Epson Stylus Photo 785EPX no longer print black. Is it possible tofix?

[Ant]

Hello.

My father's old Epson Stylus Photo 785EPX printer (bought it in a local
retail store when it was new, so probably early 2000s?) stopped printing
blank ink earlier. When printing, we can hear the printer printing but
nothing shows for black color like texts. He hasn't used this printer
for almost a week when it last worked. We even switched to a new
unexpired new ink cartridge (007), but it didn't make any differences.

I tried adjusting the paper thickness, quality vs. speed, cleaning
nozzles, etc. Changing to quality seems to make minor differences (see
light black texts and lines, but they are mostly unreadable). I also
tried printing without the computer connected (USB) and just directly
from the printer's buttons (print ROM information as shown in the
hardcopy manual), and that showed a blank page. I also tried folding a
paper to make the paper thicker (didn't want to waste an envelope) and
printing, and that doesn't seem to help.

Color ink is perfectly fine though. I even tried printing only black and
white (B&W). I also noticed my dad used generic inks instead of the ones
from Epson. Also, the last few months or maybe a year, the printer made
LOUD horrible noises during nozzle cleanups (even after turning on the
printer). I don't know if these are related to the black ink problem or
just old age since he usually use the printer almost daily and a lot.

I don't know if getting a new Epson black ink is even worth trying (very
expensive too) since the generic ones used to work before today (almost
a week ago that last worked) for a long time. We have not tried opening
the printer to take apart and clean the nozzles/heads manually (probably
too much work and tedious). With the old black ink cartridge, I noticed
the black hole does show fresh ink. I assume the cartridges are fine
then. I am hoping there are other ideas to try.

Is it time to get rid of this old printer? Thank you in advance.
--
"It is certain that there may be extraordinary mental activity with an
extremely small absolute mass of nervous matter: thus the wonderfully
diversified instincts, mental powers, and affections of ants are
notorious, yet their cerebral ganglia are not so large as the quarter of
a small pin's head. Under this point of view, the brain of an ant is one
of the most marvellous atoms of matter in the world, perhaps more so
than the brain of a man." --Charles Darwin (from The Origin of Species,
1859)
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Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Hi Ant,

I would suggest you email me privately. I help people with these kinds
of problems all the time, and the printer likely can be salvaged.

I can provide you with a free manual I have written on how to unclog the
heads of Epson printers. It is almost definitely a problem with the
black head having an ink channel or ink nipple clog. It is common in
inkjet printers.

I do not charge for this service, I do not spam anyone, and I have
nothing to sell you. In fact, the cleaning method involves about a
dollars worth of home cleaning products you can usually get at the
grocery or dollar store.

Anyway, don't toss the printer. Epson printers have long life heads and
assuming it is a clog, which is likely, you can probably get it going as
new.

My email address is below:

e-printerhelp(at)mvps(dot)org

(at) = @
(dot) = .

Art

 

[Ant]

My e-mail addresses are shown in my signature (pick one). Thanks.

Hi Ant,

I would suggest you email me privately. I help people with these kinds
of problems all the time, and the printer likely can be salvaged.

I can provide you with a free manual I have written on how to unclog the
heads of Epson printers. It is almost definitely a problem with the
black head having an ink channel or ink nipple clog. It is common in
inkjet printers.

I do not charge for this service, I do not spam anyone, and I have
nothing to sell you. In fact, the cleaning method involves about a
dollars worth of home cleaning products you can usually get at the
grocery or dollar store.

Anyway, don't toss the printer. Epson printers have long life heads and
assuming it is a clog, which is likely, you can probably get it going as
new.

My email address is below:

e-printerhelp(at)mvps(dot)org

(at) = @
(dot) = .

Art

--
"An ant hole may collapse an embankment." --Japanese
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Remove ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[measekite]

My e-mail addresses are shown in my signature (pick one). Thanks.

