Help! The ink in my laser jet printer has exploded! What am I to do????!

  

The laser jet printer I have at home is the HP Laserjet Pro 200 color M25lnw.

I save money on ink by purchasing  recycled ink from this company called V4ink. In all the years I've been buying from them I never had a bad cartridge until now. Of course this had to happen after I promised to meet someone with finished product in an hour or so. It wasn't a total disaster, I work at a print shop and I do have keys to go in after hours. I didn't feel like going back in a mild snowstorm and waiting like 10 minutes for the printer and computer to boot and warm up.





When I installed the new set of ink, the printer was taking longer than normal to calibrate and made an awful screeching noise that definitely was not normal. I ran a test page and instead of the ink levels being on the lines it was supposed to the whole page was a shade of magenta! It was very surprising and caught me off guard. It was a mess on both sides of the paper.

Pictured to the left was the front test page in all of it's magenta glory. Right is an example of the back of the sheet.

I ran two test copies hoping that problem would go away or improve. It did not.

               The middle sheet is what it is supposed to look like and an example of the cleanup I did.







                                         









I've been working in the print industry for several years now and can do some printer repairs. My test pages my first clue was to inspect the magenta cartridge. I lifted the flap protecting the roller, turned out the magenta ink was all over the ink roller. I took a tissue and wiped the entire roller. I used pliers to gently turn the roller turner things on the side. I checked the other cartridges as well and they looked ok and I did not need to clean them.

Once I installed the cleaned cartridge I let the printer calibrate. Ran the test page,
but then ran a head cleaning for good measure.

I was able to fix this minor problem and didn't have to send the ink back.
Which would of taken more than a week to get a replacement or credit.

Tada~
Simple problem solving to fix the problem!

From messing around with my other old printer...I've learned things about buying non-oem cartridges.

-  It is ideal you replace all the cartridges at once.

- Make sure it is the same brand, don't mix brands.
Reason being is the ink colors won't mix, won't bind and dry to the paper properly.

-Make sure the company is reputable and has good reviews.
Don't experiment with an unknown if you can avoid it.

Hope these tips help!

Pretty cool that the ink cartridges are in this pull out drawer when you open the front door. 

Before I forget again I entered artwork for the 

18th Annual Millicent Rodgers Museum Miniature Show. 

The opening is February 7th.

Click Here for more information

Make it if you can!

& check out my "Berried Solutions!"

Hihi! Its been a slow rough late start this year.
Things have happened I'm doing better but ok.

Probably the past ten years or so my New Years Resolution has been not to make one. Honestly I don't think I have ever seen a successful resolution that someone has truly kept all year in fruition. I see so many people get discouraged and give up on their goals. I find it that when you set smaller achievable goals eventually they add up to something bigger. I don't see the logic of why wait till January to become a better person or delay the do the thing you want to do?

It can be hard at times.
Enthusiasm is like a flame they say, you have to keep it burning, going, feeding it consistently.

One thing I don't get with people and their resolutions is like why wait until January to go on trendy diets. I am one of those that sees the word DIE in diet. I don't diet but do things my own way, and eat what I want. With light exercise and cutting out sugar I lost over 20lbs this summer.

I didn't wait until the new year to do that. Losing that amount of weight takes consistency and time. It isn't easy and with my health condition it makes it harder than a normal person. My lack of progress was thwarted by weighing myself on a broken scale at work. I didn't think I was going anywhere and thought something was wrong with me again. I didn't know the scale I was using was broken until I went to the Doctor. I couldn't see my progress clearly as I was going through it. I was discouraged and frustrated at times but I didn't give up.

One of my major pet peeves is I get tired and annoyed after awhile of when people complain about the same thing and do nothing to get out of said situation. Especially if its something they can be changed in their control.

Complaining is a luxury.

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The other day I got an ipad pro! I was going to buy buy myself a kindle tablet for Christmas but then realized I could get an old ipad for almost the same price. It has more accessories and support. Before I bought one I mentioned it to my sister. It turned out my sister had an extra ipad pro she thought was broken lying around and gave it to me.  Never used really. After looking at it I don't really consider it broken, it is bent and has a few scruffs but fully operational. It is essentially new. She even gave me her apple pencil! It is incredible it picks up line sensitivity and pressure! I'm a late adopter to new technology!

I am super excited and can't thank her enough. I can sketch digitally on the go. Or I don't have to be at my desk to draw. My command station isn't mobile but part of it is now. This weekend it was nice I could wander around my house and draw and watch tv where ever!
There are many art apps on the ipad to experiment with. Everyone likes the drawing app Procreate, but I like Paintstorm Studio.  PSS is modeled after photoshop with the menus and terms so the learning curve is a little easier for me. I haven't created a full on painting but I like starting the sketch, and hopefully will learn soon how to export layers as well.

Well stay tuned! And Sorry about the wait!
-K