal Use Printers

For personal use at the office or in the home, you will always be able to find a Hewlett-Packard printer that will take care of your needs very well. There are numerous models of HP printers you can pick from and when you desire to have some efficient and reliable printers for personal use. If you are looking to rent some quality pictures from your computer, you may want to take a look at those smaller color laser printers that are now available on the market. These particular HP color laser printers are very efficient and affordable.

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HP Photosmart a826 photo printer:

2007-10-22

This odd-looking photo printer from HP has a style that you'll either love or hate. Reminiscent in some ways of the original egg-shaped iMac models from the late 1990s, the Photosmart A826 printer looks a bit like something out of an old science fiction movie.

While its design might be a bit outlandish, functionally, it's pretty robust for a dedicated photo printer. It is not as cheap as some other standalone photo printers, but it is definitely more feature rich. The A826 can handle edge-to-edge photo prints in wallet, 4×6, 5×7 and panorama sizes, but nothing larger. HP claims the printer's premium grade Vivera ink and paper technologies offer instant drying, water-resistant prints.

Thanks to its built-in memory card slots, Bluetooth connectivity and 7-inch color LCD screen, you can do all of you photo importing and selection without ever having to touch your computer. The printer's touch screen interface lets you easily select images, and even embellish your photos by adding text, borders and special effects. The image editing capabilities can remove red eye, slim down your portly friends and enhance colors directly on screen. There's even the ability to use the screen for running slideshows when the printer tray is closed.

So if you're looking for an easy all-in-one photo printing solution, it's definitely worth a look. For more details on the A826

Giant touch screen plus creative tools

• See it big: easily view photos and thumbnails, navigate menus, and print with the 7" color touch screen
• Do slide shows: the printer acts as a digital photo frame; as images appear, you can select them to print with a touch of your finger
• Draw or write captions on photos with the stylus or your finger
• Add captions and stories via the touch screen keyboard
• Get creative: make photos "scrapbook-ready" and design personalized greeting cards with the help of more than 200 borders, graphics, frames, and effects

Remove red eye, slim subjects, and enhance images, all without a computer

Easy, versatile printing

• Print straight from memory cards¹; you don't need a computer
• Print in multiple sizes including 4 x 6", 5 x 7", wallet, and panorama
• Print without borders-no trimming necessary
• Print painlessly: there are no settings to adjust, and frequent paper swapping is unnecessary
• Print wirelessly from Bluetooth-enabled devices²
• Store 100 sheets of paper in the internal tray
• Immediately hand out prints without smudging or smearing³

Preserve photos for generations ⁴ with the lab-quality printing that resists fading

Super support, easy supplies

• Get help if you need it with the one-year limited warranty plus HP's renowned Total Care advice and support
• Get exclusive offers and discounts on HP ink, toner, and paper, plus shop from a list of customized printing supplies and get free next-day shipping with our "My Print Rewards" program

Rely on our record: HP has won the PC Magazine Readers' Choice Award for service and reliability (as a result of its reader satisfaction survey) for 15 years running

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Laser Toner Cartridges : Your Questions Answered

2007-10-18

Long an essential tool for businesses, laser printers are becoming more and more popular with home users because of their speed, accuracy and precision. Laser printers are increasingly affordable, too. If you're contemplating buying a laser printer, here are the answers to the common questions about the all-important subject of laser toner cartridges.

How Long Do Laser Toner Cartridges Last?

Laser printer toner cartridge life is measured in terms of yield. This measurement has two numbers, the first is the number of pages that can be printed with that cartridge. The second is a percentage which refers to the ratio of the page that is printed on. For example, a yield of "35000 pages, 5%", indicates that the cartridge will print 3500 average quality pages with text that covers five percent of each page.

One good thing about laser printers is that not using the machine doesn't result in reduced cartridge life. This is because laser toner is powder. So unlike the liquid ink in inkjet cartridges, it doesn't dry up if unused for a long time.

What Are My Options For Replacement Cartridges?

Your first option is to get what are called OEM cartridges. These are made by the printer manufacturer and tend to be very expensive. This is because the printers themselves are sold as loss leaders. So the manufacturers need to make up their profit on the sale of replacement toner cartridges. With your laser printer having a life of around five years, you'll probably spend up to seven times the cost of the unit on replacement OEM cartridges.

An alternative is to get what are called "compatible cartridges". These are new toner cartridges but manufactured by a third party. As they are made to the specification of the manufacturer, the quality is generally very high, especially with the application of ISO 9001 in recent years. However, they are much cheaper. The price of these compatible cartridges are usually less than half that the OEM item. These are your best option.

You can also find what are called remanufactured cartridges. These are different from compatible cartridges in that they are used OEM cartridges that have been refilled. Good remanufactured cartridges consist of more than simply filling a used cartridge with ink or toner, though. Reputable manufacturers also clean and quality check the cartridges, too.

