I have the Epson Stylus Photo 890 printer and it has been little used for some time. I put in a new set of ink cartridges, ran the cleaning cycle several times but still it won't fire from all the jets. Last time this happened to me was with a previous printer which was in warranty and the engineer attended and sorted out in a few minutes according to the person who was present, but I wasn't so didn't see how he did it / any re-aligning procedure. Can anyone tell me how to get the ink flowing on this or a similar model ? I am sure its the bit that the cartridges sit on that has got some jets blocked. Thanks, Nick Welcome to the wonderful world of Epson clogged heads. Epson printers are the worst pile of shite that's ever been made for head clogging problems. I had one that did it continuously if you left it more than a few days without using it. I eventually got so frustrated with it using about a pint of ink out of each cartridge every time it was put through a clean cycle, that I eventually binned it and went to PC World to get a new all-in-one. Foolishly, I allowed the salesman to talk me into a different Epson Model, on the grounds that they couldn't make more than one model that was total crap. Wrong ...  The replacement was as bad if not worse than the previous one for clogging. Try looking at this on the 'net. You will find that they are well known for it. Eventually, I gave up on it, and drop-kicked it down the garden. I went straight to Staples, and bought an HP, as I should have done in the first place. This gives stirling service, as the first ever one that I had did, and never ever clogs. Even if you manage to unclog your Epson this time, before realising that you've just rinsed about 30 quids-worth of ink in the attempt, it *will* clog again next week, and the week after. Take my advice, ditch it now, and put your money to a nice new HP. You'll never regret it. How much does an HP A3+ printer cost to replace my aging, never blocked Epson 1520? Can you get carts for less than 50p to fit the HP?

Well, thanks guys - seems like I can clean it if I have time to spare but it won't last long - Yes I have run nearly a whole catridge through on cleaning cycles and no real difference, so I'll try the stage three clean on one of the above and start looking for a new HP. Any recommendations for current HPs ? Budget around ?75 for a colour inkjet only ( don't need / want scanner / copier  built in, as have those devices - really only for occasional photos and it would be good if it ran on non-original ink but not really bothered as used so little. Thanks, Nick My daughter has a lovely little HP for photo printing. Couldn't tell you the model off hand, but she bought it in Waitrose (John Lewis) and it wasn't expensive. Has all the card slots etc. Only about the size of a toaster. I think you can also print A4 on it, but you might have to hand feed it to do that, not sure. As far as inks go, I know a lot of people swear by the non-proprietry cheapos, or refils, but I have a couple of friends, one of whom is a professional photographer, who will not use them, having had serious problems in the past. AFAIK, all HP cartridges have the print head built in, which is why they are a little more expensive, but at least it means that if you should get a (very rare) clog that you can't clear, the printer is not landfill. Personally, just to know that  I am getting brand new heads with manufacturer's specced ink behind them, is enough to keep me buying originals. HP themselves do some good 'shop online' deals, and often the likes of Staples and so on, have HP ink deals on the go. One thing to note about HPs that I think a lot of other printers like Epsons don't do, is that they go 'properly' to sleep when you leave them powered i.e. after a period of time, the heads 'park' over the sealer. I always leave my printer powered as I can't be doing waiting for half an hour as it boots, then self tests, then establishes contact with the host computer, then purges its inklines and so on. When I hit print, I want it to just wake up and print, preferably some time in the next 30 seconds. Both the Epsons that I had used to just power down with the heads left exactly where they last were, which I believe is a contributory factor to them drying out and clogging. One other thing to note when choosing a new one. If you have a network with more than one computer on it, several of the HP all-in-ones, and possibly the printer-only types as well, are 'proper' network printers i.e. they have an Ethernet port on them as well as a USB interface. This means that you can just plug it into your hub or router or whatever, and it will be seen as just another network node. Then, any computer on the network can make use of it, without the need for any other computer to be on, as is otherwise the case when a printer is 'shared' to a network via a host computer. For this reason alone, it might be worth considering an all-in-one - even though you don't think you want one -where the scanner is likewise fully networked (when you scan via the front panel buttons, a menu comes up listing all of the nodes that are available on the network, and asks you where you would like to send the scan) and also for the fact that you get a very good monochrome or colour photocopier that can also be used for Faxing. It's amazing how often you find yourself using it as a photocopier ... My 5180 (not the current model I think as a couple of years old now) was only around the budget that you have, and the prices haven't changed much. The likes of PC World are having a hard time of it at the moment. If I were you, I'd get myself down there, and see what sorts of deals there are to be had. Arfa

lasers not cheap to run if you want colour and not very good for photos If you cost it properly you will find lasers are cheaper to run, especially for photos. You need a good laser to get photo results but even the cheap ones look a lot better if you laminate the photo. I  use a cheap Samsung CLP300 these days unless its bigger than A4 and then its back to the old Epson which will take A2 paper. This one is even cheaper, but I haven't seen one. http://www.printerland.co.uk/acatalog/Xerox_Phaser_6110_Series_A4_Pri...

Yes I have run nearly a whole catridge through on cleaning cycles and no real difference You've run nothing at all as no ink came out. Rubbish, nothing came out of the blocked jets but plenty from the unblocked ones...  If no ink is being consumed how come the level drops in host computers ink level display? OK if could just be the chip telling the host what it thinks the levels are but you can't ignore that and the printer will stop when it thinks it's run out of ink. You could use a chip reseter on it but then you don't know where the levels are at all. More hoops to jump through just to do a simple print.

if I want professional photo prints I get them done online. That is certainly a good option these days. For occasional printing probably better value than maintaining an inkjet. My local ASDA will print 100 6x4 for ?7.50 so its going to be hard to beat on price. Its open 24 Hrs too. I have a little Samsung dyesub printer for taking on holiday or to parties.

Yes I have run nearly a whole catridge through on cleaning cycles and no real difference You've run nothing at all as no ink came out. Rubbish, nothing came out of the blocked jets but plenty from the unblocked ones...  If no ink is being consumed how come the level drops in host computers ink level display? Well they don't usually measure the level in the tanks, they count the number of pulses and use maths to work out how much is left. If no ink is coming out it will still count the pulses as it has no way of knowing.