Sometimes the right answer is to stop.

There is a reason I don't repair printers.

The ink costs more than the printer. Look up a full set of genuine cartridges for your model. On a lot of home inkjets, one set costs more than a new printer with a fresh set inside it. That is not an accident. Cheap inkjets are sold at or below cost. The money is in the refills. When you compare the price, the repair question answers itself.

The print head is clogged and cleaning is not helping. Missing colors, banding, gaps in the nozzle check. Run a cleaning cycle, run another, and if three do not clear it, stop. You are now just using up ink.

The location of the head determines whether this is fixable. On most HP and Canon home inkjets, the print head is built into the cartridge, so a new cartridge is a new head. That printer is worth one more try. On many Epson and Brother inkjets the head is permanent, part of the machine. A hard clog on one of those is usually the end, and a shop replacement costs more than the printer did. Occasionally heads are replaceable, but that is becoming the exception.

It says service required and will not print. If it is a business machine, or leased, time for a service call from the company. If this is a home machine, no. Again, cheaper to replace than service, by design.

Parts do not exist. Consumer printers get about five years of parts. After that a used part off of ebay is your only hope.

Now what to buy, since that is the actual question.

If you print a few times a month, buy a plain black and white laser printer. Toner is a powder. It does not dry out, so it won't turn to glue inside the printer if you don't print anything in a humid, hot August. A cheap mono laser will outlast three inkjets and the toner lasts for years. You give up color photos. Most people printing a shipping label and a form for the doctor never wanted color photos.

If you do need color and you print a lot, look at the tank printers that take bottles instead of cartridges. Higher up front, much lower after.

Same decision logic on the computer itself: how old is too old. And on the utilities that promise to fix a printer from inside your computer: most of them are neither.

Mike
PCRescue | Portland, ME