One good thing about remanufactured laser toner cartridges is that they're environmentally-friendly. Just think, UK users alone throw away over two million printer cartridges each year. In fact, many organizations now pay you for returning used laser cartridges.

Where's The Best Place To Buy Replacement Cartridges?

You have a number of options here. Your high street discount chain will have a wide selection but prices tend to be very high. Likewise for the office supply chains. Then there's ordering from an online supplier which offers many benefits. For one thing, as these online dealers don't have the expense of maintaining a shop or showroom, they can offer you very attractive prices.
(Better still, they're not caught in the loss leader trap so they don't need to mark up their prices so much). What's more, reputable suppliers will have online catalogues so you can browse conveniently and order from the comfort of your home. Plus, delivery is very fast. Orders are usually shipped within 48 hours.

But not all online suppliers are created equal so there are a number of caveats. Firstly, you should be wary of companies that offer their laser toner cartridges at well below market prices. Check, too, to make sure that the supplier guarantees that their compatible cartridges match the life and print quality of the OEM items.

Laser printing is becoming increasingly popular and by judicious shopping you can make it very affordable. By shopping online for your laser toner cartridges, you can get the fastest, quality printing done at prices that don't break the bank.

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HP Attacks the Printer Security Gap

2007-10-18

Hewlett Packard on Oct. 17 introduced HP Secure Print Advantage, an appliance-software combination that attempts to wall off from the network an often-forgotten but growing attack vector-the printer.

An extension of its HP Secure Advantage portfolio announced the summer of 2006, HP Secure Print Advantage encrypts documents at the point of printing with a client module, inspects each sent job for malware, and then terminates the job if infected or re-encrypts it and delivers it to a secure print module if clean.

HP Secure Advantage also adds a compliance layer to protect intellectual property with an authorization required to print from the Secure Document Server, and purges the document data after printing.

The printer is becoming an increasingly tempting target for hacks and attacks both as a back door into the network and as an easy hit and run on valuable intellectual property data stored on documents sent to print, said Christian Christiansen, program vice president for security products & services at IDC. Attacks have been on the rise, he said.

Printers are a nesting ground for malware and viruses and have been a gaping hole ... There have been lots of spectacular hacks against printers. Because it is based on hardware that sits on the network, HP product addresses printer security across the disparate systems, servers and clients typically found in most enterprise environments.

It combines full encryption with policy controls and audit logging designed to safeguard printed documents through the entire life cycle. Administrators can set and enforce policies across all systems and applications, not just the print network. The solution, which acts as an overlay to HP or heterogeneous print infrastructures, integrates both FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) 140-2 Level 4 and Common Criteria EAL 4+ security technology.

HP Secure Advantage is based on the idea that customers don't want fragmented security and management.

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Choosing a Printer - inkjet or laser?

2007-10-08

The right printer is an essential part of your home or office computer set up. The buying process can be a confusing one, not least because leading manufacturers seem to release a new model of each type almost every day, and lets not forget the huge range of ink cartridges and laser toner, which seem to change on an hourly basis!

So, what is the best choice? Well, unfortunately there is no definitive answer for this question as it really depends on your individual needs. What you can do however, is clue yourself up on the advantages of each type, and make an informed decision when purchasing.

We've listed the two types of printer below, and included a simple list of the pro's and con's of each. After all, there is no sense in us waffling on when all you're trying to do is buy the right printer!

Inkjet Printers - Pro's

* Cheap to buy. Main brand printers retail from as little as £30 (US$60).
* Choice. Wide range available, from specialist photo printers to all in one printer/scanner/copier devices.
* Footprint. An inkjet printer generally has smaller dimensions than a laser, often making it more suitable for the home office.
* Ease of use. Designed primarily for the home and small office market, inkjets tend to be simple to use and have easily accessible features.
* Paper options. Just about every printer manufacturer also offers its own range of printer paper. Depending on the desired finish you can choose anything from standard inkjet copier paper, to matt or gloss photo paper specifically designed for this type of printer.

Inkjet Printers - Con's

* Cost per copy. Despite the low initial purchase price of an inkjet printer, the cost per printed page remains high when compared to laser printing due to the higher relative cost of ink cartridges vs. laser toner. This issue however is not particularly serious for home users, who print in low volumes. It becomes more of an issue the more pages you print.

