Quick Tip: Enjoy your Desktop

Posted in: Tips & Tricks, blog by CW on 24 February 2010

Most of us who spend a fair amount of time working on a computer appreciate our desktop. We decorate it with a picture of our kids, our significant other or maybe just an image that relaxes us when we aren’t working.

Where's Waldo?

Then we start adding shortcuts to programs and websites, installed programs install an icon on the desktop and soon our image is buried beneath a bunch of distracting images. When there’s no organization to the desktop shortcuts it often takes longer to find the icon you want there than it would be to simply open the Start menu.

Here’s a tip that I’ve used for quite a while that both frees up your desktop image and makes finding program shortcuts easier and quicker.

The first step is to right-click on the desktop and choose View, then uncheck the option to Show Desktop Icons.

Now you have an uncluttered view of your desktop.

Next, right-click on any open space on the taskbar (to the right of the Windows Start button), select Toolbars and select Desktop.

Now you have a pop-up menu of every icons and its associated program on the taskbar.

One last step adds a degree of organization to your Desktop menu.I’ll use my personal method as an example. You can organize your menu to meet your needs.

Using Windows Explorer, I open the Desktop folder. I right-click anywhere in the window and select New then select Folder (do not select NewFolder in the first window). I then create folders for Apps, System, Games, Office, Reference and so forth. Finally I left-click on each icon and drag it to an appropriate folder.

Being more organized increases efficiency. Being able to enjoy your desktop image may relieve stress. I’d say either of those is a good reason to get rid of your disorganized desktop today.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to Pin Any Folder to the Windows 7 Taskbar | Windows 7 Tutorials (7tutorials.com)
• Open Frequently-Used Folders with Just Two Clicks (computerworld.com)
• Make your desktop shortcuts work for you, not against you (thaibrother.com)
• Easily Add Programs to Windows 7 Startup Folders (helpdeskgeek.com)

Stuff we reuse

Posted in: Conservation, blog by CW on 15 February 2010

Image by greenlagirl via Flickr

While it’s obvious we reuse ink and toner cartridges, other items we reuse on a daily basis might not be so obvious. I say that because it seems not too many of our customers return these items with their cartridges when they come in to buy filled ones.

To help us keep our costs as low as possible and thus to be able to pass along the lowest possible prices to you, please remember to retain bring back the following when you come in the next time:

• Cartridge boxes, both ink and laser (we can only reuse boxes that haven’t been written on or damaged)
• Plastic clips on the front of color ink cartridges
• Plastic caps on Canon cartridges
• Silver bags on laser cartridges
• Anti-static bags on Epson ink cartridges

We appreciate your efforts in helping us keep down costs and furthering the practice of reuse and recycling.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Buy 4, Get 1 Free sale (cwsandiego.com)

Troubleshooting tips for refilled ink cartridges

Posted in: Tips & Tricks, blog by CW on 10 February 2010

Image via Wikipedia

Reusing ink cartridges benefits both the environment and your pocketbook, but there can occasionally be an issue with a reused cartridge that causes it to not give out ink or fail to be noticed by your printer.

The following tips are generic and may not apply to your particular printer. If the cartridges you purchase from us are not performing to your expectations and the following suggestions either don’t work or don’t apply, please call us for specific solutions to your problem.

“My printer says the cartridge is low on ink or empty when I first put it in.”

Some printers are able to detect a cartridge that has been in another printer. This ability is provided by the software in the printer and cannot generally be over-ridden. The electronics on the reused cartridge isn’t resetting the page counter in the printer, and that page counter is the only way the printer has to know how much ink the cartridge contains. You can usually ignore these warnings of low or no ink and print normally. You will have to monitor the quality of your prints to know when the ink cartridge is running low since the printer won’t warn you. To dismiss these warnings, click the “OK” button until the dialog box goes away. Sometimes checking the “Don’t display this dialog again” option in the warning window will prevent the printer from popping up the same warning every time you start to print.

