The Computer Corner

Cartridge coaxing
By Charles Miller

I recently had an enlightening discussion with a good friend, the subject of which was things that do not seem to work very well in San Miguel de Allende. Now, before anyone gets upset; I am not referring to any internet providers, banks, municipal services, or anything of the kind.

The discussion came about when we blundered into the subject of ballpoint pens. My friend has a certain brand of jell-tip pen he really likes This pen puts down a smooth line of ink just to his liking, or at least it does work like that when in its native environment.

The pens were bought in Amsterdam, where he says they work just fine. Amsterdam, for those of you who might not know, is a European city located at sea level and near the coast. The climate is cooler with quite a bit of moisture.

Here in San Miguel where conditions are different, the pens do not seem to work very well. My friend blames the altitude and low relative humidity of El Bajío for this. He found that with some coaxing, he can eventually force the pens to work. After a lot of shaking, then doodling on scratch paper for several minutes, the pen does start to work as normal, but it takes a lot of effort to get it working.

It is reasonably clear that this type of jell-ink pen works best at higher barometric pressures found nearer to sea level, and at a higher relative humidity than is the norm in San Miguel.

This topic of conversation led us to look at some other things that are being affected by our environment.

A complaint I hear all too often is that people have trouble with inkjet printers. The most common malfunction is that the ink cartridges have a tendency to dry out when not used on a regular basis.

It is a good thing that these inkjet printers have fallen so precipitously in price. Today it is possible to buy a decent printer for 500 pesos, so they are practically a disposable item. When the ink dries out in a lot of these printers, about the only thing you can do with them is to dispose of them. It is not very likely that one of these inexpensive printers could be repaired for less than the price of a new one.

Most inkjet printers come with software utility programs for cleaning the ink jets. Even though it uses up some ink to do this, cleaning the heads periodically is good preventative maintenance.

It is very obvious to me that inkjet printers using liquid inks are not the best choice for use in San Miguel. Laser printers, using a dry powder toner, are a much better option if you want a printer which will last for many years here.

My recommendation then is to buy the more expensive laser printer if you want some assurance it will last several years, or buy an inexpensive inkjet printer and replace it more frequently.

Another San Miguel environmental factor all computer users need to beware of is dust!

The cooling and ventilating system of all computers acts as a vacuum cleaner, sucking dust out of the air and depositing it in the one place it does not need to be. A smooth even coating of fine powder inside your computer is a pretty good insulator, and serves to hold heat inside those important electronic chips that need to be kept cool.

Here in San Miguel, everyone needs to open their computer case and use a can of compressed air to blow out the dust from the CPU cooler and the power supply. This should be done at least once a year. Doing this might just prevent a premature failure brought on by overheating.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ@SMAguru.com.