Making every effort to keep the 4800 ticking over for the last couple of months - printing most days - hasn't really lead to the hassle-free outcome I was hoping for. Too many clogging probs for how active the printer was in my view which has been equally disappointing, frustrating and bemusing.

As I would be offline for a couple of weeks over Christmas I thought I'd try a new approach with the 4800 - forget about trying to nurse it every day and just treat it like every other piece of hardware I own - just print when it make sense for me to print and expect it to work.

The printer has been switched off for close to three weeks over Christmas during which we've had a record hot weather, as well as being away on holidays with the house closed up - the printer has had ample time to bake away quietly in my office.

I turned the 4800 on today and no surprises it requested a Power Clean. I declined and did a manual nozzle check and pleasantly enough every bar was intact. Good sign, but what about the Auto Nozzle Check? It printed clear too!

So there you go - print every day, and have what seems to be too many problems with clogging. Leave the printer sit for a few weeks and it fires up ready to go - touchwood. Maybe it just needed a good holiday, like me :)

A little on the belated side - happy holidays and thanks to everyone who visited during 2005. Apologies for delays in replying to emails, I've been away.