Printer. Repair or Replace???

[riley454]

I'm having problems with paper feeding into my Epson Stylus CX6900F. When I try to print something, a sheet moves a couple of inches into the printer then stops and the printer keeps printing even without paper actually reaching the print heads. At this point the paper is still loose and can easily be removed as it has not been fed far enough to get jammed.

It seems like whatever it is that is meant to pull the paper into the printer and feed it through is getting the first bit right but then either stops feeding or isn't initially feeding paper to the next feeder or something!?!?

The printer is a really good 3 year old multi function machine (fax/scan/photo print etc) but local service is going to charge $50AUD just to look at it. For $50-100 more I can get a lesser quality MFC.

I know these things aren't meant to last forever, so which of these are my best option:

a) buy another and suffer the compromise of a cheapie cos i'm strapped for cash
b) risk the service/repair option and hope for under $100 it will be good as new again, otherwise I've blown 100 bucks for nothing and still have to buy another probably even crappier printer since I've blown my budget
c) accept a) and pull this one apart and see if there's something I can tweak beforehand just in case the problem is something simple(I LOVE PULLING STUFF APART!!!)

If c) is an option, is there any expert opinions what I should look for when I get my screwdrivers out?

 

[tremmor]

I don't know about the expert but in my opinion if its printing with no paper or just feeding and jamming ya have a mess already. ink all over the roller and like. Printers are cheap enough like said. If ya want to play with it i would be looking at the pressure roller or a gear may be out of socket or housing. Something is not seated properly. should not require tools. everything kind of presses into its own socket or mechanism. My guess is a part is moving during the print process. for printing text and documentation cheap works fine. printing pictures, no i don't anymore. email to walgreen or kmart. charge like 7 to 9 cents a picture. lot cheaper than sucking the ink and buying photo paper and another cartridge. just look at the printer and see if anything is loose and moving that should not be. if ya do buy another i always look for a printer with a high capacity cartridge. good luck.

 

[ricky315]

you can bring your printer on a printer repair to check what's the real problem, but before you do that try to uninstall the driver and install again or restore it to default settings if anything still fails then have your printer check by the experts.

 

[cabinfever1977]

I got one of those all in one printers on sale at target for $20 and it still works great, i refill the ink cartridge myself. So if youre able to find a cheap printer or all in one i would just get another one instead of wasting your time trying to fix it.

 

[Ryan_Fpv]

I picked up a HP multi-function (printer/scanner/photocopier/and I'm sure other stuff, I don't really use it that much) with wireless router connection for like $45 from Office works. If you have a look around for things on sale you can pick printers up for rather cheap. It turned out that buying that new printer for $45, which includes ink cartridges, was cheaper than replacing both black & colour ink cartridges in my old printer. If you are going to be buying a new printer, I would definitely find out how much the ink cartridges (or the refill) costs before buying it. They normally have the ink cartridge number they use on the side of the box somewhere and most places have ink cartridges next to their printers, so just a matter of matching the numbers to see the price.

I think you'll just be wasting your money trying to pay someone to repair it, especially if they're charging $50 just to look at it (Jeeze, I'm in the wrong business).