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Post by the light works on Mar 5, 2024 17:08:47 GMT
All I know is, the way he was describing the whole thing it sounded fishy, so I said to hold off and that we'd need to ask one of my older brothers, as both of them know a lot more about modern tech than I do. He flew off at me over that, saying I was in "panic mode" and needed to settle down. So yeah, my heart was going even *before* I got logged out of Facebook thanks to this latest system crash. resist the urge to say, "I'm in panic mode because I know what you do to our computers." |
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Post by ironhold on Mar 9, 2024 18:45:28 GMT
So, the printer we have is an HP Envy 7858.
Between what dad has been doing and what mom has wanted me to print off for church, we've replaced the black cartridge twice in the last two months.
These past two times, the usual alignment process you're supposed to do after putting in a new cartridge failed. It was trial and error getting it to work the first time, and we actually had a blue screen of death because we tried to keep printing as normal. This time I've done the print quality diagnostic thrice, and each time it's gotten only marginally better.
Unless by sheer dumb luck we've come into a batch of substandard black ink cartridges, my suspicion is that the printer is worn down somehow so that the black cartridges aren't aligning properly.
The question is how I'd check that without also burning up a lot of color by continual quality tests.
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Post by GTCGreg on Mar 9, 2024 21:51:04 GMT
So, the printer we have is an HP Envy 7858. Between what dad has been doing and what mom has wanted me to print off for church, we've replaced the black cartridge twice in the last two months. These past two times, the usual alignment process you're supposed to do after putting in a new cartridge failed. It was trial and error getting it to work the first time, and we actually had a blue screen of death because we tried to keep printing as normal. This time I've done the print quality diagnostic thrice, and each time it's gotten only marginally better. Unless by sheer dumb luck we've come into a batch of substandard black ink cartridges, my suspicion is that the printer is worn down somehow so that the black cartridges aren't aligning properly. The question is how I'd check that without also burning up a lot of color by continual quality tests. Maybe it's time to just get a real printer. You know, one that doesn't use ink. |
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Post by the light works on Mar 9, 2024 23:21:10 GMT
So, the printer we have is an HP Envy 7858. Between what dad has been doing and what mom has wanted me to print off for church, we've replaced the black cartridge twice in the last two months. These past two times, the usual alignment process you're supposed to do after putting in a new cartridge failed. It was trial and error getting it to work the first time, and we actually had a blue screen of death because we tried to keep printing as normal. This time I've done the print quality diagnostic thrice, and each time it's gotten only marginally better. Unless by sheer dumb luck we've come into a batch of substandard black ink cartridges, my suspicion is that the printer is worn down somehow so that the black cartridges aren't aligning properly. The question is how I'd check that without also burning up a lot of color by continual quality tests. Maybe it's time to just get a real printer. You know, one that doesn't use ink. reminds me, sometime this year, I'm going to need to change the color cartridges on my M454. Mrs T is always griping because it asks for confirmation on every print job, because they're getting low. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Mar 10, 2024 4:02:10 GMT
Maybe it's time to just get a real printer. You know, one that doesn't use ink. reminds me, sometime this year, I'm going to need to change the color cartridges on my M454. Mrs T is always griping because it asks for confirmation on every print job, because they're getting low. The 454 is a laser printer, is it not? I retired all my ink printers a while ago. Don't miss them at all. |
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Post by the light works on Mar 10, 2024 14:16:52 GMT
reminds me, sometime this year, I'm going to need to change the color cartridges on my M454. Mrs T is always griping because it asks for confirmation on every print job, because they're getting low. The 454 is a laser printer, is it not? I retired all my ink printers a while ago. Don't miss them at all. the "sometime this year, because the cartridges are low" statement is the clue. I went laser in 2007. IIRC, I changed the cartridges in the first one, once, and I'll be changing the cartridges in this one, as I said, sometime this year. for the printing loads that it sounds like Iron's family puts on theirs, I'd guess they'd be changing black cartridges every year. we also went from changing "ribbons" in the fax every few months, to changing the cartridge once. - and for a frame of reference, since I forget how many computers ago I bought it; we've had to change the batteries in the handsets. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Mar 11, 2024 0:03:02 GMT
