Printer problems

[dickm]

Anybody know how to tame Epson printers? My R200 ran out of two inks this morning; replaced them with (for once) genuine Epson cartridges, pressed the finish button and head went back to start, then the ink-out light came back on and stayed on. The ink monitor now claims ALL the cartridges are empty. All the usual tricks (switch off/on, take out cartridges and put back in etc.) have no effect. Printer has not had a vast amount of use, so it shouldn't be doing the Epson "this machine needs servicing for no good reason other than making us money" trick.
Any suggestions?

 

[ColeyS1]

Printer head clogged? Can you do a nozzle check?

 

[Harbo]

Do a printer nozzle clean and if that fails buy a head cleaning kit from the Bay?
There's plenty of videos on UTube.

Rod

 

[Dangermouse]

If your printer has not had much use, usually its the print heads clogged. The ink drys out and clogs up the head and no amount of cleaning cycle will shift it. You could try a cleaning kit, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. But if you get it going again, make sure you print something that will use all the jets at least once every couple of weeks, just a few lines of each colour will do.

 

[Gary Morris]

Can you still print? If so print a test sheet, it should show which, if any nozzles are blocked.

Gary

 

[Dusty]

I have a hp , its called a con / scam , they are programmed to stop working after x time has run , I barely use the home printer and it always tells me the ink is running out at funnily enough the same time every 6 months or year , I have even checked my receipts to prove it .
I searched the net and the manufacturers claim it is to maintain quality of the ink , bor-licks . another article i read said the chip on the cartridge when fitted , triggers an internal timer that is backed up by a small internal battery so you cant fool it by turning it off for a long time .

I mainly print out word documents but a small amount of pictures but never any 6" x4" photos as it has the facility but funnily enough when the others run out , suprise , the photo black has run out too .

apparently the only way to fool it is to find the small internal battery and disconnect it and turn it all off , leave a while and reinstate , but some machines have fail safes to prevent you doing this .

The printer was only £150 but the full set of inks are nearly £70 , not a bad way to make a killing on a spoon full of ink .

If you dont beleive me then do a google search on it . not a sinic , just fed up with ink prices .

ta ta

 

[ColeyS1]

When I use to have a r200 I fitted a continuous ink system to it. Because the ink was now coming from huge big pots I downloaded an additional piece of free software ' ssc utility' if I remember correctly. This allowed you do alot of extra things, like- power clean, full reset , reset counter to zero and much much more .

 

[Fishandchips]

If the printer is telling you there is no ink then it's not a clogging problem.

Try download some utility software like this one http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml

 

[dickm]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. It's definitely not blocked nozzles, as I'd just printed out some photos which were spot on. The "ink out" light came on after the last photo, having been flashing (low ink) for a while so was expected. It was just that after replacing the empty cartridges, the printer became convinced that all were now empty, and will not do anything. I suspect it's a hardware fault, which is probably not worth attempting to fix, unless someone has a spare board for one.

Unfortunately, the suggested software site says that the software won't work with the R200 to do what is possibly needed.

As an aside, printers must be the most perfect money-printing device ever for their manufacturers; sell a piece of expensive hardware unjustifiably cheaply (how can anyone manufacture stuff to the precision of a decent printer for less than £100?) then recoup the cost many many times over for a few teaspoonfuls of ink over the life of the printer. GRRRRRRRRRR.

 

[Racers]

Printer ink thousands of pounds a litre!

Get a laser printer there are some cheap colour ones about.

Pete

 

[JakeS]

I have a hp , its called a con / scam , they are programmed to stop working after x time has run

I once bought a set of cartridges brand new, from a shop, because I needed to print something in a hurry. Got them home, and the printer told me they were 'expired'. No date shown anywhere on the packaging or anything, but they're apparently past their best-before and the printer wouldn't use them.

The shop was decent about it, but that was the point where I decided to never buy another Inkjet again and, as Pete suggests, got myself a colour laser. I've been very happy with it ever since; it only has one annoying quirk and everything else works perfectly all the time - no matter how long I leave it between jobs.

