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Author Topic: Printer not playing the game.  (Read 3276 times)

renluop

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Printer not playing the game.
« on: November 08, 2018, 07:57:46 PM »

Some time ago I dropped it, but all seemed well after some fiddling. Now, having to supply a certified copy of passport to a bank, it has come up with badly discolored and smeared prints.

I went through cleaning and print head alignment, even manually, or thought I had with Canon's confusing instructions. But results were even worse, and I'm in a quandary what to do next. OK, I'll have to get the passport copy from a shop, but the printer ( Canon MG 6800 series MFD) is only 30 months old. is it worth getting it repaired, but where.

Thoughts or advice, anyone?
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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Printer not playing the game.
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2018, 08:18:39 PM »

Worth doing a good few (dozens of) test prints, to see if it improves.

Otherwise, marketing model for printers these days seems to be sell the printer at a loss, then get profits from sale of cartridges at huge margins.   Normally therefor, I’d be inclined to ruthlessly scrap a broken printer, even if newish, and buy another one.

Then again, if you have a cupboard full of spare cartridges, might be worth getting it fixed so they don’t go to waste?

Better still, if you have a cupboard full of spare cartridges, and they still fit some currently on sale printer, that printer might be a good investment.  Assuming that like most printers, it costs nearly nothing.  :)
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renluop

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Re: Printer not playing the game.
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2018, 08:30:46 PM »

Only cartridges are in the printer! I was about to buy more.
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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Printer not playing the game.
« Reply #3 on: November 08, 2018, 09:36:48 PM »

Worth adding one more suggestion, in the light of specific symptoms of “smudged and smeared” prints...

...in my own experience a cause of that is accidentally printing on the wrong size of paper, eg the printer thinks it is A4 but I’ve inserted 6x4 photo paper.  In that case, the surplus ink goes all over the rollers, contaminating subsequent prints, until eventually it dries out and settles down. 

Same can happen if high quality photo print is attempted with photo paper inserted wrong face up, unabsorbed ink gets on the rollers.

Istr you are a photography enthusiast yourself, so apols if I am teaching Grandma (/pa) to suck eggs, but thought it worth a mention. :)
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renluop

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Re: Printer not playing the game.
« Reply #4 on: November 13, 2018, 04:53:22 PM »

My conclusion is though it is going to disturb the moths, I'll get a new one.
I have two in mind, both Cannon:
MG5750 @ £50, which is broadly similar to mine except it has a smaller screen.

TS6150 @ £70, which has a smaller footprint, the same sized screen as now and, from illustration, better angled. It appears slightly faster, but bit depth Input/Output: Colour: RGB each 16 bit / 8 bit
Greyscale: 16 bit / 8 bit vs the older MG5750's Colour: RGB each 48 bit / 24 bit
Greyscale: 16 bit / 8. I'm favouring the TS6150, but am uncertain what the bit depth reduction's effect will be noticeable.

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Weaver

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Re: Printer not playing the game.
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2018, 07:45:11 PM »

I’m not sure I would like the ‘wifi direct’ mode feature, says it creates an ad-hoc mode wireless lan. I would be very unhappy about the lack of access controls, competing with your existing wireless LAN for precious channels. And if you have multiple WAPs, there’s inability to roam to multiple WAPs so you have to actually be in range if the printer at all times rather than anywhere near any one of your existing WAPs in your whole wireless LAN. Weird the way some people are starting to think that everything is wireless and there are no Ethernet wired devices, everything must be a smartphone, an iPad or such, or a laptop that has a wireless NIC in it. And what happens when your neighbours start printing on your printer or their printer messes up your frequency space?

I should read the manual rather than droning on and just guessing. :-)

I wonder if one can turn that feature off? Anyway, I was quite interested in Canon, Will remember to stay well clear if some of the models and watch out for that pitfall.

My current stupid printer doesn’t work at all with my iPad unless you only use certain apps. So I need a proper fully works-with-iOS one ], and got recommendations from kitizens a while back, as I recall. Just want something that works reliably with zero hassle with iPads and can be a good citizen on an existing administered, secured wireless LAN.
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Westie

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Re: Printer not playing the game.
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2018, 08:36:33 PM »

I have a somewhat old HP laser printer, which has only USB & parallel (remember those) ports. I used to share it on my home LAN from an almost-as-old PC, but couldn't print from the iPad.

I bought a cheap Pi ZeroW, installed Samba, wired it to the USB port on the printer and connected it wirelessly to the LAN. Both iPads and iPhone print flawlessly, as does my wife's laptop, so I now have a secure network printer which doesn't rely on also having the PC running.

All for the cost of a Raspberry Pi (and some head-scratching!)
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