On Jan 3, at 13:02 | Jan3, Norman Dunbar wrote:
Norman/
On 26/12/11 15:15, [email protected] wrote:
When THAT happens, it is necessary to spend 5-to-10 minutes (maybe, it
took a longer time -- who can remember?) pressing the button which tells
the printer to CLEAR its print jets (whatever the process is called to
re-initiate the printer).
Breaking with tradition and bottom posting! ;-)
In all the mailing lists and usenet lists I use, *everyone* bottom posts, and
they get flamed if they don't.
As I am sure you know, I think top posting makes it so hard to pick up threads.
Both Apple Mail and Thunderbird use multicolouring to identify quotes. They
both (TB with an extension) actually hide some levels of quoting, with a 'more'
expansion clickable item.
I really really don't understand why top posting is so liked.
.... well I do actually - it is harder to read on a mobile, but one gets used
to scrolling down.
I suppose it is that M$ products default to top quoting. Interestingly all the
mailers I have ever used (Turnpike, Thunderbird and Apple Mail) default to
bottom posting.
My Epson Stylus 800 was a fine printer, the best one I ever had to be honest. However, as
it had a system whereby the cartridge was replaced and the print head remained, then
leaving it unused for any "long" length of time resulted in the head gumming up
with dried up of gungy ink.
The "press the cleaning buttons" option sometimes worked but simply accelerated
the emptying of the cartridge. Way too expensive.
I obtained a proper printer cleaning kit from PC World which contained -
amongst other things - a small sponge thing on a long handle and a decent sized
bottle of isopropyl alcohol.
Soak the pad with alcohol
Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) not 12yr malt whisky I presume (8-)#
then apply generously to the print head - I admit it was fiddly to scrub
(gently) the head between the platen roller and whatever else was in there -
but it worked and reduced the number of refills I needed.
Not quite the same, but IPA has also kept my 1986 Brother 2024 dot matrix
going, and it is also great for cleaning off label glue and QL PCBs! I use old
toothbrushes as applicators.
I use the Brother still for printing invoices from my archive based programs.
This is slightly complicated now as no modern printer has parallel ports, and
my printer and Windows cannot communicate with usb parallel devices (yes I know
it is likely to be lpt2!).
I have an old pretty dead HP laptop to do the printing, networking to XP
(running under VMware) on my Macbook. 'net use' is also a great command for
printing to Windows based printers from DOS, which Arcplus runs under.
I love using my Archive business programs. They were developed on QL Archive
and moved to PC Four. Even with PC Four I was still getting file corruptions -
mainly index files.
I then moved to Arcplus, which has been 100% trouble free. I still use my
sales database program, which has about 7000 entries, the majority of which are
(well were) QL based.
Eventually, I gave up and bought a new printer - an HP 2610 Photosmart all in
one - this one replaces the print head along with the ink, and it has never
clogged up on me no matter how infrequently I use it.
I prefer to keep my heads but sometimes the better option isn't as good - think
VHS versus Betamax - and you just have to adapt.
You don't have to adapt.
If you use *good* fixed head inkjet printers, like the Canon Pro9000, they very
very rarely block up. Even when they do, it is a minor job cleaning them.
I very much prefer the fixed heads, as replacement non-manufacturer cartidges
are really really cheap, and I find them just as good.
I had an Epson Stylus (830p I think) and that was TERRIBLE. I had it exchanged
before I even used it after getting through loads of cartidges trying to get
even colour.
It was *sllightly" better after that, but still not reliable.
Also, when I tried to dismantle the Epson once - for fun - I discovered that the vast
majority of the internals was nothing more than a huge sponge. Every time the printer
cleaned or flushed the head, the sponge absorbed the overspill and eventually became a
huge blob of "used" ink.
Very, very, very mucky indeed! However, it did solve the riddle of where all
the ink went!
Oh yes indeed. I loaned my printer to someone once who put it upside down (in
a box) on their hall carpet, and then complained to me about the black stain.
This must also have dislodged the print head as it never printed from then on.
I did not feel at all guilty about the stain!
Tony
