My printer (Epson Stylus C84) has shot craps I guess.  I changed the black ink cartridge and it wouldn't lay down any black ink.  Some of the colors were about out so I changed all of them to and now it won't print at all.  The printer is 3 years old and printed great (when it was printing), but now I guess it's just shot.  My question is, does anybody know if there is something I can do to fix this thing myself or should I just buy another printer.  Any recommendations on low cost printers?

avoid anything by Lexmark like the plague for starters.
Personally I've never had trouble with HP, Epson or Brother.
(infact our colour printer is a Brother MFC 210 Scanner/CYMK Printer/Fax/Copier/Photocard (XD/SD/CF) Reader which cost us $100 Cad 2 years ago and works just fine, tho for bulk printing of documents we have a Brother Laser which is much cheaper to run on that kind of work (Inkjet 300 pages(average) - $30 (avg) for a cart to the cart, Laser 3000 pages (avg)- $90 (our model))

Welp, ya come to the right place (I do printers for a living).

Sadly, most low-end printers are consumables nowadays, I once actually bought a new printer because the cartridges cost more than the printer. All I really know is the HP line, and the deal with them was they'd fix it, but it took 3 weeks (non warranty), and the cost was about $350. I'm not sure what Epson does (frankly, all I ever work on are Epson dot matrix printers, and it's rare I have to work on those..;)

It's likely  you should replace it. If all 4 (or 2? there's different ways of doing this, and I don't know the model) aren't printing, either the carriage is too far off the paper (well, maybe not, you'd get some sort of ink deposis..;), the firing mechanism (for the ink dots, wax, etc..whatever Epson calls them..;) isn't working, logic board's gone, etc. Long story short, it's likely to cost you more to repair than replace. 3 years is about right for a local printer under average used, especially inkjets.

Printers, at least at the individual end, are just getting more and more disposable. The ones built 10 years ago were like tanks, and I still have a lot of those in my inventory. The later they get, the shorter the life-span seems to get...:| The metal parts are being replaced by plastic parts, the warranty gets shorter...well, 'nuff 'bout that..;)

You see the same thing with Palm Pilots, Ipods, etc..don't repair; replace. Sad sometimes..

Hmmm thank you both for the input.  I had about decided to just get a new one, but didn't know which brand would be better.  I think Epson is probably out from what I've read.  Don't know anything about the Brother brand.

I have a HP 1215 all in one, printer, scanner and photocopier, £50

It only does A4 or smaller size paper though!

Just an odd thought, what about taking an eraser an rubbing the electrical contacts before you install the new cartrages.  Is it possible that they might have gotten slightly corroded and just not contacting properly?
DPH

I've always liked HP.

I've been using an hp 970 for 5 or 6 years now. they gave me a free PSC 1510 (HP) when I bought an intel imac. after a few months, the paper sensor failed, so they shipped me a free replacement.

I had Epsons for years and years.

HPs are much better though, they don't dry out like my last couple Epson did, and require a couple cleaning cycles before you start printing.  They also don't seem to go through the false alarm cycle when the printer wants a new (big bucks) ink cartridge when the old one is still half full, too.  /Plus I had a lot of feed problems with my last couple of Epsons- th epaper has to be in EXACTLY the right place.

I'll never by another Epson.

I'm currently using an HP Photosmart 7260, which was dirt cheap, works fine, and even reads my Sony camera memory card, something I didn't even expect.

I have a HP PSC 2210 all-in-one and I love it.  Printer, flat top scanner/copier and fax. It's great. Plus it's not overly large. And there are 2 slots for cards for cameras and stuff. I haven't used those.  In addition to that the service support for HP products is excellent. About 6 months after I bought mine I was changing one of the ink cartridges and accidentlly broke off a plastic part that holds in one of the cartridges. I hadn't sent in my warranty card, but I called HP and they verified by serial number and model that it was under warranty and they  arranged for a courier to pick up the printer and I had it back in less than a week at no cost to me whatsoever.

I'd by another HP printer without hesitation.

Thanks for the responses!  Sounds like HP's are the ones I should be checking out.

Before you do that, you MIGHT reconsider, and try implementing my suggestion from my earlier post (which everybody seems to have ignored).  It certainly won't cost you anything to try.  As you yourself said, while it was printing, it was printing very well -ie, until you disturbed the electrical contacts between the printer and its cartridges, which may have oxidized over time.
DPH

Keep in mind your requirements.

Most HP printers use a single combined color cartridge. No fuss but a waste if you use one color more than the others. No brand cartridges are cheaper (refilling is even cheaper) but will slightly reduce the expected life of your printer. Cost of ink is more important than the price of the printer.

