If we only had more magenta

1/9/2008

Is there some kind of stupid virus going around among hardware companies? My printer thinks I have no magenta, therefore I cannot print in black. But read on...

The printer is an Epson. At least it has 64 bit drivers. The printer has not been used for a while. One of the reasons I bought this printer is that it has three separate color cartridges, so when you run out of one you only need to replace one. But, Epson felt that if you were out of any, you should not be able to print at all. Even in black! I have even set the driver to "use black ink only", yet it refuses to print.

This turns out, is by design and a normal complaint. So much that there is a utility to fake ink levels. BTW, if you have trouble figuring out the utility, "close" it which actually minimizes it to the system tray, then right click on the icon in the system tray....

Unfortunately Epson found out about it, and on newer printers (such as mine) they have disabled the utility as well.

Why?

Because Epson wants to reduce the ink refill market. The ink refillers have already worked around this though, and in fact the utility supports a special external chip programmer to reset the chips in the ink cartridges.

But all Epson has done, is prevented me from printing in black. Second time this week for a reference to Piracy and Unconventional Wisdom? Bye bye Epson, bye bye D-Link!

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