Epson Printer Trouble! Please Help!?

Question

I bought both my Toshiba laptop and Epson printer last september.

It printed things great until last April I got a defective black ink cartridge. So I called Epson and they send me a new one.

I havent used it all summer, but I just last week opened the new- sealed black ink cartridge and it would only print out colour, not black. Then I pulled the cartridge out and shoock it to make sure the ink wasn't clogged and then inserted it back in. But now it is saying that there is no balck ink and that all my coloured cartridges are almost empty- when they are actually half empty. And it wont print anything now and flashes really fast.

What do i do?? Please help!

Thank you

Answer 1

First things first. You have so many things going on here so I want to take it step-by-step.

You let the printer sit, unused for 4 months. This caused a clogged printhead. In the printhead there is a ink reservior and if there is no ink in a cartridge or a missing cartridge, the ink in the reservior dries up and you have a clogged printhead.

So when you placed a new black ink cartridge in, the old ink in the reservior had dried out and clogged the printhead. This is why you had color, but no black.

The reason you had almost half ink in the color and now it is low, is because when you turn the printer on, it uses ink to charge the cartridges (all printers do this and that is the noise you hear). Then you took out the black, to shake it. Once again you recharged the ink cartridges.

As to why it says you have no black ink, is a mystery. Either you touched the microchip on the ink cartridge or you do not have it seated properly.

No matter how you look at it, you have a clogged printhead and you are going to use a lot of ink to clean them. You are going to need another set of ink cartridges, because with your ink being that low, you will run out of ink cleaning the printhead.

One thing you can try to aide the cleaning, is to remove the ink cartridges, place a small amount of rubbing alcohol in each ink reservior, let it sit for about half an hour, replace the cartridges and run a printhead cleaning, then run a nozzle check to verify which colors are getting through. You are still going to have to run several printheads, but this will help soften up the dried ink and reduce the number of cleanings.

I just wish that I could talk to everyone when they buy their printer, so I could save them this headache and expense. Epson's are great printer's, but there are a few things evryone who owns one should know.

I bet when you bought your laptop, they threw in the printer with it and didn't bother to tell you anything about the printer. Most stores will do this, because they do not want ot take the time to educate people. Just get the sale and get on to the next customer.

I hope everyone reads and passes the following tips on, because if you remember these tips, you will never have another problem with your printer.

1. Leave the printer on:

It is recommended that you leave your printer turned on. The printer is Energy Star compliant. Every time you turn your printer off and then back on, it recharges the ink cartridges and actually uses ink. This is true for all printers. If you print often you should not have any problems with your printheads. If you do not print very often, it is recommended that you perform a nozzle check once a week to keep the printheads from drying out and becoming clogged. If this does happen, all you need to do is a printhead cleaning. This maintenance operation varies from printer to printer and will be explained in your user’s manual.

2. When you run out of ink, you will have to manually tell the printer that you want to change the ink cartridge:

This is due to a safety feature that is on all Epson printers. It is very easy for children to open the lid of the printer. If your child opens the lid and the printhead carriage begins cycling (moving back and forth), your child’s fingers can easily get hurt. Therefore you need to tell the printer you want to change the cartridge. This information is in your user’s manual as well.

3. If you run out of a color, you cannot use the printer until it is replaced:

The reason for this is yet another safety feature for your printer. There are actually two reasons for this feature. First, if you are allowed to print with an empty ink cartridge, when you finally do replace the ink cartridge, your printhead maybe clogged. This is due to the fact that there is an ink reservoir in the printhead. If there is not any ink to keep the reservoir moist, it will dry out and become clogged. I use this illustration; it is the difference between new glue and dried glue. The glue will flow freely when it is liquid, but when it dries out it is set and hard. Now imagine this example in your printhead. Secondly, some printers allow you to print if a ink cartridge is empty. They do this by combining the remaining colors to produce the desired color. The only problem with this theory is that you will not get accurate, true colors, especially if you are printing photos. How are you going to accurately make yellow with cyan and magenta?

Answer 2

The cartridges in the inkjet type of printers have an expiry date of a couple of month and if you dont use it within the date they expire. i am afraid the same has been happened to you. look for the expiry date on the cartridge or the box

Answer 3

Since Vinapatt answered your question so well I also want to add this: did you remember to take the tape off the ink cartridge? Also, ink is a lubricant for the heads. If you try to print with a color missing and the head were allowed tol operate without that ink to lubricate it, you would damage the head.

Once you get your printer working, try http://ccs-digital.com/ink.asp for Epson compatible cartridges at $2-$5 which work great. I've been using them for years.