No other printer type can be at par with an inkjet when it comes to print quality, but it comes with a price. Epson ink cartridges are so expensive, and in selected instances some cartridges are even expensive than the upfront cost of the Epson printer.
Due to this pricing anomaly, most users shy away from the original but prefer cloned or third party ink cartridges. However, using cloned cartridges is not as easy as installing the original, there are steps to follow to take advantage of the economically charged cloned ink cartridges. In all instances the printer will initially reject a cloned cartridge, some things should be reconfigured to allow printing to proceed. Here are some of it:
- Start by installing the cloned ink cartridge, and automatically the printer will issue a prompt “an ink cartridge cannot be recognized”.
- Proceed to “Start”, then “Control Panel” on the computer and double click on the “printer”.
- Look for the icon on the “Epson Printer” and right press and select “Printer Preferences”, regularly found at bottom of the dialog box.
- Click on the tab showing “Speed and Progress” and look at the Epson Printer monitor box.
- Turn off the ink monitor by checking off the “Disable Epson Status Monitor” found within a box.
- And lastly, click “Save” and close the window. That’s about it the printer and the cloned ink cartridges can now start printing operation.
Remember, inkjet cartridges are installed with electronic chips that monitor the printing process and automatically shutdown once operation does not conform to the regular process. Cloned ink cartridges on the other hand have a different chip that may not be compatible to to the original, thus to reconfigure is the only solution to allow printing to proceed.
An Epson Printer can work best with an original Epson ink cartridge, but it can be coaxed to print using cloned or third party inkjet cartridges.
I like the way the printer works but as an elderly lady that only uses it for recipes etc I find that I need to replace cartridges oftern. They are not dry and not all are empty but you have to replace all at the same time, even though i seldom use the colored ones. I find this to be an act of fraud. Forcing one to purchase something only from one outlet is not the American way or so I thought but I guess today we have no more American way.
Why was #88 discontinued? What else can I use,
I was frustrated with the printer now because it was setup to ripped customers. I was fully aware of the issues highlited before but what was super upsetting is when color inks are low, I cannot used the printer only for black and white prints.
I tried this, and it did not work. I the error screen on the printer about the unrecognizable ink will not go away and my print jobs error out when I try to print them anyway. Agree Epson is a rip off and I will NEVER buy Epson again.
I just loaded clone ink cartridges in my XP-4105, and now have stripes. Could not find “Speed and Progress” so my bad prints must be from the ink. I also have XP 55 which handles the clones without a
problem. Seems as if Epson is making sure you use their over priced ink.