“My cartridge seems to have dried out and won’t print properly even though I’m sure there’s still ink in it.”

The first thing to do in these cases is to run the printer’s built-in cleaning process. You shouldn’t run it more than once as it uses a lot of ink. If that doesn’t produced the desired result, take a paper towel and slightly dampen it and place it on a surface that won’t be discolored or damaged by ink. Tile is a good surface. Hold the cartridge with the print head against the paper towel for about a minute. Since water is a larger molecule than ink, you should start to see a bloom of ink form around the print head. This is the water wicking out the ink. Usually this is enough to moisten the print head and get the ink flowing again if the only problem was ink dried on the print head. If the cartridge still isn’t printing correctly, bring it back to us and we’ll either fix or replace it.

“I bought the right cartridge for my printer but it doesn’t fit.”

We get a phone call like this about once a week; it’s not as rare a problem as you might expect. The usual cause is the failure to remove the tape and/or clip from the cartridge prior to installation. We use a very light adhesive tape over the printhead  on black inkjet cartridges to protect them from damage or even the casual touch and we combine the tape with a plastic clip on color cartridges. The clip is intended to prevent color mixing at the printhead and to keep air from getting into the printhead. When removing the tape, be sure to only remove the light adhesive tape. Do not attempt to remove the brass electronics strip that constitutes the printhead. This will guarantee the cartridge can never be used again. We like to say that if you can’t remove the tape with your fingers, you’re probably trying to remove the wrong thing. Pliers are not required to remove the tape.

“My photos look dull using your cartridges.”

First, make sure you aren’t printing photos in “draft” mode. Check the settings in “printer properties” and be sure you have “Best” or “Photo” selected for the print quality. Second, for the best possible results using our cartridges, be sure you’re using the photo paper recommended by your printer’s manufacturer. Inks are formulated to work with certain types of photo paper. Saturation and drying time are particular to the recommended paper. Printing photos on ordinary copy paper will result in dull colors and saturated paper.

For the very best results when printing very important photos, we recommend you use the manufacturer’s paper and ink. Because we have to manufacture our ink using different components than the OEM ink to avoid legal complications, we cannot make the same claims as the manufacturers do about photo quality and longevity. Our inks are not archival quality inks, and that, usually combined with acid-free paper, is required to attain the promises made by the manufacturers as to photo quality and their claims that their ink won’t fade for 100 years.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Top 5 Tips For Prolonging The Usefulness of Ink Laser Printer Cartridges and Cartridges for Laser Printers (animaltopics.com)
• Solve inkjet printer problems (macworld.com)
• Ink Cartridge Lamp Shows Your Geek Credentials (ubergizmo.com)
• Caring for your cartridges (cwsandiego.com)

Print a lot? Go XL

Posted in: Productivity, blog by CW on 4 February 2010

Image by osde8info via Flickr

Many printer manufacturers these days are offering their customers an option when it comes to cartridge volume; newer printers often accept both low yield and high yield cartridges. High yield, sometimes labeled as XL, cartridges contain twice to three times as much ink or toner as the low yield version. If you do a lot of printing, an XL cartridge will last longer and reduce the number of times a month you have to come in for refills.

HP is leading other manufacturers in offering high yield ink and toner cartridges. They currently offer XL versions of their #60, #74 & 75, #88, #901, #920 and #940 ink cartridges and many of their laser cartridges (denoted by an “X” at the end of the cartridge number; C7115x, the high yield version of the C7115A). A few other manufacturers have followed suit, but HP has the largest selection of high yield cartridges.

If you print frequently or in large quantities you should consider purchasing XL or high yield cartridges for your printer if they are available. They may cost a bit more up front, but your overall cost-per-page will be lower. You will also reduce the risk of running out of ink or toner in the middle of a large print job.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to tell if your printer is costing you money (macworld.com)
• Will HP Remain the Leader in Printers and Ink? (seekingalpha.com)
• Intrigue over cost of ink cartridges for printers (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Caring for your cartridges (cwsandiego.com)