b109 n-z

[kermadec]

I have a wireless HP photosmart b109n-z.  I run 64bit.  When i first got product i did a little printing.  Since then, only scanning but i noticed each time i turned machine on the ink was getting lower and lower.   Then last week i needed to print some photos.  Exclamation marks over all cartridges.  (I did try just in case they had a bit left in them,) but no luck, so replaced with HP cartridges.  All showed full and i printed ten 6 x 4 photos.  Photos excellent, but all ink showing at half level (except the black still showing full). $100 seems a bit steep for ten photos!! Does anyone have any advice...Thanks

[Shirlzz1]

Hi, sorry to hear that you are having a problem with the printer. I am including a link where you can look at what each cartridge is supposed to produce as far as photo yield and page yield.  I don’t know if you did this, but when just printing regular documents you can cut down on ink usage by going to “File”and then “Print”and once you get into the Properties box, you can turn the printer to gray scale and change the quality too. Also, some printers have the option to choose the paper type that you are printing from and it does help to match up the photo paper to help conserve supplies.  I have found the manual for this printer and it goes over selecting the media on pages 22-23. Here is the link to the manual. http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01894737.pdf

[kermadec]

I do appreciate your reply but i was aware how to alter the print quality etc,which i did,  but why would you select grayscale when you want colour?.  I also chose the correct paper type to match the photo paper i had.    The web link suggested you would get around 80 - 90  6x4's (GOOD LUCK WITH THAT THEN!!!)  I would suggest 25 is more likely and with the 3 colour cartidges costing about $100, colour photo printing is a total joke!!  Also i wouldnt recommend an all in one product because even if your ink cartridges are full and then dont do any printing for a while, just a lot of scanning, the cartidges get lower and lower each time...There does not seem to be a way to tell the machine you are just wanting to scan and not to check the ink levels EVERY time, thus using up the ink.   Also HP are not interested in your after sales problems.  I have tried and tried to get help but no replys.  Its such a shame really as apart from the ink issues it is a great little machine.

[Shirlzz1]

Sorry that you are having all these problems. I threw the Grayscale information in there as a tip for when doing text documents and wanting to save ink. Sorry, I should have made that clear.  I don’t know if you explored further on those pages for the ink information but going back to one of your original questions about why the ink was going down when you were not using the printer to do output at that time and were just scanning here is a document on how inkjet printers also use ink at other times in their cycles besides when just printing.  Since I don’t want to plagiarize the document that I am about link to; I will summarize by stating ink is used a number of ways throughout the printing process.  This is just to provide more information on the process and why is used when not printing/making copies.  Here is the link. http://h10060.www1.hp.com/pageyield/en-019/articles/howInkIsUsed.html?cCode=us