* Efficiency. Since inkjet printers spray ink on to the page, the result is that much of the ink cartridge is wasted through absorption when using standard paper. High quality prints often require multiple coats of ink to ensure the correct density and therefore maximum clarity.
* Print speed. Inkjet printers are much slower than laser printers in general, especially when printing in colour.
* Longevity. Inkjet printers tend to be produced on the cheap in order to keep retail prices down. The quality of components can be much lower than laser printers. The fact that they spray ink to the page also means that they are liable to clogging over time. An inkjet printer will rarely outlast a laser if both are subjected to equal use.
* Accuracy. Spraying ink on to a page from ink cartridges is much less accurate than the precise methods of a laser printer. This results in a slight blur effect on most printed pages.
* Vibration. The movement of the ink cartridges or print nozzle across the page whilst printing can often lead to a strong vibration effect if the printer is placed on a computer desk. This can prove to be an annoyance for some people.
* Ink drying time. It stands to reason that the ink is sprayed on to the page wet. Consequently, pages require a little time to dry before being picked up. Ignoring the drying requirements can see smudges appearing across your printed document. Inkjet prints also do not stand up to rain very well, which whilst not normally a problem, if you print the address on an envelope with an inkjet, postal workers may have a hard time reading it on occasion!

Inkjet Printers - Summary

If you print mainly at home and in lower volumes, consider an inkjet printer. They are versatile thanks to the range of combination devices, and the cost per copy, whilst relatively high, is probably largely irrelevant to you thanks to the low purchase price. A wide choice of paper gives you a good selection of finishes for your photo prints and the quality is likely to be more than satisfactory for framing and display.

Laser Printers - Pro's

* Cost per copy. Laser technology makes very efficient use of toner when printing resulting in a low cost per copy. Whilst toner cartridges appear expensive, you can usually print somewhere in the region of 4,000 pages before replacing your laser toner cartridge. Compared to an approximate average yield of 300 pages for a typical ink cartridge costing roughly a third of the price, the long term savings are highly apparent. Laser copier paper is also generally cheaper than the equivalent paper designed for inkjet printers.
* Efficiency. These printers work by attracting the laser toner (ink) on to the page using an electronic charge. Since the printer is able to calculate the precise pattern of the print, only the exact amount of laser toner required is applied. This results in very little wastage.
* Print speed. Laser printers are able to print at very quick speeds, in some cases up to 35 pages per minute. Compared to approximately 10-15 pages per minute for an inkjet printer, this represents a significant advantage during large print runs, or when production time is critical.
* Longevity. A properly maintained laser printer can last for many years and print in excess of a million copies during this time providing you use the recommended original laser toner cartridges.
* Accuracy. The electrostatic technology behind laser printers ensures that the ink is applied to the toner in a highly precise manner. Since the ink is not sprayed but attracted to the page via an electronic charge there is little margin for error.
* Print quality. Once the toner has been attracted on to the page it is then heated causing it to fuse with the paper. This produces a clean and clear finish which is water resistant and has a natural sheen. Photo paper can be used to give a gloss or matt finish to an image printed on a colour laser printer.
* Networking features. Laser printers often have built in networking designed for environments where multiple users require the ability to print over a network.
* No ink expiry. Whilst ink cartridges for inkjet printers can dry and be rendered useless if left unused for an extended period, laser toner does not suffer from this issue.

Laser Printers - Con's

* Expensive to buy. Traditionally, laser printers cost more to acquire than their inkjet counterparts. However, this trend is now changing with mono laser printers starting to appear on the market for as little as £100 (US$200). Colour laser printers however, remain relatively expensive, priced at around the £300 (US$600) for an entry level model.
* Footprint. Laser printers tend to be larger in size than inkjet models, which can cause an issue for home users, yet presents less of a problem in the office environment.
* Electricity requirement. Laser printers have a higher power requirement than inkjet printers which may be noticeable on your electricity bill over time.
* Warm up time. If a laser printer has not been used for a while, it requires time to warm up the printing drum before a print can be output. This time varies considerably, but is extended if the printer has been switched completely off to save power.

Laser Printers - Summary

For home users who print mainly text documents a mono laser printer may be an economical choice. The initial purchase price aside, you are likely to see a better return on your investment over time. Until colour lasers reduce significantly in price, users wishing to undertake colour printing at home may be better served with an inkjet printer for the time being.

In terms of office users, the increase in print volume seen in any typical office justifies the purchase of a laser printer, colour or mono, from the outset. Choosing an inkjet for business would almost certainly be false economy unless it is required for a special task such as large format printing on paper of A3 size or above.

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Welcome To The HP Printer Support Blog

2007-10-08

Hello and welcome to the new HP Printer Support Blog, the source for information, insight, and updates about HP Printers.

We thought now was the right time to open the door and start a conversation with the Web community about what's happening with the printers and their transformation as multifunctional devices.

We intend to use this blog to:

- Provide authentic messages about HP Printer and their querrys for our volunteer community.
- Highlight enhancements, both current and future. 

Additionally we want to hear from you. 

What do you think about HP Printer? Why do you use it or what edge do u find to use them on others? Is there something you would like to see fixed? When you've been around as long as we have, some people are bound to have great things to say, while others might have a few choice words based on their personal experience. Either way, we want to hear it :)

We plan on posting every week so grab the opportunity for being updated about latest in the printer world.

Deep Sharma

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