In my experience HP is more consistent in quality, the others makes are generally good printers but an occasional bad one happens. If the printer is not perfect when unpacked (paper skipped, check page not perfectly printed, etc), exchange for another one (my dealer has no problem with this). I have not encountered this with HP yet but it has happened with other manufacturers (have installed some 300+ printers).

Cleaning of a broken printer solves a lot of problems but is a lot of work, proper cleaning requires some solvents and hard scrubbing in hard to reach places, don't forget to reapply correct lubricants to all sliding surfaces. In all it takes 3 to 4 hours to clean a printer.

I've noticed that the cheaper the printer, the more expensive the ink. It's the old `razor & blade' business model.

Do a test print once a day, which will help prevent the ink nozzles (finer than a human hair) from drying and blocking. Don't have it near a radiator or in hot sun. Put a dust cover on it. Don't use non-branded cartridges.

I've had an Epson Stylus Photo for almost three years with no problems.

I've been using HP for about 6 to 7 years now, very nice printers.

The printer I have right now is the "Photosmart 7960", great pictures.

This happened to me a couple of months ago.  Best Buy sent it to Epson to fix and gave me a quick estimate of 35.00.  Well after two weeks, Epson wanted 250.00 to fix the 150.00 printer - 60 days after the warranty went out.

Print Heads were shot.   I finally got someone to tell me the straight story.  NOT at Best Buy.

Epson and Brother have the print heads built into the machine - when they go you might as well kiss it off.  HP and one other one have the print heads built into the cartridge - I got a HP 5610 and love it.

we have an HP 2510 multipurpose (scans, copies, makes Julian fries..;) at home. So far it works ok, we have it on USB, but it has a network connection, either way works ok. Not sure how much it is, but doubt it was cheap (the missus bought it).

Actually, it depends on the model as to how many cartridges it has. Usually, the low-end units have 1 B&W, and 1 color cart. The only inkjet model I'm actually authorized to repair is the 2230 (I mainly work on network printers and plotters), and they weren't too bad.

The cleaning the contacts with the eraser bit might work all right (it's an old trick I learned back in the day, works best for memory simms/dimms/modules/whatevers..;), but the point would be to not use too much force, and don't let any crumbs get in the bottom of the cartridge area; you'll find little splotches on your printouts if that happens.

Most HP inkjets of a certain size have a cleaning station (some even have a spittoon, but that's techie stuff, you'll never see it..just tickles me..;), where you move the carriage motor over, and there's a lever to select carts, then a plunger to do the actual cleaning.

NOTE- one final thing; I came up with an imaginary life-cycle time unit called the 'comdex'..which is a computer show where vendors bring out new models. They happen (I think) in May and November (usually in Las Vegas, if you'rre the geeky type who wants to go..;). Most vendors will come out with a model either just before, or just after one of these. Most models seem to last about a year,  maybe 2, then are discontinued (make that disposable razors and blades..;)

HP warranties run for a year (for just about everything). You can buy extended warranties from them for your model (likely the more expensive, the more it's going to have that option..;) There's not a lot that end-users can do to fix them apart from cleaning the cartridges (or printheads, if you get expensive enough), and removing paper jams. Hope this helps.

most inkjets wear out after about 2-3 years, so factor that in.

I've had 2 Epsons both of which blocked up and became unusable.  I gave up with Epson  after that and got an HP. 

Not had any problems with this so far.  I think the epson printers have the print heads built into the machine so when they pack up thats it.  The HPs on the other hand have the print heads in the ink cartridge, now this makes the cartridges more expensive (all ink cartridges are way to expensive any way!) but at least you get new printheads each time. Also with the Epson iIused to waste loads of ink  anyway trying to clean the heads.

I've left my HP for weeks with out using it and it never seems to get blcoked up so I think I'll stick to HP.

I still have my HP that I got 6 years go and I bought an HP Deskjet 9300 that I use to print out my art work about three years ago that works like a dream and can print out up to 13x19. I got a great deal online.

Quote - I've had 2 Epsons both of which blocked up and became unusable.  I gave up with Epson  after that and got an HP. 

I've only had one Epson (forget the model).  It came with my computer package that I bought in early 2000.  I found out about 3 years later when I took it in for service because it wasn't printing and was shoving through 2 or more sheets of blank paper at a time, that the printer was 6 years old. I told them that it wasn't possible that I've only had the printer for 3 years and it was new.  I found out at that point that the company who sold me my computer package sold me "new" but old and obsolete items like the Epson printer and Acer Scanner. 

I did pay $40 to get it fixed but it never really worked well after that. I ended up getting my HP printer later that year and have been tickled with it since.  I couldn't believe the difference in the quality of the images that it printed. I'm sure there are better printers than the one I bought, but I only use it for personal use and it fits my needs perfectly.  The price has come down considerably. I think I paid close to $400 (including 14% taxes) for my HP all-in-one.