Printer page counter needed

[Peter in New Zealand]

Vista Home premium with 1 Gbyte RAM and everything is working just fine
except the Vista drivers for my HP Deskjet 3940 printer no longer
include any sort of ink level meter. The XP drivers won't install, and
the HP website addresses this issue with the suggestion to go buy a new
printer. Well, they are cheap enough, but the present one is only a
couple of years old, and works fine. As I refill the cartridges I really
do need to have some sort of rough indication as they tend to burn out
printheads of run completely dry. I am wondering if there is anything
like a simple counter of the pages that go to the printer. Just the
overall running total would be enough. I have searched and Googled, and
found the occasional freeware offering, but they are either very flaky
or so complicated that I can't figure them out. Can anyone offer a
suggestion - freeware please.

My grateful thanks.

 

[Joseph Meehan]

Well it really is HP's responsibility for drivers. MS tends to create
some very generic drivers, but don't expect them to have all the features.

 

[Peter in New Zealand]

Well it really is HP's responsibility for drivers. MS tends to
create some very generic drivers, but don't expect them to have all the
features.

Vista Home premium with 1 Gbyte RAM and everything is working just
fine except the Vista drivers for my HP Deskjet 3940 printer no longer
include any sort of ink level meter. The XP drivers won't install, and
the HP website addresses this issue with the suggestion to go buy a
new printer. Well, they are cheap enough, but the present one is only
a couple of years old, and works fine. As I refill the cartridges I
really do need to have some sort of rough indication as they tend to
burn out printheads of run completely dry. I am wondering if there is
anything like a simple counter of the pages that go to the printer.
Just the overall running total would be enough. I have searched and
Googled, and found the occasional freeware offering, but they are
either very flaky or so complicated that I can't figure them out. Can
anyone offer a suggestion - freeware please.

My grateful thanks.

Exactly - I was just hoping for perhaps a little utility that might do
what I wanted independant of the make and model of printer.

 

[Peter in New Zealand]

Well it really is HP's responsibility for drivers. MS tends to
create some very generic drivers, but don't expect them to have all
the features.



Exactly - I was just hoping for perhaps a little utility that might do
what I wanted independant of the make and model of printer.

Ummm, answering my own question, just in case it helps anyone else here.
I finally came across a little utility called InkMonitor. You can find
it at www.pokluda.cz. (Yes, I have spelled that right). It can be set to
start at boot, and has a number of printer and cartridge models already
built in. Mine isn't, but you can add cartridge details. It needs to
know what you want to call the cartridge and, more importantly, the ink
capacity. It sits in the taskbar tray and has a tool tip that tells you
what % of your ink it thinks you have used. When you start a print job
it pops up a little window that shows its best guess on a little scale.
No idea how close it really is, but it will serve for me to remind me
when I really ought to seriously think about refilling. I guess it's the
sort of thing not many folk need, but if you do, then they are hard to
find. This little one's definitely a keeper. Hope this might be helpful
for someone out there anyway. Cheers.

 

[Joseph Meehan]

Glad to hear you found a solution.

...

Ummm, answering my own question, just in case it helps anyone else here. I
finally came across a little utility called InkMonitor. You can find it at
www.pokluda.cz. (Yes, I have spelled that right). It can be set to start
at boot, and has a number of printer and cartridge models already built
in. Mine isn't, but you can add cartridge details. It needs to know what
you want to call the cartridge and, more importantly, the ink capacity. It
sits in the taskbar tray and has a tool tip that tells you what % of your
ink it thinks you have used. When you start a print job it pops up a
little window that shows its best guess on a little scale. No idea how
close it really is, but it will serve for me to remind me when I really
ought to seriously think about refilling. I guess it's the sort of thing
not many folk need, but if you do, then they are hard to find. This little
one's definitely a keeper. Hope this might be helpful for someone out
there anyway. Cheers.