I have a Lexmark Z11 using 12A1970 black and 12A1980 colour cartridges for a year and a half, refilling cartridges with JR refill product successfully. Yesterday, whilst printing a grey scale document (using black cartridge) the ink started fading until nothing more got printed. This did not surprise me, as I knew that it was probab;y getting low. I gave it 40 ml of ink, put it back in, and retried to print - still no ink.
I saw from the document that came with the refill pack that for some cartridges which are emptied completely, then it can take 24 hours for the ink to get down to the jets again. However nothing has changed after that delay. The colour cartridge prints fine so the Z11 must be O.K. (musn't it ??)
Anybody got any suggestions as to what I can do to get this cartridge sorted out, or do I have to go and buy an "expensive" new one ?

Probably time to buy a new one. After a while the ink nozzles get clogged, and won't work. They can be cleaned, but once they clog and stop working you'll never get the cartridge to work correctly again. You'll probably always have light lines missing somewhere in the print.

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Also most refill products say to limit the number of refills to between 4 to 6, in most cases. This is because cartridges do wear out.

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mjc
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If your printer software has a nozzle/printhead cleaning utility, try running it. All the printer mfr's warn against using third-party cartridges and/or refills, and will usually not honor warranty claims if you use them. This may be just a CYA thing, but then too the generic ink could be more abrasive or just contain more inert material, eventually damaging or clogging the nozzles. Depending on how much you paid for the printer and on how adventurous you are, you could try manually cleaning the nozzle yourself. This probably involves taking a lot of things apart to get at the nozzle itself, so I would only recommend you try this as a last resort, after you have decided you're going to get another printer anyway. Personally, if I had already written the printer off as unsalvagable, I'd do it just to learn and to see if I could do it. To have an "IBM-authorized" shop clean or replace the print head might cost 75% of the price of a new printer. Good Luck! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Thanks to all who've replied. I had already tried cleaning the nozzles - nothing ! Anyhow, whilst searching the net for the best price on a 12A1970 cartridge, I found an article by a guy who had done some failure analysis on refilled cartridges - he found that after opening them up, the screen filter at the base was blocked with sediment, and after cleaning that away, they worked fine ! So, I decided to take a look. Well, my cartridge screen looked pretty clean, but also glaringly obvious was that there was not as much ink in there as I thought (the small reservoir at the screen was not filled - I guess all the ink was in the sponge) So I decided to add more ink - what had I to lose ! Now I'm getting nice thick bands of ink during the nozzle clean and thought all my problems were over. However, printing documents starts off very faint at the top, and getting darker after a few lines, but never as dark as when it was working properly. It still gives me the impression that it's starved of ink, so the only thing I can think of doing is buy some more and see if that fixes it. Clearly, these cartridges take a LOT more than the 20 ml that the refillers advise to top up by (ESPECIALLY, if you run them to the bottom) Anybody got any theories on the light print problem ? Thanks for all you help in advance !

WoW.. I thought I was the only one still had a lexmark z-11 !!!

This Entire printer only went for $100.00 (us), and came with a $50.00 rebate..lol

But guess what??

I LOVE it. I however get a new one(cartridge) every time. They cost approximately $32.00 for the color one.

Most of what I print needs to be of Top quality for presentation, so I use new/color cart. everytime. Seems you have found out for yourself that the things will only last a certain amount of time.. hehe I have about 3 EMPTIES that I could send you. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 05-02-2001).]

I set my refilled cartridges on a damp folded paper towel for about 15 minutes before installing them. It sometimes takes several cleaning cycles to get good flow again. Since I only paid $59 for the Z12, I'm not worried about what a refill might do to the printer; saved enough to buy a couple more, but I'm not tempted to try refills in the HP G95 OfficeJet http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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reido@my-deja.com

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