How to get the last drop out of your printer ink

How to get the last drop out of your printer ink

Imagine this scenario. It's two o'clock in the morning and you've just finished that report for the office, or a term paper for class, and you've got to print it out before you can catch what little sleep remains that night. You tell the computer to print, but it balks, saying your printer is out of ink.

Uh oh, what are you going to do now? The stores are all closed (well, except for Walmart). You could drag yourself out there at this crazy hour and get what you need or you could try a few tricks first.

First, open up your printer's control panel on the computer and see which cartridge is reporting that it is out of ink. Now that you know where the culprit lies. Open the top of the printer and remove the cartridge. Give it a few vigorous shakes and replace it. See if you can print now. If that didn't work, then remove the cartridge and place some clear Scotch tape over the copper or gold contact points and replace it. This will usually fool the computer and printer into letting you finish the job.

In most cases, when a printer reports that it is out of ink, that is not the case. It is just running low. Most major printer manufacturers don't get their money from printer sales, however; it's the proprietary ink cartridges that rake in the cash. If you have just a little bit less ink reported in that cartridge, you buy more, right?

So what happens if you do this and go to print and it really is out of ink? Or what if you've done the tape trick before and forgotten about it, letting the cartridge finally run dry? That's an easy fix, too. Take the offending cartridge out and run a hair drier over it for a few minutes until the cartridge is warm to the touch. Then while it is still warm, quickly put it back into the printer and start the printing job. The heat thins out the ink slightly, allowing it to flow down the sides of the cartridge as well as remove any thick, dried ink from the nozzle.

Also, write yourself a Post-it that says "GET PRINTER INK!" and put it on your bathroom mirror. This trick will only work once, because you really are out of ink.

The next day, your report or presentation goes flawlessly with your printed copies stealing the show, but on your way out the door after a long day you try to call your boss and let him or her know of the good news and your phone battery is on its last legs.

A quick fix is to turn the phone off and let it sit in front of an air conditioning unit long enough to cool it off. It also helps if you take the back cover off and cool the battery directly. This may give you enough juice for one quick phone call.


A longer term solution is to stop carrying your phone in your pocket. The heat saps battery power, and your pocket is a very good source of heat. Put it in a belt holster or in your purse or laptop bag.

If you are in a hotel and have forgotten your charger, turn the phone off at night and store it in the fridge in your room. The cool temperatures help prolong the battery life and may enable you to get that extra few hours out of it the following day. Good luck!

- Senior Production Coordinator Matthew Broughton is taking the "ech" out of tech. E-mail him at mbroughton@florencenews.com.