The 454 is a laser printer, is it not? I retired all my ink printers a while ago. Don't miss them at all. the "sometime this year, because the cartridges are low" statement is the clue. I went laser in 2007. IIRC, I changed the cartridges in the first one, once, and I'll be changing the cartridges in this one, as I said, sometime this year. for the printing loads that it sounds like Iron's family puts on theirs, I'd guess they'd be changing black cartridges every year. we also went from changing "ribbons" in the fax every few months, to changing the cartridge once. - and for a frame of reference, since I forget how many computers ago I bought it; we've had to change the batteries in the handsets. I have what's basically the same printer as your 454 only it has the paper feeder on top to make it into a copier/scanner/fax/printer. I mainly use it for making copies and scanning. I've had it for a little over a year and only put something like 200 copies on it. I figure at that rate, the toner carts should last me something like 5 years. For my main printer, I just got a Xerox C8000. It 's a large commercial grade floor standing unit that has multiple paper trays and can do double sided printing on up to 11X17 paper. The color print quality is phenomenal at 1200DPI. The OEM toner carts are a little expensive at $350 to $400 each but they have a yield of over 20,000 copies. I have about 2000 copies on it now and the black toner cart says it's at 92%. At that rate, I should only have to replace the toner every 3 to 4 years. I really think Ironhold should consider dumping the inkjet and get a toner based printer. But his family seems to be of the mind set that it's better to spend $50 in order to save $5. |
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Post by the light works on Mar 11, 2024 0:32:34 GMT
the "sometime this year, because the cartridges are low" statement is the clue. I went laser in 2007. IIRC, I changed the cartridges in the first one, once, and I'll be changing the cartridges in this one, as I said, sometime this year. for the printing loads that it sounds like Iron's family puts on theirs, I'd guess they'd be changing black cartridges every year. we also went from changing "ribbons" in the fax every few months, to changing the cartridge once. - and for a frame of reference, since I forget how many computers ago I bought it; we've had to change the batteries in the handsets. I have what's basically the same printer as your 454 only it has the paper feeder on top to make it into a copier/scanner/fax/printer. I mainly use it for making copies and scanning. I've had it for a little over a year and only put something like 200 copies on it. I figure at that rate, the toner carts should last me something like 5 years. For my main printer, I just got a Xerox C8000. It 's a large commercial grade floor standing unit that has multiple paper trays and can do double sided printing on up to 11X17 paper. The color print quality is phenomenal at 1200DPI. The OEM toner carts are a little expensive at $350 to $400 each but they have a yield of over 20,000 copies. I have about 2000 copies on it now and the black toner cart says it's at 92%. At that rate, I should only have to replace the toner every 3 to 4 years. I really think Ironhold should consider dumping the inkjet and get a toner based printer. But his family seems to be of the mind set that it's better to spend $50 in order to save $5. since the fax copies, I didn't see the need to have 2 copiers side by side. and Mrs T has a scanning printer, even though it's an inkjet. my biggest deciding factor, is toner doesn't smear if you carry it through rain. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Mar 11, 2024 0:38:35 GMT
I have what's basically the same printer as your 454 only it has the paper feeder on top to make it into a copier/scanner/fax/printer. I mainly use it for making copies and scanning. I've had it for a little over a year and only put something like 200 copies on it. I figure at that rate, the toner carts should last me something like 5 years. For my main printer, I just got a Xerox C8000. It 's a large commercial grade floor standing unit that has multiple paper trays and can do double sided printing on up to 11X17 paper. The color print quality is phenomenal at 1200DPI. The OEM toner carts are a little expensive at $350 to $400 each but they have a yield of over 20,000 copies. I have about 2000 copies on it now and the black toner cart says it's at 92%. At that rate, I should only have to replace the toner every 3 to 4 years. I really think Ironhold should consider dumping the inkjet and get a toner based printer. But his family seems to be of the mind set that it's better to spend $50 in order to save $5. since the fax copies, I didn't see the need to have 2 copiers side by side. and Mrs T has a scanning printer, even though it's an inkjet. my biggest deciding factor, is toner doesn't smear if you carry it through rain. And you don't have to go through 50 pages of ink doing cleaning cycles whenever the printer hasn't been used for a while. |
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Post by WhutScreenName on Mar 11, 2024 16:46:47 GMT
I couldn't be happier that I switched from inkjet to laser. I was able to find a good laser printer (black only, which is all I needed) for ~$100 and then got 4 cartiges right away that only cost me something like $50-$75 (I can't remember exactly how much). Those extra cardriges with the factory one will probably last me as long as I have the printer. I leave it at my FIL's and he uses it for work, and I use it whenever I want. It's faster than an inkjet, better quality, lower maintenance, and in the long run, it's cheaper!
