Printer or Printer Cartridge buying FAQs....

Question: I see a deal. If I buy a laptop I get a free printer. Shall I buy it?
Answer: No! Don't buy it. Bargain to see if you get a discount of the printer cost for the laptop.

Question: I see a deal for a cheap printer. I can't imagine I get a printer for so low price. Shall I buy it?
Answer: No! They make you buy those expensive cartridges so frequently which may be the double the cost of that printer in a month and every few months after that.

Question: I see an All-in-one for $1$$. Shall I buy it?
Answer: Probably yes. Why? See the explnation at the end of this article.

Question: I see refill kits for many printer cartridges. Are they good? May I buy?
Answer: Some are good and some don't work after you refill. So how would I know to buy the refill kit or not?

Question: I bought a printer an year back. I remember, it was printing well for several days after I bought it. Now it is not printing. what shoudl I do? Shall I refill the cartridge?
Answer: No! Toss that cartridge and buy a new cartridge. If the cartridge is expensive than the printer, toss the printer and buy a better printer.

Question: I do not print color in my printer to save refill costs. But I surprise to learn today that my printer do not print in color anymore. I hardly printed in color since I refilled it.
Answer: If you remember, when you loaded the cartridge for the first time, it came in an air tight container. probably you might also remember to remove a plastic tab from the cartridge before loading in the printer. Most cartridges do not last more than 4 months whether you use them or not. If your printer is a simple inkjet printer, the cartridge has a sponge in it, which keep in the ink holding. As the cartridge is not in air-tight condition anymore once you load it, water slowly evaporates and leaving the cartridge dried out after several months. This is the reason, we should keep using color also as required. This is not applicable if you empty a cartridge very frequently like every month or so.

Question: Which printer I should buy?
Solution: Before you buy the selected printer, see what cartridges it needs? How much they cost? If they are more than a few dollars a months, (ex: $3 or $4 a month) on an average, then don't buy them.

Question: Which printer should I buy? InkJet or Laser?
Answer: Do yo you it for home/school/personal needs? Buy an inkjet printer. Do you also do lot of College Project work or have Home Office? Then buy an Inkjet Printer and also a cheap Laser printer. Again, see how much that Laser cartridge costs you and is it available easily in the local stores, before you buy.

Question: Which inkjet printer should I buy? All-in-One or just with print only?
Answer: I suggest you to buy an All-in-one, though it is bulky. It comes with scanner, fax, copier, printer functionality. As you have all of them, you save place and their cartridges are relatively cheap and last for long time then simple inkjet printers.

Question: I am looking to Print all my pictures at home? Which is the best printer?
Answer: Printing at home is not economical and you do not get Photo Lab printing results. So I don't suggest to Print a lot of pictures at home. Occasional printing is OK. Any printer can print with a reasonable print quality.

2 comments:

Laptop Battery may be completely dead if you do like this...

Problem: One day I had to run for an appointment and I quickly closed my laptop lid while it was trying to hibernate. The next day I found the battery was dead and I had to replace the whole battery.

Solution: Never do that. Wait till the laptop is completely shutdown. You would ask may I press the power button down to perform a dirty shutdown. But be informed, if you do so, laptop may not boot and might give booting problems later.
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Can't click on Desktop Icons OR Can't run applications from Desktop Icons.

Problem: Can't click on Desktop Icons OR Can't run applications by clicking Desktop Icons.

Solution: Kill the process "explorer.exe" from Task manager (press CTRL+ALT+DEL and select Task Manager and go to Processes Tab). Create the same task by switching to "Applications" Tab, click "New Task" and type "explorer.exe" in that and then OK. Your problem is solved!
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How to Post my PC problem in this blog?

Problem: How to post my PC problem in this blog?

Solution: Fortunately, many PC problems are common to many of us. So we do not need to re-invent the wheels. Check if your problem is already discussed in this blog. If so, just click that link to get the solution. If you have a question related to the same blog (question), click the current blog and post your question in the comments section.

If you do not see your PC problem is already discussed, just add your problems in this post by clicking comments link just below this line. When you blog a comment in this blog site I will get an automatic mail. I will try to answer as soon as possible.

Here is the list of all problems and their solutions.

