Can anyone help me with two problems that I am having?

The first one is a printer problem. I have an Epson Stylus C42UX - it’s not the best printer in the world but it does for what little printing I have to do. I recently put two new ink cartridges in - one black, one colour. They’re not Epson cartridges, but are a make called P C Line. I can’t remember if I tested them or not but there’s no reason why they shouldn’t work. However, when I came to print something, it appeared to be printing but there was nothing on the sheet. I have tried the nozzle check and the printing check and have also taken the cartridges out and put them back in again. Any ideas anyone? They’re so expensive that I don’t want to have to discard cartridges that are full of ink.

The second problem is to do with Outlook Express. I have Windows 98 but not sure what version of Outlook it is. I started downloading my emails yesterday and got to number 9 and it started to go really slow. Then the whole computer froze and I had to restart. When I went back into Outlook it wouldn’t download the emails and said that one of my Outlook store files might be damaged and to run Scan Disk. I tried to run Scan Disk but it takes forever - it was running for an hour last night and didn’t seem to have got anywhere. It kept saying “Checking File Allocation Tables”, it got one blue box on the bar, said “Checking Folders” and then the blue box went. Anyone got any good ideas about dealing with this problem too?

By the way, I can still read my emails through my internet provider’s website (it’s a BT Yahoo address) without any problem. I did get an email with two attachments but I haven’t opened them and I do know the source.

I don’t know if I have given enough information but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Firstly, check the plastic strip has come off the ink cartridge properly, or no ink'll come out (done exactly same with same printer!)

With running scandisk, if you're doing it through windoze make sure anti-virus is off first, otherwise every time scandisk makes a change your AV software will kick in, & scandisk will restart.

Chances are that if your email is hanging at the same message all the time, someone will've sent you a huge file attachment, & it's just chugging along downloading it. If so check your mail through webmail if you can. If you can't I hope you're not on dial up!!

**edit

whoops missed the bit about webmail... Chances are the 2 mails with attachments are the ones giving you hassle. Better off deleting them, & getting them re-sent in a better way...

Thanks for your reply Steev. Yes I have taken the plastic strip off - that's why I can't understand why the ink won't come out.

I'll look into the Scandisk suggestion - it was taking an outrageous amount of time, consequently I never run it.

The emails are getting to a particular one and then I get the message about a store file being damaged. I'll try deleting the mail from my webmail page and see what happens. Thanks again - was at the end of my tether.

Originally posted by Nicola27
...Yes I have taken the plastic strip off...

That's what I thought...

Check the place where the strip was, when I took it off it had sort of come apart & there was still a bit of plastic over (what I assume is) a vent hole on the cartridge.

best way to run scan disk, is to CTRL+ALT+DEL, switch off everything except explorer. make sure screensaver is set to none and turn off a/v software, firewalls etc.
then do a thorough scan disk, try de-fragmenting disk afterwards too. reboot. this may help. it may not but thats wot happens to mine when i run scn dsk

Originally posted by jonluvsnique
best way to run scan disk, is to CTRL+ALT+DEL, switch off everything except explorer.

And SYSTRAY.

And you're better off doing it in safe mode.

Thank you all for your replies. I tried Scandisk last night after doing the control alt delete and clearing nearly everything. It got most of the way through and then seemed to freeze (or have a very long think!) so will be giving it another go tonight. Can you remind me how to do it in safe mode please - I used to know but my brain's older now!

i have that same printer (i think) or i used to... get a pin and poke the ink pod thingys underneath and jiggle it about a bit. this helped mine work.

also i get different cartridges to them and might be cheaper so `pm' me and i'll check out the price diff for you. might save you some pennies.

:D

Originally posted by Nicola27
...Can you remind me how to do it in safe mode please - I used to know but my brain's older now!

Restart the PC, when it starts loading (if you see the Windows splash screen it's too late!) repeatedly hit F8 (in my experience it helps if you threaten the PC at the same time :P ). It should come up to a list of loading options, one of which'll be safe mode.

Oh, & if you hit ctrl-alt-del & try & take out all the running services in XP, you'd better be a bit pickier that "everything but explorer & systray". If you take out the wrong entry of svchost it will give you a nice 30 second warning & shut your machine down.

Thanks again for the replies. Managed to get all the way through Scandisk last night (eventually) and Outlook seems to be working ok again.

Just got to tackle the printer now!

Ok, had a look at the printer. Am very embarrassed to say that there was indeed a piece of cellophane over the holes on the colour cartridge but it still won't print even now I have taken it off. I have also reinstalled the printer but still nothing. Am running out of ideas. Is it likely that it is rebelling against the fact that I am not using Epson cartridges? When I install them it brings up a box saying that they are not Epson and do I want to continue. Any more good ideas anyone?