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Post by wvengineer on Mar 31, 2024 23:11:59 GMT
I have been having trouble with my modem/router acting up. (constantly resetting, taking too long to re-connect, etc.) I had a tech come out and look at it. He replaced the modem. HE said that since we get momentary power interruptions with some regularity at my house, he thought those power dips could be damaging the modem.
Does this sound reasonable? If so, would getting a small UPS (uninterruptible power supply) be a reasonable fix?
Any recommendations for UPSs?
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Post by the light works on Apr 1, 2024 14:02:55 GMT
I have been having trouble with my modem/router acting up. (constantly resetting, taking too long to re-connect, etc.) I had a tech come out and look at it. He replaced the modem. HE said that since we get momentary power interruptions with some regularity at my house, he thought those power dips could be damaging the modem. Does this sound reasonable? If so, would getting a small UPS (uninterruptible power supply) be a reasonable fix? Any recommendations for UPSs? I run a UPS for my router and Dish tm receiver. we also have the self serve controllers at the car wash on a UPS, and my clock radio on a UPS - although bizarrely, the clock runs fast when it's on UPS power. all of ours are just the common brand (which I'm blanking right now) one thing you'll want to do, if you do have lots of power dips, is get a sophisticated enough model to plug into the computer and reset the parameters to turn off the low voltage alarm. they come with a factory setting to warn you your lights just went off, so you can save your work and shut down your computer. it gets annoying when it spends all day muttering to itself. addendum: it could be as simple as the dips being enough to cause the modem to reset, which knocks it offline. |
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Post by ironhold on Apr 6, 2024 11:55:34 GMT
OK.
Previously, I had Microsoft Office set up so that the Auto-Save function was on by default and would activate the moment I pulled up a document. Due to my autism, what I'll do is have a spreadsheet or two (or whatever I'm working on) open in the background and I'll tinker with it as I go since it's often a little easier to do it that way than try to do it all in one go.
Everything was fine and normal as of yesterday afternoon, when I went to the theater for the week's movie.
I just pulled Office up an hour ago, and found that somehow it's now been set to where Auto-Save is defaulted *off*. If I turn it back on I get a notice indicating that it's basically made a duplicate of my document (the bit where there's a number in parenthesis next to the name), and when I clicked on the cloud icon on my task bar that represents the Microsoft cloud I got a notice saying that it can only sync when my files are closed.
Did Microsoft change how it was doing things and not tell anyone? Did my dad possibly do something when he was on the system last night?
And how do I get Auto-Save to default back to being on and active?
Thanks.
edit -
OK. I've been tinkering.
New files save and upload as normal, but older files, according to a message, only sync when they're closed.
Problem was, I tried to manually save a pair of critical older spreadsheets to the cloud and then manually save them to the computer as well via the Save As function based on what Microsoft Help gave me as a response for something similar, and now I get a message saying that neither file can sync because there's a conflict between the cloud and PC versions.
The options the cloud icon in my task bar are giving me to resolve matters are to either open the document and somehow figure out which of the two I want to keep, keep both and have the name of the computer appended to whatever version I have on the computer while it downloads the cloud, or a third option it's no longer letting me see because the "resolve" buttons aren't working anymore. Gah.
