In this final article in our Beginner's Special series, I thought it would be a good idea to touch on a subject that very few of us practice — inkjet printer care. Inkjets tend to have a high number of moving parts, so there's much that can go wrong with them. If you've been wondering why your inkjet printer hasn't been giving you the performance it used to, maybe it's time you give it the little bit of attention it deserves. So, here are a few tips that you need to follow to keep your printer running as good as new for a long time.

Always install the drivers first
Connecting a printer before installing the drivers (from the accompanying CD) is definitely not a good idea. Windows by default goes a bit haywire trying to figure out the USB device that you have attached to the PC, and without the drivers guiding it, it may just mark your printer as an 'Unknown USB Device'. You can avoid that mess by simply installing the drivers first and connect the printer to your PC once the drivers instruct you, or the installation is complete.

Your first print
Sure, you must be happy about getting that spanking new printer, but before you start shooting off prints, it would be a good idea to run a few maintenance tests first. All printers comes with basic maintenance tests like cartridge aligning and nozzle checking, which can be found under printer properties. It would take only a couple of minutes to do these checks, and once done, you can be sure that you will get optimum quality prints.

Get a cover
Dust is a printer's biggest nemesis. Considering how little home printers are used on average, it would be a great idea to get a cover for your printer while buying the printer itself. You don't want clogged nozzles and slippery rollers, do you?

Fortnightly maintenance
If you print something every day or every other day you need to do this a lot less, but if you're the type who rarely prints anything — say once in two weeks or even less; take some time out every couple of weeks to do a nozzle check on the printer. Cartridge alignment needs to be done only when you change an ink cartridge, but nozzle checking ensures that the ink (or dust) hasn't clogged up the nozzles.

If you don't do this and leave your printer inactive for a long time, chances are you'll either have to run all these checks before you take the next print or make do with some seriously substandard results.

Don't stock cartridges
Even if you're getting a great deal on ink cartridges, it's not a good idea to hoard a whole lot of them at a time. For a home printer that's not frequently used, chances are that your cartridge would last you at least a month or two. Packed cartridges, on the other hand, have a limited shelf life.

So if you finally get to the cartridge you purchased almost a year back, chances are that the ink quality would not be as good as you'd expect it to be, or last as long as a newly purchased cartridge. Order cartridges as you need them.

To refill or not to refill?
Though every printer manufacturer will try their best to forbid you from ever using a refilled cartridge, the truth is that it all depends on the place you get your cartridge refilled.
It takes a level of skill and understanding to refill a cartridge the way it's meant to be, and not everyone may possess the right knowledge to do so. Moreover, the quality of refilled ink will never be as good as in the original cartridges (no matter what anyone may boast), so if you're strictly into photo printing, you may just want to steer clear.

So if you want to refill, make sure you get it done from a premium and well-reputed place instead of the local dealer with cheap refilling kits. Otherwise ink leaks and solid particles in cheap ink may destroy your printer a lot faster than you think.

Turn off the printer first
Surprisingly, this is a fairly common mistake that a lot of home users make — turning off the printer directly from the main switch. When you power of the printer from the power button, the printer tends to seal itself in a certain way, where it would be the least affected by dust and other atmospheric impurities. This is why a lot of printers do a bit of whirring and chugging when you power them off.

Turning off the printer directly from the source could leave the cartridge nozzle exposed, which can lead to the ink drying up, and leave your printer in a vulnerable state. You definitely don't want that!

That's it! before I sign off, I'd just like to remind you not to use any kind of ultra-thin, low quality paper on your inkjet. The better the paper quality, the lower the possibility of a paper jam.

- Tech 2.0

Labels: Computers and Technology