Readers’ Tips
TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT
40
Why I stopped using...
11 – 24 May 2022 • Issue 631Reset your printer’s waste ink pad to zero
just buy a new printer
because “replacement of ink
pads may not be a good
investment for lower-cost
printers”.
However, I found a
Yorkshire-based company
called OctoInkjet (www.
octoink.co.uk) that sells replacement ink
pads (pictured) and a code to reset the
printer’s ink pad counter. I ordered a kit
for less than £15. Replacing the pads was
a 10-minute job. I simply removed a few
screws, opened the case and replaced theRecently my venerable
Epson XP-520 inkjet
printer refused to print,
showing an error message
that the waste ink pad had
reached the end of its life.
Epson offers a software
utility that can squeeze a
little more life out of the printer by
resetting the waste ink counter to 90
per cent. But it doesn’t provide a way to
roll back the counter further, or replace
the pads. According to Epson’s website
(www.snipca.com/41655), most peopleold saturated ink pads. Make sure you
wear rubber gloves when you do this.
You then tell the printer it has new
ink pads. Download the WIC Reset tool
from http://www.wic.support/download, run
it and enter the validation code. Voila!
It reset the counter to 0%, and my
printer worked perfectly once more.
Epson may be right that other parts
will soon fail. But for now I’ve avoided
the hassle of recycling my old printer,
and the expense of
buying a new one.
Dan GriffithsSOFTWARE
Use Microsoft Money – not
Excel’s Sumif
I read David Ludlow’s article about
using Excel’s Sumif function to
maintain a personal finance spreadsheet
(Issue 626, page 20). My reaction was,
“Who would want to do that?”. Then I
read Ian Jones’ letter in Issue 628 and
realised there really are people who love
using spreadsheets for this purpose.
A faster, easier and more powerful way
to keep track of your finances is to use
Microsoft Money (pictured above right),
which is still available from third-party
download sites (such as http://www.snipca.
com/41653). You may need to install a
security update to run it in Windows 10
or 11, but that’s also readily available.
I’ve been using Money for years, and it
remains the most powerful personalfinance program out there. Banks still
support it, with OFX and QIF downloads.
You can link your bank to it, although the
program no longer downloads data
automatically. It lets you run multiple
accounts in multiple currencies along
with an investment portfolio, while Excel
aficionados can convert data into
spreadsheets. Just remember that if you
set up a password, tick the box to work
offline when signing in.
John TanzerINTERNET
Remove YouTube’s controls bar
I’ve discovered a browser extension
that removes YouTube’s control
bar from the bottom of the screen when
you pause videos, which is handy if
you’re taking a screenshot and you don’t
want the bar cluttering it up. Add the
extension (called Hyde) from http://www.
snipca.com/41657, then look for its icon
(pictured above) to make sure it has
installed. Now you simply press Ctrl+M toVirgin TiVo
At the start of 2021, I was paying
almost £69 per month for two
Virgin TiVo boxes. After much haggling,
I received a £20 discount for 18 months,
after which my bill would rise to at
least £79.And what I use instead...
I realised I could get all the channels I
wanted on Freeview, so in February I
left Virgin for Plusnet and replaced theTiVo boxes with two Humax Aura devices
(www.snipca.com/41541, pictured). I
now pay a grand total of £24 per month.
The picture quality from the Humax
boxes is far better, though occasionally
the Freeview picture pixelates, which
never happened on Virgin. Plusnet’s
broadband is always rock steady, though
the download speed varies between
40Mbps and 75Mbps. This means I can
watch 4K YouTube video without
problems. I can’t see why there’s so muchtalk about ‘high-speed broadband’.
Michael AlbinDan wins a copy of our 2020 Back Issue CD Buy it on Amazon http://www.snipca.com/38164Tell us why you stopped using a website, app
or program: [email protected]
Credit: Humax