I have not owned an Epson printer for several years. I purchased one several years ago when it was the only one available to me at the time and was very disappointed. The quality was good but if you did not print on a regular basis the ink nozzles would plug up. Even going a week without printing, the nozzles would be plugged at first and require several test pages to clear.

Finally, after a period of several weeks that I did not print, the nozzles would not clear and I had to get rid of the printer. The cost of replacing the nozzles was more than the cost of a new printer. That was the last Epson I had.

In the cartridge models, the nozzles are replaced each time an ink cartridge is replaced. And for some reason, even after skipping several weeks on not printing the nozzles on these printers have never been plugged.

Are the newer Epsons better in this respect? The new Eco models are attractive from the standpoint of the ink costs but if nozzle plugging is still an issue then I am not interested.

So, my old laptop has died and I'd like to replace it. I'll admit right here that I'm completely computer illiterate, so any help would be much appreciated. To get started, I really don't have a lot of cash to spend, (perhaps around $500 ish). I realize that's not much for a top of the line machine, so I'm happy to look at used/refurbished, and I already have a few places in mind for getting one. My problem is that I really don't know what specs I should be looking for, such as speed, type of processor, OS, memory, brand, and anything else I may have missed. I really know next to nothing about this subject, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help, all the best, and hope you have a great day!
Ray.