 

[Sheptonphil]

I own a computer repair business and can assure you the ssc utility works with the R200 perfectly. Do a counter reset and lie when it asks if you have changed the ink pad.

See here for complete compatibility.

http://www.ssclg.com/epsons.shtml

We do this frequently.

Phil

 

[Harbo]

Thanks for the link Phil, my printer is the Stylus Photo R2400 and it comes up with this comment:

** - NOTE! It is impossible to reset ink counters by software methods on this printers.
Use "ink freezer" function to maintain current ink level and "hot swap" to use refilled old cartridges.
Or use additional device.

Are these functions "obvious" when using this software?

Rod

 

[dickm]

Thanks again, guys.
Colour lasers are all very well, but the toner for the Samsungs is more than £120 per set. I know it's supposed to last for ages, but that depends on the printer behaving properly .
Will have a go with that software tomorrow, with crossed fingers - I couldn't understand that bit below the compatibility chart either.
What it must be to be young and technology savvy...........

 

[Sheptonphil]

Hi

You are not resetting ink counters, you can't on those marked ** because the ink count is held in the chip on each cartridge, I.e. the amount of ink left in the cartridge, which is calculated by the chip knowing how much ink has been fired from each cartridge.

You will be resetting the print counter ( the number of pages printed since last service of replacing waste ink pad.) it usually calls for service at approx 7000 - 8000 prints but we have done them where print count has been as low as 1000. Hence no need to replace waste ink pad ( a small pad of felt used to absorb the ink drawn off the heads during cleaning). My home colour laser, a not particularly expensive HP costs £75 per colour, £300 a set when replaced. Just take it that no printing, black or colour is cheap.

Can do a walk through if you need one, just PM.

One day perhaps I will be able to use my new lathe half as well as a computer.

Phil

 

[ColeyS1]

Ssc utility always use to work perfectly on my old r200- unless they've altered it :-? My r200 was the first printer that I fitted an external waste ink pot to, I do it to all of my printers now

 

[RogerBoyle]

Thanks again, guys.
Colour lasers are all very well, but the toner for the Samsungs is more than £120 per set. I know it's supposed to last for ages, but that depends on the printer behaving properly .
Will have a go with that software tomorrow, with crossed fingers - I couldn't understand that bit below the compatibility chart either.
What it must be to be young and technology savvy...........

I have a dell 1320 Colour laser printer It cost me £190 from Amazon in a sale 4 years ago
It's used on a weekly basis in colour mode A box of Paper will only last a month(2500 sheets)
Its fast ,Excellent print quality but a bit bulkier than an Inkjet I can replace ALL 4 toners for less than £60 Which i did last February and looking at the built in ink moniter I have used just over half of the toner
I have never had a problem with it and now I believe they have brought out a wireless version of it as well

 

[devonwoody]

MY pennyworth.


Epson support are very good, if you registered the product they give free telephone support even after the one year guarantee. (even with compatible inks,(if you talk nicely) ).

 

[JakeS]

Colour lasers are all very well, but the toner for the Samsungs is more than £120 per set. I know it's supposed to last for ages, but that depends on the printer behaving properly .

If your experiences are based around inkjet printers - where they make the printer as cheap as possible and sell at a loss to get you to buy enough ink to give them a tidy profit - I could understand this. However, I have literally never had a problem with a laser printer, ever. The only one I even know of which has had any kind of issue was the one at work where they regularly print out hundreds of pages of training manual, and that was fixed by replacing a part (good luck with that on an inkjet!).

You can buy non-branded toner for much less than the official stuff. It's basically just powdered plastic, should be harder to get wrong than ink. I've never noticed a quality difference between the official stuff you get when you buy a new printer and the cheap stuff you can buy for ~£8 a 2000-sheet cartridge.

 

[Racers]

Hi, Chaps

Remanufactured cartridges are a lot cheaper than branded ones, the quality is a lot better these days.
Laser printers are far more reliable than ink jets, you can leave them off for months and they print first time, no squirting lots of expensive ink into a wad of cloth for hours on end.

Pete