Q: I recently bought a new Epson printer and, while fitting the new print cartridge, the printer kept whirring noisily, so I turned it off.

After I turned it back on, the printer tools kept telling me the cartridge was empty but it was brand new. What is happening?

A: I suspect you have fallen foul of some cartridge technology introduced recently by Epson. Essentially, the printer manufacturers are getting annoyed many people are refilling their inkjet cartridges, instead of buying new ones. They have now added a little chip to monitor the ink level in the cartridge. By turning off the printer during the ink charging process, you may have inadvert-ently fooled the cartridge computer chip into thinking the cartridge is empty and it will not allow you to reset it. To my knowledge, there is no way to around this at the moment.

Q: My son, who is 11, wants to learn how to programme, so that he can write games. Can you suggest a good programming language for him to start with?

A: The most obvious answer is a programming language from Microsoft called Visual Basic. This allows very rapid development of Windows-based programmes and would be able to produce simple games. Modern programming environ-ments can be a bit bewildering, so it would be a good idea to get your son a good book that is pitched at absolute beginners. Try Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk). In my experience, it is quite hard to be taught programming. In the end, there is no substitute for rolling up your sleeves and diving in.

At times, programming can be frustrating but it does teach problem-solving skills.

Q: I love surfing the web but I find it really frustrating that it takes so long to download web pages, I have a 56k modem. Is it supposed to be this slow?

A: There are a number of factors affecting the display speed of a web site. One is obviously the speed at which you connect to the internet. Although modems say they are 56k, you are often lucky to connect faster than 46k.

Faster connections are gradually becoming available with the introduction of ADSL and cable modems but these are still relatively expensive for the home user. Many web sites are very poorly designed and make extensive use of large graphics and animation files that can take a long time to download. Finally, network conditions can slow things down, particularly if you are looking at US-based sites.