How-To Geek

I have a Dell printer [all in one 713W maybe 18 months old. Have only printed maybe 20 pages of black text and only 4 or 5 pages full color. I typically go 2 or 3 months w/o printing anything. My printer is set to do maintenance once a week but it never prints anything out when it does so. It's telling me it is out of ink.? I ran 3 or 4 test pages and did a deep cleaning the jets twice. Shows black and all 3 colors very low. Is it possible ink cartridges dry out naturally even if one barely uses them? It has 2 separate cartridges.

Thanks

Thank you warlock. I have another question. Maybe you could tell me WHERE to post it? MyToshiba laptop [I5/4gigs memory] has built in Hotspot capability. Other wireless devices can connect to my laptop once I give them the password and the laptop shows they ARE connected but when I attempt to turn on "Share my Internet" I get an error message saying "an error occurred while attemping to turn on share my internet". It seems to be security related but seems like it would say that? I am trying to connect my [wireless only] Samsung tablet to the internet [when I am at work] THROUGH my Tosh laptop.

Should I just post it in Off Topic?

Inkjet ink cartridges can dry out through lack of use although it's far more likely the print heads will get clogged from disuse first. Inkjets clean the heads by forcing ink through them, which can use up a lot of ink. Those are the major reasons I will never ever own another inkjet. I had one for a year before I got fed up, tossed the printer as high in the air as I could into the dumpster (it made a most satisfying clunk when it landed), then got a laserjet. Though expensive to buy at first and the cartridges aren't exactly cheap, laserjets cost less per page to use than inkjets, even after factoring in the initial costs.

New printers are notorious for coming with "starter" cartridges that are only partially full. How full they are (or, rather, aren't) varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.