I got a response to my description of the printer problem. It was a form letter telling me to do procedures I stated were done in my message. It also suggested a USB cable or file problem might be the cause (1). Then it wanted me to give my full address (which was given on the web form) for a print head replacement. It didn't mention the information I requested -- the price of a new print head.

The Kodak 5300 printer is bound for the trash. I noticed the manufacturing date was July, 2007. So it suddenly developed severe problems a year and a month after it was made. How unusual for modern products. Even if it was within warranty, it's not worth the trouble to repair, judging by the 1 star Amazon reviews.

I recommend all shoppers avoid Kodak products. They are cheaply made and unreliable. I counsel extreme skepticism regarding Kodak's advertising claims as well.

An honest ad for the Kodak 5300 would mention pathetic scanner quality, obvious banding problems after calibration, brief product life, bloated software that takes over your PC, and red equaling faded brown on plain paper.

- - -

(1) The printer's internally generated demo page is pretty hard to corrupt via USB cables or a user's flash media.