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Post by the light works on Apr 6, 2024 13:11:44 GMT
I refuse to have anything to do with the cloud, so I can't help. I am still baffled by the idea that I should store my data off-site when I have a perfectly good HDD in the computer I use to look at my data.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 6, 2024 15:00:40 GMT
I refuse to have anything to do with the cloud, so I can't help. I am still baffled by the idea that I should store my data off-site when I have a perfectly good HDD in the computer I use to look at my data. I spoke with someone who was having similar issues, so it appears that a recent update did *something* to bork things. I tried to message Microsoft via Twitter, so all I can do is wait. I'm just really, really stressed, though, as the two files I referenced earlier are rather important spreadsheets I keep tinkering with, one for work and one for some fiction I'm tinkering with. I did new files by way of "save as" and then "new file backup" as the title, so hopefully at least those will back up once the matter is settled. Otherwise, I will have to trust Google Drive (updated regularly) and my USB keys (updated at least monthly) to carry the day. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Apr 6, 2024 15:05:59 GMT
I refuse to have anything to do with the cloud, so I can't help. I am still baffled by the idea that I should store my data off-site when I have a perfectly good HDD in the computer I use to look at my data. Same here. The only cloud storage I use is to distribute my wife’s weekly radio program. I upload the program to Dropbox and then give links to it to the various radio stations that she broadcasts on. As for my business and personal data, I only store that locally. |
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Post by the light works on Apr 6, 2024 22:23:55 GMT
I refuse to have anything to do with the cloud, so I can't help. I am still baffled by the idea that I should store my data off-site when I have a perfectly good HDD in the computer I use to look at my data. Same here. The only cloud storage I use is to distribute my wife’s weekly radio program. I upload the program to Dropbox and then give links to it to the various radio stations that she broadcasts on. As for my business and personal data, I only store that locally. I had Quicken trying to tell me I needed to store my quickbooks data on the cloud for accessibility, and I told the salesman, "I'm more likely to have the compute than to have internet access." |
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Post by ironhold on Apr 7, 2024 18:27:24 GMT
Still no response from Microsoft, still dealing with auto-save being off, still not sure if I could ever sync those two documents, and now Microsoft Edge wants to open immediately upon my logging into my Windows account.
WTF, Microsoft...
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Post by ironhold on Apr 7, 2024 18:44:42 GMT
Whatever it is, OneDrive in general appears to be fouled. I tried to manually check what I have in storage, and my efforts to do things like delete the inadvertent duplicates I made yesterday left it drawing a blank.
I don't know what's going on.
edit -
I guess it'd be best if I didn't tinker with it until I either got more feedback or something else, and I should likely leave my files alone unless I absolutely have to edit them.
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Post by WhutScreenName on Apr 8, 2024 12:10:59 GMT
Whatever it is, OneDrive in general appears to be fouled. I tried to manually check what I have in storage, and my efforts to do things like delete the inadvertent duplicates I made yesterday left it drawing a blank. I don't know what's going on. edit - I guess it'd be best if I didn't tinker with it until I either got more feedback or something else, and I should likely leave my files alone unless I absolutely have to edit them. First off, don't panic. The WORST case scenario is that you have 2 or more versions of the same thing... that's not really a problem as it's easy enough to look through each and decide which one you want to keep. It gets even easier than that, however, in that the number at the end is the most recent itteration, so if you have Doc, Doc(1), Doc(2) and Doc(3), the most recent one is Doc(3). As for why it's doing that, it's NOT something new, it's been happening for some time. At work, we switched to cloud computing and One Drive and run into this often. The primary cause is connection. After booting up, it's important to allow the system enough time to sync everything. If you're like me, the documents on your desktop are actually shortcut's to the file on One Drive. Allow enough time for the document to sync, and get the green check. If you do that, you'll have no further issues. Clicking on it before it's fully synced not only creates a new version, but it also turns off the auto-save feature. EDIT: Oh, and on that note, if you open a document and see that the autosave is off, you know it's not yet synced. Try opening one drive up, ensuring you're signed into it. Give it a minute or two to sync everything, and then open the document directly from there. It should be set to autosave, meaning it'll be fully synced again. If not, rinse and repeat.Everything you've described is what I deal with on a daily basis. I simply had to learn to be just a little more patient than I might otherwise wish to be. While we're in a world of instant gratification, sometimed it pays to slow things down. |
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