Silly Old Me...

My printer had been out of order for the past few months, but I've managed to survive without it. Needed to print out my references and invoices though, so I fiddled a little and managed to make it work again. I couldn't live without a printer forever...

But the inks were gone. My very good printer has 4 cartridges, and if any of them were empty, or expired, the machine will not run at all. Each cartridge costs a minimum of RM80, and that was a year ago. I had one spare cartridge on hand. To buy another 3? At RM240? That's expensive!!! And why should a cartridge have an expiry date? It will not work even if it still has ink because it has EXPIRED. This is SO an offence against human rights to being frugal. According to the computer, my colour cartridges have all expired. Yeesh!

So I decided to get a replacement black cartridge for SISTER's printer. Why? Because it's much cheaper, that's why. It will run even if both cartridges (Black & colour) are empty. And all I needed was to print invoices, not colour photos... Unfortunately they didn't have that particular cartridge model in TESCO. Instead, I found refills for HP printers; so decided to gamble and bought a set.

Made sure I settled everything else before attempting to refill the darn things. It was a night of learning for me. I started with the box of 3 colours. The black one was separate. Almost immediately realised that the set was not complete. It only had the colours in syringes. What about instructions and nozzles? It must have been stolen. It happens often in hypermarts...

Being the daughter of a McGyver, I decided to make the best of things and googled for instructions on the net. It proved to be very, very useful. "Expired" cartridges were easily handled. All I needed to do was set computer clock back by a year and they worked fine.

But how was I going to refill the empty ones? Followed the instructions and did fairly well until the part where I had to squeeze the refill ink into the empty tanks via the tiny opening. The nozzle was too big. Tried to fashion a hose using tape and ended up squirting cyan ink all over myself. No kidding. Even had blue splotches on part of the face! And I had to interview people in the afternoon! Lucky it washed off. Phew.

Tried using a hypodermic needle from an old insulin pen, with pathetic results. Nothing else quite worked. Plus I discovered that I had "filled" blue ink into the Black cartridge by accident. Sigh... Finally found success using a hollow cotton bud stem. I was SO proud of myself for that.

Then decided to do the black cartridge before I cleared up the mess. Opened up the box and found a complete set inside. The instructions were quite useless, but it had everything else; even disposable gloves to protect one's hands. Now WHY didn't I try opening this box before? It was so easy to do the black cartridge now that I had the necessary knowledge and the right equipment.

Happy that all cartridges are full and the printer works again, I started clearing up the mess. Lifted the tray of 3 colour cartridges and saw the packet of instructions and tools underneath. They had been hidden there all along while I was struggling and making a huge mess in my valiant efforts.... Good Lord!! Won't forget this adventure for a long time yet. Especially with my blue stained cuticles lying testament to my inherent stupidity...

There's still something not quite right with the machine, but it works well enough for my minimal printing needs. It's all right. I'll survive the humiliation... Silly old me.