H
Happy at last
Having trouble with over-saturation?, read on.
I bought a D7160 about nine months ago. Despite using a colour calibrated
monitor via Qimage and Lightroom I could never quite solve the problem of
over-saturation, particularly when using 'Advanced' photo paper.
Additionally, the 'Advanced' results always seemed to have a faint 'milky'
tinge to them - as if there was a slightly opaque top coating.
Needless to say, HP's India based support drones were utterly useless in
solving the problem. Unfailing polite, but I might as well have been asking
the cat for its advice on the matter.
Eventually, I worked out that the best results came with Premium Plus paper,
with 'Premium' not far behind. 'Advanced' paper was a non-starter, which
meant all those sheets in the ink 'value packs' were of no use to me.
I decided that, since I couldn't get 100% results, I might as well go for
third-party ink, and bought a set of the refillable cartridges on Ebay
(clear carts, with a hole, sealed by a removable bung, for easy refilling.
They have a chip that tells the printer that they're always full - and you
keep an eye on the levels via the transparent cartridges.
Print quality seemed good (still the same problem with Advanced) and still a
bit over-saturated, as with the orginal ink.
However, the general quality was good enough for me to respond to an HP
email shot when they offered me another D7160 for £53 delivered. I decided
that it was a well made machine, and the bogus ink made it cheap (*very*
cheap) to run, so I went ahead and bought a spare.
I thought I'd better install it, just in case there was a problem - and
noticed that the XP installation disc had been upgraded to 7.04 (from 7.02)
I didn't think that was important because I'd previously down-loaded an
available HP update via Windows Update, and reckoned that I must already
have the same software version.
The software, however, disagreed - and un-installed my previous version
before installing 7.04 from the disc.
That was when things began to take a turn for the better! I decided to run
a comparison between the two installed printers - one with the cheap ink,
and one with the new set of HP originals that came with the machine.
Amazing! - the results from both are absolutely (and I mean 'absolutely)
indistinguishable - and both of them not at all over-saturated.
What's more, even 'Advanced' paper had lost the faint 'milky bloom' that had
made its previous use impossible.
Best results are still on Premium/Premium Plus (as you'd probably expect)
but the difference between 7.02 & 7.04 is huge!
Obviously, HP have done something good with the software - but it certainly
didn't download in the only available D7160 update - so it seems that you
need the actual 7.04 disc to benefit from it.
So, if you've got a 7160, I can throughly recommend a set of the refillable
carts and the installation of version 7.04. If your D7160 was working
properly before, it will still work properly, and will save you a fortune in
ink while giving exactly the same colour results.
If your D7160 *wasn't* working properly (over saturation, etc) then you'll
solve that problem, as well as getting the ink for next to nothing when
compared to HP supplies.
Oh - and a *very* odd thing! - after installing 7.04, the ink level monitor
(which had always shown 'full' when reporting on the refillable tanks,
suddenly works! - it's showing the ink levels dropping, just as with a
genuine HP cartridge. I had to check twice, just in case I was reading the
level for the genuine cartridges - but no, after installing 7.04, the third
party refilables are now indicating ink levels correctly.
That's not terribly important as the levels are easy to see anyway - but
it's still a nice feature, and gives full functionality at an absolute
fraction of the cost (based on UK prices, anyway)
Sorry to ramble - but I hope it helps other D7160 users.
I bought a D7160 about nine months ago. Despite using a colour calibrated
monitor via Qimage and Lightroom I could never quite solve the problem of
over-saturation, particularly when using 'Advanced' photo paper.
Additionally, the 'Advanced' results always seemed to have a faint 'milky'
tinge to them - as if there was a slightly opaque top coating.
Needless to say, HP's India based support drones were utterly useless in
solving the problem. Unfailing polite, but I might as well have been asking
the cat for its advice on the matter.
Eventually, I worked out that the best results came with Premium Plus paper,
with 'Premium' not far behind. 'Advanced' paper was a non-starter, which
meant all those sheets in the ink 'value packs' were of no use to me.
I decided that, since I couldn't get 100% results, I might as well go for
third-party ink, and bought a set of the refillable cartridges on Ebay
(clear carts, with a hole, sealed by a removable bung, for easy refilling.
They have a chip that tells the printer that they're always full - and you
keep an eye on the levels via the transparent cartridges.
Print quality seemed good (still the same problem with Advanced) and still a
bit over-saturated, as with the orginal ink.
However, the general quality was good enough for me to respond to an HP
email shot when they offered me another D7160 for £53 delivered. I decided
that it was a well made machine, and the bogus ink made it cheap (*very*
cheap) to run, so I went ahead and bought a spare.
I thought I'd better install it, just in case there was a problem - and
noticed that the XP installation disc had been upgraded to 7.04 (from 7.02)
I didn't think that was important because I'd previously down-loaded an
available HP update via Windows Update, and reckoned that I must already
have the same software version.
The software, however, disagreed - and un-installed my previous version
before installing 7.04 from the disc.
That was when things began to take a turn for the better! I decided to run
a comparison between the two installed printers - one with the cheap ink,
and one with the new set of HP originals that came with the machine.
Amazing! - the results from both are absolutely (and I mean 'absolutely)
indistinguishable - and both of them not at all over-saturated.
What's more, even 'Advanced' paper had lost the faint 'milky bloom' that had
made its previous use impossible.
Best results are still on Premium/Premium Plus (as you'd probably expect)
but the difference between 7.02 & 7.04 is huge!
Obviously, HP have done something good with the software - but it certainly
didn't download in the only available D7160 update - so it seems that you
need the actual 7.04 disc to benefit from it.
So, if you've got a 7160, I can throughly recommend a set of the refillable
carts and the installation of version 7.04. If your D7160 was working
properly before, it will still work properly, and will save you a fortune in
ink while giving exactly the same colour results.
If your D7160 *wasn't* working properly (over saturation, etc) then you'll
solve that problem, as well as getting the ink for next to nothing when
compared to HP supplies.
Oh - and a *very* odd thing! - after installing 7.04, the ink level monitor
(which had always shown 'full' when reporting on the refillable tanks,
suddenly works! - it's showing the ink levels dropping, just as with a
genuine HP cartridge. I had to check twice, just in case I was reading the
level for the genuine cartridges - but no, after installing 7.04, the third
party refilables are now indicating ink levels correctly.
That's not terribly important as the levels are easy to see anyway - but
it's still a nice feature, and gives full functionality at an absolute
fraction of the cost (based on UK prices, anyway)
Sorry to ramble - but I hope it helps other D7160 users.