"Estimated ink levels" way, way off...

RainbowsInTheSpray

Am I the only one who appears to have a set of printer (HP) software which is miles off in its estimation of cartridge ink levels? I get this all the time. Currently it seems to be showing min. quarter full on my black ink cartridge but the printer itself grinds out nice, unblemished white A4 when asked to do its job...

... perhaps my request is unreasonable...

tempus_fugit

I don’t know as I use HP Instant Ink and they always send me nice, new cartridges long before the old ones run out.

RainbowsInTheSpray

So presumably wasteful of a lot of ink...

... doesn't sound offhand like a YNAB thing...

Neil_Jones

On most printers the ink "in" the cartridges is based on the amount of pages printed, not in the amount of ink that is actually present.  If you use the compatible cartridges you often find you can hear ink in the cartridge but the printer says its out.

@RainbowsInTheSpray something printing but not actually printing on the paper is usually a sign of a blocked head.  Inkjets dry up if you don't use them regularly.

RainbowsInTheSpray

Neil_Jones said:

@RainbowsInTheSpray something printing but not actually printing on the paper is usually a sign of a blocked head.  Inkjets dry up if you don't use them regularly.

Any way of fixing that?

victor2

RainbowsInTheSpray said:

Neil_Jones said:

@RainbowsInTheSpray something printing but not actually printing on the paper is usually a sign of a blocked head.  Inkjets dry up if you don't use them regularly.

Any way of fixing that?

Use them regularly!

If I haven't printed much in a week or two, I print a "Printer test page" I downloaded from an ink supplier's website, at high resolution.

Most inkjet printers have a head cleaning cycle you can run if a colour starts dropping out.

Neil_Jones

RainbowsInTheSpray said:

Neil_Jones said:

@RainbowsInTheSpray something printing but not actually printing on the paper is usually a sign of a blocked head.  Inkjets dry up if you don't use them regularly.

Any way of fixing that?

Use the printer regularly.

Clean print heads.

If you seriously go for long periods of time without printing (and its almost always black and white) you'd do better with a little mono laser.  This uses powder to print with and doesn't "dry up", because its already dry

400ixl

I use my HP printer every few months at most and have no issues with print heads drying out. Haven't come across those issues for years now.

Speaking recently to the print engineers at HP I used to work with, its something that mainly has been solved in the last 10 years with inkjet printers.

[Deleted User]

victor2 said:

RainbowsInTheSpray said:

Neil_Jones said:

@RainbowsInTheSpray something printing but not actually printing on the paper is usually a sign of a blocked head.  Inkjets dry up if you don't use them regularly.

Any way of fixing that?

Use them regularly!

If I haven't printed much in a week or two, I print a "Printer test page" I downloaded from an ink supplier's website, at high resolution.

Most inkjet printers have a head cleaning cycle you can run if a colour starts dropping out.

Could you give the link for" print tester page"please.

My colour went recently, quite by chance I had a spare that was over four years old, they hadn't noticed it was dry and hadn't sent a replacement 

interstellaflyer

RainbowsInTheSpray said:

Am I the only one who appears to have a set of printer (HP) software which is miles off in its estimation of cartridge ink levels? I get this all the time. Currently it seems to be showing min. quarter full on my black ink cartridge but the printer itself grinds out nice, unblemished white A4 when asked to do its job...

... perhaps my request is unreasonable...

The ink levels are only an estimate based on what you've printed however they mostly under estimate ink levels so on machines that take HP 301, 302, 303, 304, 305 and 62 cartridges they will show empty but you will often get quite a few pages out, the machine will just nag you to change the cartridge, the same goes for Cannon 540/541 cartridges.  I've never come across a situation where the machine is saying there is ink left but it's physically empty, sounds to me like the printhead may be well and truly clogged. 

interstellaflyer

Neil_Jones said:

 If you use the compatible cartridges you often find you can hear ink in the cartridge but the printer says its out.

Not quite, all ink tank type cartridges will have some ink left in them regardless of whether they are OEM or compatible/remanufactured, this is to prevent potential damage to the printhead, regarding compatibles for Epson machines you can hear the ink swishing about if you shake them, this is because the compatibles are a simple tank holding ink where as the genuine Epson cartridges have a quite complex series of chambers and channels inside.  On cartridges with built in print head you will not hear ink swishing about because they have a foam insert.