End of low cost print cartridges?

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[Duramaximus]

I get refill kits from dbproducts.com.

That address leads to a RC Airplane web page, I didn't see any reference to refill kits.

I am pleased to hear that you like your Lexmark Z22 printer. Mine was a rip-roaring piece of crap from day one. It would almost always fail to print, and if it did it would never feed a second sheet.

One evening I became so aggravated with the POS I unplugged it and headed straight to the garbage can with it. My wife saw me coming and moved out of the way, she realized that was not the time to ask questions. I grabbed my keys and headed to Circuit City and purchased an Epson C60, and to this day have never looked back.

I believe I still have two black ink cartridges, new from Lexmark, for a Z22 if want to make me a deal on them. E-mail me and we can work something out.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Congress has had to amend copyright law before to enable competitive business practices; for example it used to be illegal for an independent computer service firm to run the licensed software on your computer in order to fix the computer, the rationale being that it was licensed only to you, not the repair firm. There was a line of several court cases all going the same way (against the independent service firms) before Congress fixed the problem. The answer to this will probably be another amendment to the law.

[CurlyDave]

Those who sell only printers with proprietary expensive toner replacements _will_ find themselves losing market share.

That is a nice theory, BUT the reality of the current marketplace is that almost ALL of the common printer vendors have brought out printers with non-refillable cartridges.

It appears that no one is willing to compete on the medium-price printer/cheap ink business model.

As I understand it, the chips in the replacement cartridges are not really copyright violations. They are not exact duplicates of the original chips, but original designs which will work as a replacement.

Think Pentium vs. Athlon CPUs. Not identical, but substitutable.

[Dan(9698)]

>>>... get refill kits from dbproducts.com...

I should have looked first. It is ldproducts.com

[BenLurkin]

You've got that right, FRiend!

[_Jim]

All you 'freeloaders' need to get a grip.

These OEM carts are a little more expensive for one reason, well make that two: better quality carts (as some here have pointed out) and it's part of the manufacturer's business (profit) model ...

[TheBattman]

Actually, the out for the printer manufacturer is not only that the ink would be the cause of the problem, but the instructions specifically state to use only "Genuine Epson" inks to maintain your warranty.

[TheBattman]

I had a brand new HP cartridge (color) for my deskjet 960c that just plain wouldn't be recognized by the printer. A simple contact to HP resuted in a brand new cartridge being delivered free of charge.

HP will take care of your problem, assuming you don't tear the cartridge to bits! Actually, they just needed the production codes form the cartridge and the approximate date of purchase. HP restored my faith in them

And yes, the cartridges do indicate emplty when there is still ink in them. I have noticed that I can usually get anywhere from 10 to 50 good prints on a supposed empty HP cartridge. Yes, the printer often requires that I push a button to continue, but it does work.

[RedWhiteBlue]

I have found the same as you with HP cartridges -- even though I get the "low" message, I ignore it and everything works fine. I wait until I get a print copy that actually looks bad before I change the cartridge.

I have also been using the remanufactured cartridges sold at Office Depot (their brand), and they work great but they only make the black ones. They are around $17, IIRC. They even include a postage paid mailer so that you can return the empty to them so that they can refill and resell.

[Hank Rearden]

This DMCA hasn't helped us one bit, I saw repeal it!

It wasn't designed to help "us". It was politicians like Foghorn Leghorn Hollings getting paid off by movie and record companies. Period.

[Robert_Paulson2]

no... I don't have a problem with this on an ink jet...
YES I do have a problem with it on a laser jet color printer... and so do quite a few folks. and NO they don't always have several color "cartridges" of toner in stock. Usually just one. If that one does not work, you have to drive to the next town and get a new one.

it's a scam... just like certain other os's. ALWAYS looking for some way to make a product proprietary in ways inexcusable, to avoid competition... and jack up the prices to three or four times the actual value of the manufactured components. It is monopoliistic, disgusting and anti capitalistic. Not to mention anti competitive and unecessarily expensive for end users, businesses and consumers in general.

hp would make the paper proprietary if they could. they are working on it as we speak.

[js1138]

I personally have had one printer ruined by generic inks

Most HP printers have the prinjt heads built into the cartridge and are easily refillable. At least one of the high end ($500) HP printers has separate print heads and ink cartridges, but both are user replacable. So if you screw up a print head with bad ink, you can fix it yourself.

I personally have an old HP 855, bought used. I reill the ink cartridges until I can't get them to work anymore, and use it for draft copies of stuff -- online payment receipts, recipes fro foodtv.com, etc. I also have a decent but cheap Epson that makes near photo quality prints. For this, I only use Epson cartridges, but I don't use it much.

[A. Pole]

Two words: Laser Printers

I stopped using ink jets and use b/w cheap reliable laser printer. Those guys want to go out of business.