Colour Laser--Ink Question

[blank]

G'day I have a lexmark C532n colour laser printer that seems to eat ink
cartridges which cost about $200 each in Australia. I seldom use the
colour,
but the cartridges keep running out. I'm wondering--this cleaning routine
that
it goes through by itself every couple hours, is it possible that each time
it
does that it uses a bit of colour from each of the 4 colour cartridges?

 

[rjn]

but the cartridges keep running out.

Do they actually run out (color missing on page),
or is it just that control panel claims they've run out?

Many people with non-critical printing needs only
replace toner cartridges when they print light/blank
after the SECOND time they've been pulled, shaken,
leveled and reinserted.

 

[Jerry1111]

Do they actually run out (color missing on page),
or is it just that control panel claims they've run out?

Depending on the printer I guess. Mine is Oki C5100n.
Usually it reports cartridge as empty 2 reams of paper early ;-)

Many people with non-critical printing needs only
replace toner cartridges when they print light/blank
after the SECOND time they've been pulled, shaken,
leveled and reinserted.

I'm doing it 5-6 times before it stops printing. When I can see on the
print out that there is physically no toner - well, it's time for a
replacement.

Don't know how to disable color calibration: not that I want to save
toner, but it's quite annoying that it takes relatively long time (and I
believe it's not really required for office-type prints).

 

[emailaddress]

G'day      I have a lexmark C532n colour laser printer that seems to eat ink
cartridges which cost about $200 each in Australia.  I seldom use the
colour,
but the cartridges keep running out.  I'm wondering--this cleaning routine
that
it goes through by itself every couple hours, is it possible that each time
it
does that it uses a bit of colour from each of the 4 colour cartridges?

We see the same thing happening with our C770n. Every time it wakes
up from sleep mode it calibrates, wasting more than the tiny amount of
toner another poster suggested. Assuming yours also has a toner waste
container, look in your printer literature to determine how many pages
that waste container is rated for, and compare how full it is after
the number of pages you have printed. That'll show you roughly how
much difference there is between amount you put on the pages and
amount wasted at an accelerated rate.

Does yours also keep track of # of pages per color and percent
coverage per color page? If so, this is a reasonably-enough accurate
rating of what the printer thinks it's doing, an indication again of
toner waste instead of simply printing pages with a higher % of color
on them than the 5% against which the cartridges are rated.

Personally, I consider the situation a gross design defect, if your
printer is less than 1 year old you should insist on warranty
replacement of the cartridges, but are probably stuck with the
printer. As another suggested, you should wade through the menus and
try to disable calibration, when that is successful you will probably
go from a printer screen that reads "calibrating" to one that reads
"heating" or similar, it will no longer read calibrating at all,
except possibly if the printer were fully turned off at the AC outlet
or a new cartridge were installed.

We recently had to go through all this with multiple people at Lexmark
on our out-of-warranty printer. Fortunately Lexmark finally decided
to send us replacement cartridges, but will they keep doing this over
and over until we get enough free cartridges to reach the expected
yield we payed for? Probably not, we hope they will fix the firmware
so this doesn't happen if turning off calibration is not a total
solution, but we won't know if turning off calibration is the solution
for certain until we see how long the next set of cartridges lasts.

 

[blank]

thanks for your detailed reply yes i have the same problems and
complaints--yellow cartridge is low after only 413 pages on cartridge im
extremely disappointed with this printer i am not able to afford to keep
feeding it, so it will have to go ive been through the settings and
manual very very carefully there is no otion to turn off the calibration
ah well, im not interested in a long frustrating dispute with the lexmark
people i will just have to get rid of the printer and warn others of my
experience

G'day I have a lexmark C532n colour laser printer that seems to eat ink
cartridges which cost about $200 each in Australia. I seldom use the
colour,
but the cartridges keep running out. I'm wondering--this cleaning routine
that
it goes through by itself every couple hours, is it possible that each
time
it
does that it uses a bit of colour from each of the 4 colour cartridges?

We see the same thing happening with our C770n. Every time it wakes
up from sleep mode it calibrates, wasting more than the tiny amount of
toner another poster suggested. Assuming yours also has a toner waste
container, look in your printer literature to determine how many pages
that waste container is rated for, and compare how full it is after
the number of pages you have printed. That'll show you roughly how
much difference there is between amount you put on the pages and
amount wasted at an accelerated rate.

Does yours also keep track of # of pages per color and percent
coverage per color page? If so, this is a reasonably-enough accurate
rating of what the printer thinks it's doing, an indication again of
toner waste instead of simply printing pages with a higher % of color
on them than the 5% against which the cartridges are rated.

Personally, I consider the situation a gross design defect, if your
printer is less than 1 year old you should insist on warranty
replacement of the cartridges, but are probably stuck with the
printer. As another suggested, you should wade through the menus and
try to disable calibration, when that is successful you will probably
go from a printer screen that reads "calibrating" to one that reads
"heating" or similar, it will no longer read calibrating at all,
except possibly if the printer were fully turned off at the AC outlet
or a new cartridge were installed.

We recently had to go through all this with multiple people at Lexmark
on our out-of-warranty printer. Fortunately Lexmark finally decided
to send us replacement cartridges, but will they keep doing this over
and over until we get enough free cartridges to reach the expected
yield we payed for? Probably not, we hope they will fix the firmware
so this doesn't happen if turning off calibration is not a total
solution, but we won't know if turning off calibration is the solution
for certain until we see how long the next set of cartridges lasts.