Printhead Woes.

[Raziaar]

Okay. So i'm going through old computer parts. And I have thi
DECcolorwriter 120i

I haven't really ever used it. I open it up... install it. It seems t
operate fine. However, no ink is coming out of it when I try to prin
something. No biggy. I open it up, and see that the ink cartridge i
the print head is awfully light. And the top is off so I imigine i
is empty. I get a new one that I had(have several boxes of th
things), and install it. I'm pretty excited cause I have never reall
used a printer much before and this seems like it'll work

However, it doesn't. No ink comes out of that either. Frusterated,
go over and get the only color thing I have for the printer, whic
comes in a non replacable printhead/color thing(all built together)
But it can be refilled easily, so thats great. I install it. Gues
what... it works beautifully in my test. So I start doing research
and come to the conclusion that something must be up with m
monochrome printhead. I check it out, and the thing is confusing t
me because i've never used printers before. I take off the in
cartridge, and clean it with isopropyl alcohol. Nothing. Stil
doesn't work. I then run it under warm water to get all the ink ou
of there, which seems to work great cause the ink just flows righ
off everything when wet. I wait for it to dry, and install it again
The printer still accepts it nicely(seems its very sensitive abou
detecting it, which is cool for an old printer), but still no ink i
coming out

I've tried everything possible, short of buying a new monochrom
printhead, which the average price for this model LJ50X-AB seems t
be 40 bucks. 40 bucks!! thats gotta be worth more than the printe
itself now! What the hell..

Can anybody help me out

 

[zakezuke]

I've tried everything possible, short of buying a new monochrome

printhead, which the average price for this model LJ50X-AB seems to
be 40 bucks. 40 bucks!! thats gotta be worth more than the printer
itself now! What the hell...

lj50x-AB? That comes with a black inktank IIRC. $40? I hate to say
it but that's dang reasonable. IIRC those inktanks fetch about
$18/pop, come in a twin pack, and each are rated at 400pages. This is
dirt cheap for an inkjet, major bonus if you can refill it with ease.
Sure you "might" consider something more modern, but odds are you can't
find something modern under $100 So yeah, $40 bucks sucks, but that's
more like $32bucks for the printhead and $8 for the ink. this isn't
bad, this isn't bad by a long shot. A printhead for my canon would run
me $60 to $80.

You might checkout http://www.nifty-stuff.com/ for tips on cleaning.
They mostly apply to canons but the same techniques might apply to this
one. But because it's a thermal printhead, they burn out.

You'll find that many modern printers the printhead costs more than the
printer. Simply put they are selling the printers often for under what
they are worth, as they'll make up the difference and then some selling
ink.