It started complaining about the ink carts not being in even though they were. After doing a little research I found that it probably needed a print head.
They cost about $50. I just wanted to buy a new printer. We paid about $350 for the printer when we bought it. My wife made me buy the print head. I argued that its old lets just get a new one. Most printers are cheaper now anyway. Which meant I wanted one with cooler features that I don't need. The new print head fixed the problem. About 2 days ago the printer stopped printing and just said "check printer". I checked it by staring at it for at least 15 minutes. Still did not work. I am thinking "I told you so" about buying the print head. We went out last night shopping for a new one, well more like going out and arguing about a new one. We did not make a choice last night and wanted to go to a couple more stores. This morning I decided to stare at it for another 15 minutes and it still did not work. After staring I decided to poke it and bang it. Even took a screw driver to it thinking maybe something is not moving and needs a push. That did not work either. Fortunately I got it back together again. I am a trained office machine repairman. I fixed copiers for about 8 years. I have forgotten most of it though.
After the staring, poking and banging failed this morning I decided there must be a way to get into its brains and poke. Its just a matter of knowing the correct key sequence to do it. I searched the web and sure enough I found the key sequence to get into the brain. The brain can be a dangerous place to play. You could end up with a Japanese speaking machine if your not careful. Anyway it turns out that there is a counter that after a certain amount of prints turns on the alarm light and you can't print. Its there to get you to have it service or replaced. In this case it was the "waste container" counter. Some printers will actually give you a waste container error, but not this one it just says "check printer". Stupid printer. Well its an ink jet and the waste container is just a pad. I think its probably hard to get to and replace and may not even need replacement. So you can just poke around in the code and reset the counter and bingo printer is alive again.
Great news my printer is alive. Bad news is I don't get a new one
Of course, we are both cheap New Englanders at heart and are very proud of you Grimp. While I'm sympathetic on that side, the guy side of me who likes shiny new toys goes "sigh".