Imagine - it’s been about a year now since you bought that new printer, it still works well but just today you have noticed that the printer’s quality is beginning to degrade. Those pages don’t look so dark, and there are spots that are lighter than others. If you are not to computer savvy and have never changed your printer’s toner cartridge, then you may feel a little apprehension. Depending on your printer and the software that came with it, you may have an application that will show you how much toner you have left in the printer, or if you order your toner from InkMart.com, they have eLink software that will send a notice, often before the printer does, that it is getting low on toner, so that you can order a replacement toner cartridge before you run out. Once you have verified that you are running low on toner, it’s time to find your next replacement cartridge. First you need to make a note of your printer make and model. Once you know the printer, you have you can go online to get a great deal on a toner cartridge. There is one place that I recommend - InkMart.com. This company is great, as they have very low prices and they provide free U.S. shipping for orders of $50 or more.
Changing a toner cartridge isn’t a task that happens very often, especially with a laser printers, yet most printer manufacturers have planned intelligently so that making the removal and reinstallation process easy. They way you make the replacement will of course vary on the printer you have, but the first thing you will want to do is to open the cover on your printer. Usually there will be a mark or a notch that show you the spot to grab in the process of opening the cover. Next you will see the cartridges; on many ink jet printers, the cartridges will come to the center of the printer when the cover is opened. There will be some clips that are holding the cartridges in place and these needs to be moved out of the way I order to make the removal possible. By looking at these clips you can see the way the hinge is supposed to move, move it accordingly. As you remove the cartridges be careful not to touch the bottom so you don’t get ink on yourself. Another idea is to put a piece of tape on the bottom of the old cartridges so no ink comes out and makes a mess.
Now when you install the new cartridge first make sure that you take the tape off the bottom of the new cartridge before installing it or it will not work. This tape is out there to keep ink from leaking out during shipping. Once you have removed the new cartridge from its box, unwrapped it and taken the tape off it is ready to be installed. These cartridges will usually have arrows that show you which way to make the installation and they will only go in one way anyways so it’s hard to confuse things. If you aren’t sure that it’s in all the way, try to remove the cartridge and then reinsert it, it should fit snugly without moving around. Then once you are sure that everything is correct try to close the retaining clips, these should close relatively easy without restrictions. After you are finished installing your cartridge, make sure your printer has enough paper and try to print a test page to make sure everything is working properly. With the old cartridge(s) make sure to not throw them away, instead recycle them. In the packing of your new cartridge often you will find a postage paid envelope to mail the cartridges back to the manufacturer for recycling.
When your laser printer runs out of toner, do not worry! As you can now see when replacing an empty toner cartridge you will not encounter too many obstacles. If you follow the guidelines above, you’ll your printer working like new in no time!
By Joyce Calloway for InkMart.com, Copyright 2009
