Epson 880 trouble....!!! (Solved)

[Engineer]

Solved by replacement printer.

Thanks all...

Before firing an email off to Epson, I thought I would ask the Anandtech community if anyone has had any problems with the Epson 880 printers? I purchased one from the Dell deal (Hot Deals forum) and got around to hooking it up today, but can't get it to print in color. After cleaning the print head about 8 times, it finally printed a faint (and I mean faint) amount of red (more pink than red) for one of the test pages. My black cartridge shows well below half now after all the cleaning and I still can't print color. I've reseated the color cartridge (it does have ink as I now have it on my finger tips) but still didn't work.

Anyone have a tip or an idea, otherwise back to Epson or Dell for a replacement?!?

(P.S. I don't have an extra color cart. right now, and I really don't want to buy one just to test as I think this should have worked out of the box).

(P.S. #2 I've tried Win2000 and Win98 and both parallel and USB and still the same problem. )

Thanks in advance

 

[ProviaFan]

I've never had a problem with clogged heads to that extent, but it would be nice if they would just let you clean the black OR the color ones, not both at the same time
Now this will sound really stupid, and please don't get mad at me if you already did this, but anyway, have you taken the little tape thingy off of the top of the color cartridge? That would cause the color ink not to come out.

 

[Engineer]

jliechty,

Never such a thing as a stupid reply (almost , as I appreciate any help that I can get. Yep, I removed the yellow tape on the top of the color and black carts. I also know that the color cart. has ink as it's now semi-permanent on the palms of my hands

I'm calling Dell today to ask for a replacement as I've spent 60 sheets, 4 hours and half a cart. of black on this thing + different drivers, different OS's, 2 PC's and Parallel/USB. NO GO!

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Cenalian]

Well, the problem with the epson printers is that if you get a cartridge clogged, they're a *itch to get unclogged.

I was talking to an Epson rep a few weeks ago, and they recommend running the cleaning cycle 15-20 times to clear it.

Unlike HP or Canon, Epson uses Micro Piezo technology, which DOESN'T use heat. Without the heat, you can't just re-liquify the ink to unclog it. Its the major problem with the Epson printers, and probably the reason that you can't get the cartridge to work properly

 

[LostHiWay]

<< Well, the problem with the epson printers is that if you get a cartridge clogged, they're a *itch to get unclogged.

I was talking to an Epson rep a few weeks ago, and they recommend running the cleaning cycle 15-20 times to clear it.

Unlike HP or Canon, Epson uses Micro Piezo technology, which DOESN'T use heat. Without the heat, you can't just re-liquify the ink to unclog it. Its the major problem with the Epson printers, and probably the reason that you can't get the cartridge to work properly >>



this is a major problem with Epson printers. I have one and have had this happen a few times. I found the best way to fix this with out cleaning 15-20 times is to put the cartridge in a plastic zip lock bag. Then put it in boiling water for about 10 secs. Just wipe the little bit of ink that comes out off. I know it sounds weird but it works.

WARNING...Don't use a microwave to do this. I did once...ink all over!!

 

[Cenalian]

Thats not a bad idea... I never thought of something like that.... the only problem that I would remotly see with that is your also heating up all the other ink on the inside as well, which could do more damage than good. It probably harmless to it though. Very good idea.

Another thing: if your not going to be using your printer for a long time, don't let the ink sit out in the open. Store it in an air-tight container and in a dark place. Much less chance of having it dry then. Do that, and make sure you print atleast 1 page every 5-7 days, even if its a test page, just to keep the ink fresh.

 

[ProviaFan]

/* Another thing: if your not going to be using your printer for a long time, don't let the ink sit out in the open. Store it in an air-tight container and in a dark place. */

I thought the cartridges in Epson printers, once opened, must not be removed from the printer until they're empty. Is this true, or not?

 

[Cenalian]

Some of the very new ones that use sensors and chips, possibly. But not to my knowledge... I used to sell printers, but haven't for a few months now, so I'm somewhat out of the loop....

Can anyone shed some light on this subject?

 

[ProviaFan]

My 880 says it has sensors in the cartridge to tell how much ink is in there? Would that qualify?

 

[Cenalian]

Those you can still take the cartride out no problems with. Because the sensors are in the cartridge itself, its fine.

What those sensors are there for is people who like to re-fill thier cartridges. When you try to refill one of those puppies that was empty, it becomes alot more difficult as the chip has already registered that.

 

[ProviaFan]

Ok, thanks for explaining that. It stinks that I can't use the refills though. Oh well, I think buying new cartridges provides better quality.

 

[Cenalian]

No, you should still be able to refill the cartridges.

Just wait till thier almost done (3/4 done or so) and try refilling them... that should work, as the chip won't recognize anything till its fully gone (or so I was lead to believe)

 

[Engineer]

Apparantly, they do have sensors in the cartridges as my system knew when switching OS's (win2K to Win98) how much black and color ink was left. The color stayed full and the black slowly went down (with each cleaning) to about 1/4. Dell is shipping me a new one as Epson couldn't solve the problem either.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[Rabmash]

Hello, just a quicky from experience.

The Epson 880 does not have a chip on the cartridges, its inbuilt memory (NVRAM) stores how many times the heads have been cleaned/pages printed etc so that the printer can &quot;judge&quot; how much ink is left. I've often taken out a cartridge when the printer says it is empty and reinserted it straight away and used whatever ink is left (after doing 2-3 cleaning cycles). The colour ink says the cart is now full again.

As you can imagine I take no notice of when the printer says the cart is empty because it very rarely is.

Yes I do use compatible cartridges and couldn't give a sh*te about invalidating my warranty (I'll just take the printer back if any probs to the shop). Yes I know this is harsh but I do a hell of a lot of printing.

The above explains how when switching OS's the ink levels stay the same.

 

[Engineer]

New printer arrived and worked flawlessly out of the box...didn't even reinstall the drivers.

Thanks all