Epson C84 woes (Eating cartridges)

[Stan]

Hi,

I have a C84 which gradually stopped printing. The head would go back
and forth as normal but the paper would be completely blank. Tried new
cartridges with no success so i decided the print head must be blocked.

Purchased some "Powerklin"cleaner solution and set about cleaning the
printer head. The instructed method didn't seam to work so i dismantled
the printer & carriage until i had the head (mounted on its half of the
plastic carriage) free in my hand. I was then able to wipe the head and
eventually observe the solution emerge from the print head as i gently
operated the syringe connected to each nozzle in turn. However, when i
partly reassembled the printer i found absolutely no change!

I then read that the ink purge tube could be dislodged or blocked so i
dimantled the cap to access the tube. I found the tube was indeed
blocked but finally managed to get the tube clean and removed some of
the congealed ink from below the waste pads.

After this i ran a few head cleaning cycles and amazingly my test
prints started to show some progress. However, the printer indicated
the black cartridge was empty which i seriously doubted. I installed a
brand new cartridge (non-Epson) and a test print showed missing black
lines so i ran a black head cleaning cycle. Some improvement but not
perfect so i ran another black cleaning cycle only to find the printer
refused because it claimed the black cartridge is empty. I know the
print head would have to be charged following my cleaning but i can't
beleive it needs a whole cartridge. Anyway, i couldn't make it print so
installed yet another new black cartridge, (non-Epson).

Guess what, 2 black head cleaning cycle later the printer again thinks
the cartridge is empty.
I'm really disapointed because the test prints are starting to look OK
but the printer is useless if it requires a new cartridge every 2 or 3
cleaning cycles.

Can anyone offer any clues why the printer is eating cartridges.
Perhaps i didn't get the FFC cable reconnected properly but i doubt it
since the printer works with no errors. Could the printer be corrupting
the ink shots data?

Incidentally, i tried one of the cartridges the C84 had consumed in my
CX6600 printer. It also says the cartridge is empty so its chip must
have been programmed as "Empty"

Any advice welcome, after spending far too much time and money already
this has now become a challenge i really want to solve!

TIA
Stan
PS I'm using the SSC Service utility to perform "black head cleaning"
or "normal cleaning" (Not the Powerful cleaning which uses more ink)

 

[Ed Light]

I junked my C64 because the ink dried too quickly and clogged up the head
and it used more ink cleaning itself than it ever left me for printing.
You'd have to print every day to keep it from clogging.

I now have an HP 5940 which is much better, though with some disadvantages,
such as the color ink isn't quite waterproof and the bottom margin in .6".
However, the ink situation with that model is very nice. I had to buy
PrintPunk to replace Epson's Web To Page utility, though.

Still, it's wonderful peace of mind, and the cartridges can be refilled. The
head is part of the cartridge. If planning to refill, don't run the
cartridge empty as it burns out the head.

It will let you run a cartridge to empty and it will print with only a color
or black cartridge, making black from the colors.

Print quality is similar to the Epson. I haven't tried a photo cartridge --
you have to take the black out.

Anyhow, I think that if you don't print every day the DuraBrite ink is a
lost cause.

--
Ed Light

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[milou]

I junked my C64 because the ink dried too quickly and clogged up the head
and it used more ink cleaning itself than it ever left me for printing.
You'd have to print every day to keep it from clogging.

I now have an HP 5940

<snip>

So you keep telling us and it does not sort out any Epson owner's
problems.

 

[Bob Headrick]

I now have an HP 5940 which is much better, though with some
disadvantages, such as the color ink isn't quite waterproof and the
bottom margin in .6".

Your statement is somewhat misleading. The bottom margin (as well as
the rest of the margins) are 0.00" if you are printing on photo or
brochure paper.

- Bob Headrick

 

[Jan Alter]

One should get much more than a couple of cleaning cycles before the chip
registers as empty with a new cartridge. Something may have happened along
the way in disconnection of a CB while you were removing the head to get the
clog removed. What you did was certainly admirable if not in vain for the
additional problem that is now making itself known.
The Dura-brite ink for the majority of the printers its placed causes
clogs from my experience with eight C-84 printers in the past couple of
years. Of those eight machines only one is still running without clogging.
The others are fully or partially clogged, and three of them in landfills at
this point. I wouldn't give it s second thought that even if you got the
C-84 completely repaired that it would reclog again if you continued using
Dura-brite. What does seem to work though is to use a dye base ink in this
machine, which has a much different formulation and does not clog as
readily, and even if it does, can be cleared much easier than the D-B stuff.
What one needs to be careful about though is either purging all the D-B ink
out with cleaning cartridges first and then introducing the dye-base ink. I
still don't know if one can actually mix the D-B ink with dye base to simply
change ink varieties as I haven't tested that combination.

 

[Ed Light]

Your statement is somewhat misleading. The bottom margin (as well as the
rest of the margins) are 0.00" if you are printing on photo or brochure
paper.

- Bob Headrick

Oh, ok. Just on documents.


--
Ed Light

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MS Smiley :-\

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[Arthur Entlich]

I'm guessing, without looking at any service manual, that you may have
reversed a ribbon cable position or something related to the wires that
write to the ink level chip on the cartridge. It is also possible the
SSC Utility is causing this. That program may have some bugs in it with
certain models. Also, there may be a problem with some of the 3rd party
chips on the non-Epson cartridges. If I were you I'd buy a chip
resetter (available on ebay and elsewhere for under $10) so you can work
on this until you figure out where the problem is.

Art

 

[Stan]

Thanks everyone.

I did buy a chip resetter and reset all cartridges. When i powered up
the printer it immediately decided the Cyan cartridge was empty. I kept
reseting it but the same thing happened. If i reset the cyan and put it
in my CX6600 everything is fine, so the C84 must be writing bad data to
the cyan cartridge. I can't explain why the cyan now seems to be the
trouble as it was the black before. I checked the FFC connections and
all seems OK, obviously i have done something in my atempts to clean
the printer

Sorry to say i've given up and had to junk it, never again shall i try
to save a low cost printer . I'm now looking for a new reliable
replacement. Please see my other posting "HP Officejet K550"

Stan

 

[measekite]

Thanks everyone.

I did buy a chip resetter and reset all cartridges. When i powered up
the printer it immediately decided the Cyan cartridge was empty. I kept
reseting it but the same thing happened. If i reset the cyan and put it
in my CX6600 everything is fine, so the C84 must be writing bad data to
the cyan cartridge. I can't explain why the cyan now seems to be the
trouble as it was the black before. I checked the FFC connections and
all seems OK, obviously i have done something in my atempts to clean
the printer

Sorry to say i've given up and had to junk it, never again shall i try
to save a low cost printer . I'm now looking for a new reliable
replacement. Please see my other posting "HP Officejet K550"

Stan

be sure to use oem ink and you will not have any more problem.