Recently, my trusty DVD printer (yes, it prints DVDs and CDs almost exclusively), the Epson R290 keeps telling me the yellow cartridge is on empty and refused to print. I usually stock cartridges so that was not a show-stopper. A minor detour for Asian readers: your yellow ink will finish the fastest so if you’re not OCD like me on ink, at least keep a spare yellow cartridge somewhere. Not very scientific I know but every printer I use has always depleted the yellow ink first. This also happened while I was shooting two hundred-plus families at Mid valley for the recent focus on the family’s photo contest. All three printers ran through their yellow cartridges with an average ratio on 1.8 to 1 other color cartridge. Asian skin tones perhaps.
Anyways, replacing an ink cart is a two minute operation… until I get an incompatible/non-original cartridge error. Okay, my carts are all Epson originals. Pop the cartridge out, cleaned the contacts, pop it back in. No go. Okay, next yellow cartridge! Still no go. Power-off, disconnect power cord, replace with empty cartridge, etc. Nothing works. So, after one hour and two brand new yellow cartridges, the stupid thing still tells me the cartridge is incompatible or incorrect and I need a 81 or 82 cartridges. That what it says on the box and the cartridge!!! I know why manufacturers do this. They literally are giving the printer away and making back their revenues on the consumables. This is a fact. I used to work for a printer giant (two letter acronym, US company, Palo Alto, you get the it…) and the printer group always makes money. They may not hit targets all the time but they never lose money.
What to do? I’ve got a couple of customer DVDs to print! The next lowest ink level was the light-cyan cartridge. So, let’s replace that and see if I need to replace my printer. Pop the cart out, pop the new cart in and damn. It works like it should. One day later and a short trip down to Low Yat Plaza, yes, Epson inks are kinda hard to find… especially the higher end inks and this is like entry level IMHO. So next step, replace the yellow with the newly purchased cart and finally it works!
Hmm, I think I’ll be looking at a Canon printer next… provided it prints DVDs as good as my Epson.