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Cool Tools

Free PDF Printer: Some times we want to make PDF document for any content we want. It could be a web page or a picture or a document. One way is to print to PDF printer. This PDF Printer is free with unlimited personal use, no ads, spyware or even water marks. Download BullZIP PDF Printer
Create Font with your own handwriting - http://www.fontcapture.com/ - Free
Audio/Video/Mp3 convertion software - http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/free-dvd-video-software.htm

Photoshop like software: Use GIMP. Click the link to see more about it. - Free

Slice MP3: Do you ever need to slice MP3 files of several hours? Use Slice. You can slice based on duration, size, or tracks. - Free

CPU-Z -Identifies rated Vs running CPU, memory, FSB speeds. Runs from Thumb Drive, no install required. www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php - Free

Recover Files 2: Some times we do a shift delete a file/folder and struggle a lot how to get it back? There are many utilities with limitations to recover, but this files recovery utility is fully functional with no limitations. Download

Gizmo Drive: Now a days many applications, games, movies, are available for download in the CD/DVD ISO format (.iso files). We often burn those ones to CD/DVD using the CD/DVD burning software we have, of feel left out if we do not have one. Many times it is difficult to handle the CD/DVDs with kids as all they care about playing not how to handle them. This software will let you mount CD/DVD ISO images as a drive in windows explorer and you can keep your CD/DVD in its orinigal jewel case for future need. Mirror link from Download.com. Do you have an immediate question how to convert your CDs/DVDs to ISO images? This also supports this and yet there is another tool. See WinImage utility in this section. - Free

WinImage: Winimage is used to make the ISO images of CD/DVD or VFD/IMZ of Floppies. Clikc the link What is WinImage to know more about it Dowload WinImage. - Free

Defrag Utility: There is a better and fast Defrag Utility that defrags the drives quickly than Windows Deffrag Utility. Download Auslogics Disk Defrag. - Free

HiJackThis - Tells what programs are running at a particular instance. Good to trace spyware www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/threat_analytics/hijackthis.php - Free

DVDFlick - Often we have many video files of different formats, but we like to watch them on TV instead of Computer screen. But most of the times we are out of luck as many formats are playable in most DVD Players. This software turns many video files into DVD Playable format. http://www.dvdflick.net/ - Free

Folder Size- We know how to see the file size in Explorer view. But we can not see the Folder size in the Explorer view like files. This tool helps to view Folder size. www.rotebetasoftware.net/wp/freeware/folder-size - Free

GParted - Windows OS do not allow to resize the partitions once the Drives are assigned. This Linux Utility can do that job. Use it carefully. A full bakcup is suggested before you use this Partition tool. http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ - Free

File Unlocker - helps in deleting locked files - www. ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker

DriverMax - This utility helps to take a back up of all hardware drivers present in your machine. You will never need to search for the software again. It also helps to find how latest your drivers are and what version is currently installed. Click the link to download. Click the link to see how it looks (screen shots). Click the link to go to home page of the vendor.

1 comment:

Photoshop like free software

Problem:  Have you noticed when you update (crop/brightness etc) your pictures with software tools (like Windows Live Photo Gallery or Adobe Photoshop Express, or any other many tools) they ultimately make your several mega pixels pictures down to very low resolution (check the size, they may not produce any more good results like the original picture when you print or zoom in, though they look OK on computer screen)?

Solution:  Many advanced users/professionals know to use Photoshop for this problem which costs several hundreds of $$$.  Here is a simple FREE tool that let us edit pictures with out loosing the quality though you crop them!  It has many features like scissor cut style, different picture formats, enhance the color, brightness, contrast, brushing and so on.  Do you use Linux Desktop like Ubuntu?  Don't worry you are covered, it even has MAC version!

Do yo want to know the tool now?  It is GIMP!  Before you download and use, better to know the features.  Click this link to know more about it.
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Adware, Spyware, now "Scare"ware!

Question: While browsing internet, I saw a warning that my PC is infected and the window that popped want to scan? Is it safe to click OK, or even Cancel or click the X to close the Window?  Irrespective of I click yes or no, it seems it started scanning my drives.  What is going on?

Answer: These threats are there for a long time with spyware and adwares. These are called as scareware. If you click OK or Cancel or X to close the window, you might have fulfilled the dream of the installing anything that scaring website wanted to install. Even clicking X to close the window or for that matter clicking anyware in that webpage could install the scareware.

Limiting user access for Internet Browsing will stop most of the threats.  So make the user account as Limited Account rather than Adminnstrator account.
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What is the best way to determine if a software has Adware/Spyware in that?

There are hell lot of utilities available on the Internet today for free. Many times we linger to download as these tools/utilities might contain spyware. So how to determine if they have any spyware or not?

