A couple of weeks ago my All-in-One Printer started telling me that it could not find my printhead. I had found a new one online but was not sure how to proceed. Do I try to install the new printhead myself? Do I try to clean the old one? Do I trash the whole thing and buy a new one???
I contacted Rebecca Biter (related story
Rebecca Biter is a computer-fixing wizard.
on page 1) and she said changing out the printhead may help and it may not, but she was willing to give it a try.
After going through a dozen pairs of disposable gloves (to protect her hands from the messy ink) she easily put it back together, only to find that the cartridges would not stay in, they just wanted to pop back out. So she took it apart again.
This time she discovered that the little tabs that held the cartridges in had to be taken off of the old printhead and installed on the new one – not what either of us expected.
When all that was done, we were still getting an error message saying there was a problem with the printhead. She discussed options with me and even downloaded an update, hoping that would help. Nothing.
When she left, we were both convinced that I needed to replace the printer. However, amazingly, after a bit, it just started working!!! And it is working as of this writing. Thanks Rebecca!
While she was here, we talked about options for dealing with old laptops, something we may work on together in the future. In the meantime, she is also helping me retrieve my addresses from a Lotus file. Basically, Rebecca is amazing! If you need any help with computers, she is great! She really knows her stuff. And it was fun getting to know her.