"black ink out" on Epson Stylus Color 600

[petereasthope]

I have an Epson Stylus Color 600 which worked well until last
weekend. When powered up now the "ink out" light is on
and never goes off although the cartridge is full. Does anyone
have an idea about overriding or repairing the "black ink out"
detection?

Thanks, Peter E.

shark at gulfnet dot sd64.bc.ca

 

[Andrew Rossmann]

[This followup was posted to comp.periphs.printers and a copy was sent
to the cited author.]

I have an Epson Stylus Color 600 which worked well until last
weekend. When powered up now the "ink out" light is on
and never goes off although the cartridge is full. Does anyone
have an idea about overriding or repairing the "black ink out"
detection?

The manual, or a search on Google, should show a procedure to force a
cartridge change. Just remove/install the old cartridge and it'll think
you have a new cartridge. It doesn't directly measure the ink, but just
keeps track of how much a 'new' cartridge has used. Just be careful as
physically running out can damage the permanent heads in an Epson.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

This printer doesn't have a chipped cartridge. It determines a ink
cartridge change via a leaf spring in the back of the cartridge
compartment which is activated by the cartridge removal and reinsertion.
You normally could just replace the exact same empty cartridge and it
would read full to the monitor system.

Usually this problem is the result of the spring getting too flat and
not responding correctly. If you carefully pull the middle of the flat
surface of the spring out so it makes it into a peak again, then it will
again activate when you remove and insert the cartridge and that will
clear the light.

You can also try taping a piece of cardboard to the side of the
cartridge that the leaf spring would come in contact with and see if
that activate the spring. It will not fix the problem however, and the
next cartridge will probably do the same thing.

Art