Never get trapped into the pop-ups you get while browsing. These are usually adware, which might link you to unknown website. We can never tell if a a program is safe or not to download from uknown website. Follow these guidelines to safe gaurd from malicious sofware.

You can safely download the software from well known websites like Microsoft, Adode, Yahoo, etc. Make sure you type the website name correctly and you reached the correct website. Some websites "look like" genuine websites but they may be phishing websites. Often they live with the typo of the actual name.

Never respond to the ads you see in the browsing. Many of then lead to unhealthy websites.

Now-a-days many websites offer free information while they advertise (that is how they can offer free information for you, just like you have to watch a 2 Hrs movie for 4 Hours in TV with commercials). Often these ads are context sensitive, means the advertisement running engines senses subject of the information you ar searching for. Example, if you are looking for a phone, you might also se the advertisements related to service providers. If you want to click the link in an online article, differentiate between an advertisement in the same web page and the article content.

Refer computer magazines. They have already installed and tested the applications for you, so that you do not need to worry for suspecious content.

Look for "Tested spyware free" before you download the application. Example, Download.com does that as a tag line under the download link.
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Not able to open a specific website that was used to open in the past.

Problem: I am not able to open a specific website which I earlier used to open without any problems. Now only this particular website (http://www.somewebsite.com/) is not opening up and amazingly it is opening from any other computer (like office computer). Could you please suggest something on this?

Solution 1: Try cleaning up the Internet Cache, Cookies, Temporary Internet Files. See the following links. Link 1 Link2 Link3(Step by step video)

Solution 2: IE7 some times block the websites if they are in-appropriate. You may need to add to allo list, if it blocks (parental controls).

Sloution 3: Also check the security settings. Review what softwares are installed recently. Some of the websites host spyware/adware advertisements, which are caught by Anti-virus or Internet Security programs like Norton making the site unreachable. In those cases, you have add the site to the allow list.
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Grand Central - Many Free Phone services......

Do you want to make free long distance calls?
Do you want a phone number that do not change for a life time?
What about being able to forward calls to any at phone number?
411-Telephone Directory service for free

You met a new friend. He/she asks, "Where can I call you?" What do you do? 123-234-3456 is my Work number, 234-345-3456 is my Cell number and 456-567-4567 is my Home number blah.blah..No more problems with multiple numbers. Live with one number and manage/program that number in the web console where ever you want to receive the call. Home, Work, Cell, or your friends number during your visit to his home? You bet!

You have a VOIP phone in India. It can only receive calls, but you can not make out going calls. You wish there could be some one who would conference every time you want to make a an outgoing call. But who can do and as many number of times you want and any time you want do that in this busy life style?

Are you outside US? Have too many friends in US? Paying big bucks for calling them using your International plans? Want to call them for free?

For all of the above and many more, Google's new service, http://www.grandcentral.com/ (Beta) is the answer. Explore yourself by clicking the link. As it is Beta, you can not just register and login yet! Click on "Reserve" (Save Number for me) button to get an invitation. Usually you will get it in a day in the email. Then register and enjoy the new world. Happy calling.

Infact, you can live with out any paid phone service! All you need is Internet and a Computer. You will never miss a call even if you are not there. Free Voice mail. Download message as MP3. Freedom to move any where in the world. Call US numbers for free from any where in the world.


  • Install a soft phone like X-Lite (see link to download it and setup it up)
  • Get a VOIP number from VOIP provider like http://www.voiptalk.org/
  • Get a free incoming number from http://www.ipkall.com/ and
  • Get a Grandcentral number that forwards/conferences you to the incoming number you got from ipkall.
  • Share your grandcentral number with the world. If you change your mind to move from a softphone to any phone, still you do not need to tell the world that your number got changed.
  • This solution really works. My parents in India have my city local number. So calling them or they calling me is not even a long distance call, it is just a local call.

Google offers free 411 yellow pages service (your phone company charges for the calls made to 411), but 1-800-GOOG-411 is free! See the You Tube video

* Where ever it is mentioned free in the above text, Internet charges are NOT included that you are already paying to your ISP.

Note: As it is still in beta, I suggest to wait giving that number to the world till it is not in production. But explore all the features mean while. I see small issues of not getting the call forwarded some times, but that is a rare situation. This is very useful service for personal usage and most of the times for business too in my opinion. Once it is live, it may be good for business too!

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Talk to your family on the other side of the globe for free as long as you want.

Problem: Calling card prices sliced down a lot compared to few years back. Oh God, am I too optimistic to ask you for even a free phone communication?

Solution: Your prayers are answered! If you are new to VOIP, this solution really let you talk for free (excluding device cost, setup (if any) and Internet service charges). Are you thinking there is a monthly fee? No, absolutely there is no fee. Talk as long as you want. Click the link to learn how to setup a VOIP connection between 2 points. Also learn how to get an incoming number free so that you can call that number from any Landline or Cell Phone.
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Are there any free HTML Editors?

Problems: Where can I get free HTML Editor?


Solution: Try Page Breeze
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How can I get free Office Software?

Problem: Hi, by any chance do you have a Office Software to share?

Solution: If you are asking about Microsoft Office Softwware Suit, I can not share it illegally. But I can help you to get free open source Office Suite. These are some options.

Open Office has the entire suite.
Google Docs offers free office docuements - Spreadsheet, Document and Presentation
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Toshiba Laptop Heating/Sudden Shutdown Problems....

Problem: My Toshiba Laptop is getting hot too much now-a-days and stops intermittently as if some one pulled the power card.

Solution: Some of the Toshiba Laptops were shipped with Desktop Pentium Processors which operate at higher temperatures as processors meant for desktops run at little higher voltage. Heating is a common problem in such Toshiba Laptops.

Here is the link to remove the dust. Do it at your own risk. If you are not confident, do not do it. Send it to Toshiba Service Center or go to Bestbuy. Check you might have extended warranty. Get all the things before you start.

I see many friends keep the laptop on bare carpet, or even a sofa. From time to time, the processor cooling fans start spinning to cool down the processor. This is a bad practice, and may also ruin the Laptop if the heat sensors do not work. I suggest to keep the laptop on a flat dust free surface, like a wooden/glass table.
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Spyware Problems

Problem: My Machine has lot of Ad ware or Spy ware how to remove them?

Solution:

In simple terms Ad ware is Advertisement Pop-up that every Netizen know about. On the other hand Spy ware intension is steel important information like Credit Card Information, Login ID and Passwords, personal, confidential or sensitive information from your computer.

Even though Ad ware and Spy ware are different terms, some times it is difficult to differentiate as many times they are combined. Do we really know what Microsoft Word exe has inside? We only know its functionality. But it is guaranteed of any Ad ware or Spy ware free as it is sold by a company. On the other side Ad ware or Spy ware authors are unknown. Most of the times their intension is show/do what they want, not what you need. If you delete them from one place, they still exist in 100 other places.

There are many removal softwares. May be none is 100% efficient to remove all. It is all like what is first? Chicken or Egg? That is why it is important to update these software on frequent basis. If the spy ware is newer than the updates you have, the removal software may show there is nothing as the updates are older.

So, what is the best way is the best way to get rid of these problems?

I personally do not believe even a removal software says there are no more ad ware /spy ware. What I do, assuming your data is not corrupted by ad/spy ware, I will take the data backup, . Reload the machine with the operating system, install all applications and restore the data back to system. One most important thing, assign passwords to all accounts and never ever use the account with admin privilege for day to day usage like browsing. By default all accounts created at the time of Windows XP setup will have Admin access with no password, which is bad. This problem is taken care in Vista. Click to know more about Admin Access.

Another anology is, when our wallet is lost, we do not just change one or two credit cards, we call all creditors and inform we lost our wallet. Also change the keys if we there were keys with the wallet. In the same way, when the system is compromised, best way is to rebuild the machine, assign password, avoiding admin accounts for browsing.

To better explain, one more example. You have a paying guest living with you. You do not give access to every part of the house right? Browsing is also like that. When the Internet browser come across a spy ware or ad ware site (all free movies/songs/software sites live by hosting ad ware), ad ware programs are automatically downloaded and will try to get installed behind the scenes with out your permission. If your logged in user ID has Admin Access, that program will get installed successfully, annoying you with all Advertisements, and who knows, steeling sensitive information. If you did not have Admin access, they will fail to get installed, saving your system from a disaster.
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Why Computers slow down?

There are several reasons why computers slow down. Here are some....
  • Probably the computer is never cleaned. Just like a house never cleaned for a long time becomes unusable, computers are no different. Run Clean up today.
  • Files gets fragmented as you use the system. Defrag drives regularly.
  • Ad ware, spy ware slow down by eating the system resources
  • Too many installed programs many of them are never used but get loaded every time you start the system
  • Fragmented Page File. Click here learn how to make an unfragmented page file
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Free Anti-Virus Software

Problem: I have old computer with Win 98. Can you suggest me name of latest Antivirus software that can run of Win 98?

Solution:

I am not sure if you would like to spend money on your old machine. How about free anti-virus software? Go to AVG Website and download free version. May be that is enough for your system. Let me know if you still want to buy a software.

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Clean up the system today!

Problem: I have cleaned my system several times but not satisfied with it. How to perform a better cleanup?

Solution:
  • Login as each user and perform the following steps for each user
  • Delete unnecessary files that are not needed any more, from the desktop,
    Mydocuments, and other folders.
  • Remove cached files from Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, which ever your browser is.
  • Remove files from temporary folders
  • Run the Disk Cleanup by clicking Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> Disk Cleanup.
  • Login as Admin or with an account that has administrator privileges if you have not already logged in so.
  • Uninstall unnecessary programs those you do not need/use any more (make sure you have the install program some where with product code, in case if you wan to install again in future. Good example is I have Microsoft Flight Simulator installed 6 moths back which you is not use now as I am not interested to play. Before you uninstall it, make sure you have the original software and it's product keys available in case if your nephew want to play during his vacation.)
  • Many of the above tasks can be done with the simple program CCleaner. Install it and run it in every user profile. It has File cleaner, Applications Cache Cleaner, Uninstall applications feature, Startup programs cleaner (use it cautiously, you can not undo it, you have to manually add the registry entries if you have to undo, better note down if you delete any entries , never delete antivirus program entries for example), Fixing registry entries and many more. Definitely go through the Quick Tour to get an idea before you download. Caution: Some of the options that you select willl remove the cached Internet User names and Passwords.
  • Once you done the cleaning, Defrag the drives
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How to setup Page File?

Page file logically sits between the RAM and Operating System, helping the frequently used applications loaded into a temporary big system file which is called pagefile or virtual memory. This big file creates problems some times due to fragmentation. Here are some tips to setup page file.
  • Some people think keeping page file lot bigger make the system run faster. It is not totally true. Think of a water tap with running water. If you increase the width of the pipe, say double the size may result in more water to flow. But it makes no sense making it 100 times of its orginal size. Pagefile works in the same way.
  • If you have 512 MB of RAM, keep a Pagefile of 1024 MB, means double it. If you have 1GB of RAM, keep a size of 2048MB. This need not be a magic number, any near by number is acceptable. Microsoft says double the size of RAM + 12 MB. I did not see any magical changes in my system by using this formula.
  • System Managed Size - Unfortunately Microsoft default page file settings are not good in a long run. When you purchase the OS or install it freshly, the default settings let the Pagefile grow dynamically. This only helps in conserving few hundred MBs of disk space, but in a long run fragments the page file. As per today's disk space availability, no body cares if the pagefile takes even more than a GB to offer better system speeds.
  • Make sure you have at least few GB of free disk space before you proceed to change the setup of the Pagefile.
  • Defrag the drive.
  • To change the page file setup
    • Login as Admin or with an account that has administrator privileges if you have not already logged in so.
    • Click on Start --> Control Panel --> System -->Advance Tab --> In the Performance block, click Settings --> in the "Performance Options" tab click Advanced --> in the Virtual Memory Block click Change.
    • If the page file already set to some size, select "No Paging File" option, click OK 2 times and restart the system when it prompts. Note that we will not leave the system with out page file option, we will set it to new unfragmented pagefile size after the machine comes back from reboot.
    • Select Custom Size. Select the double the size (or even two and half times is also OK) of the RAM as your Initial size and as well as Maximum size. Setting the Initial and Maximum is the key here to avoid fragmentation of page file in future.


















    • The following are bad practices. The advantages of these bad practices out weigh the disadvantages. So do not use them.







































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How to defrag the drives?

Problem: How to defrag the drives?

Solution: Windows XP has an in-built system utility that can defrag the drives. This is not that efficient as third party software like Disk Keeper, but it is free with Widnows XP.

  • Login as Admin or with an account that has administrator previleges if you have not already logged in so.
  • Go to Add Remove Programs and uninstall the programs that are not required any more.
  • Run the Disk Cleanup by clicking Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> Disk Cleanup.
  • Go to Command prompt, run the command defrag c:
  • You may even like to automate the drives to automatically defrag. Click the link Automating Defrag task
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