That sounds kind of funny. Don;t you mean (e-mail address removed). I
tried it like you have it down below but it came back.It would be more simple to post it on your website but then again you
would loose control.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Hi Ant,

I do not directly respond to Epson Cleaning Manual request via public
groups. This is to prevent the group from becoming clogged with
requests, and also I may not be reading every group my message gets
posted on (as an example this has been cross posted to 4 groups and I
only subscribe to one of them). Also, there are a number of third party
individuals who post my address to inform people of the manual's
existence in places I am not even aware of.

Therefore, I only respond to requests made via email to the address I
showed in the posting.

If you would like a copy, please request it via email.

Thanks,

Art

 

[Kurt]

That sounds kind of funny. Don;t you mean (e-mail address removed). I
tried it like you have it down below but it came back.

(e-mail address removed) was what he wrote.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Measekite is an TROLL who knows perfectly well that I write my email in
the manner I do to reduce spam to that address, since it just slows down
my ability to answer questions and requests. By posting it in its normal
format it can get picked up by spammers using bots which search on
places like Usenet and Yahoo. He posts my email in its usable form
regularly to try to have my email box receive extra email because he is
jealous and hostile toward people who actually give of their time
helping people rather than providing false, misleading information.

Some people exist to try to sabotage people who try to do good deeds.
We all know some people like this. Measekite has been sanctioned and
kicked off numerous moderated news groups and lists, for misinformation,
altering people's quotes, foul and insulting language, but unfortunately
this newsgroup doesn't have a moderator, so we have to put up with this
person who acts like a pea-brained infant, whose self-esteem is so low
he needs to create problems for others because otherwise he would be
completely ignored.

As any psychologist can tell you, everyone prefers to be praised than be
punished, but they'd rather be punished than ignored. Measekite has yet
to figure out how to provide any real service here to be praised for, so
he prefers to be noticed by creating trouble for those of us who are
trying to provide a service.

Luckily, no matter what email address he uses, (and he tends to change
them regularly, and sometimes posts under several at once) filtering him
out is always just a couple of mouse clicks away.

My suggestion is to just block his postings from this newsgroup. The
vast majority of regular users have all his addresses blocked. It not
only reduces the number of worthless posts to read, but you won't even
notice he is here, unless someone quotes him, which you'll rapidly learn
is even a bigger waste of bandwidth.

Art

 

[Ant]

Weird, now it works again but who knows how long this will last. He
basically cleaned the head nozzles few more times via the software. I am
sure it will stop working again.

I still would like the free manual from you, Arthur (sent you an e-mail
from zimage), just in case.

Hello.

My father's old Epson Stylus Photo 785EPX printer (bought it in a local
retail store when it was new, so probably early 2000s?) stopped printing
blank ink earlier. When printing, we can hear the printer printing but
nothing shows for black color like texts. He hasn't used this printer
for almost a week when it last worked. We even switched to a new
unexpired new ink cartridge (007), but it didn't make any differences.

I tried adjusting the paper thickness, quality vs. speed, cleaning
nozzles, etc. Changing to quality seems to make minor differences (see
light black texts and lines, but they are mostly unreadable). I also
tried printing without the computer connected (USB) and just directly
from the printer's buttons (print ROM information as shown in the
hardcopy manual), and that showed a blank page. I also tried folding a
paper to make the paper thicker (didn't want to waste an envelope) and
printing, and that doesn't seem to help.

Color ink is perfectly fine though. I even tried printing only black and
white (B&W). I also noticed my dad used generic inks instead of the ones
from Epson. Also, the last few months or maybe a year, the printer made
LOUD horrible noises during nozzle cleanups (even after turning on the
printer). I don't know if these are related to the black ink problem or
just old age since he usually use the printer almost daily and a lot.

I don't know if getting a new Epson black ink is even worth trying (very
expensive too) since the generic ones used to work before today (almost
a week ago that last worked) for a long time. We have not tried opening
the printer to take apart and clean the nozzles/heads manually (probably
too much work and tedious). With the old black ink cartridge, I noticed
the black hole does show fresh ink. I assume the cartridges are fine
then. I am hoping there are other ideas to try.

Is it time to get rid of this old printer? Thank you in advance.

--
"Fall in those single lines like army ants..." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Remove ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[David Rance]

I would suggest you email me privately. I help people with these kinds
of problems all the time, and the printer likely can be salvaged.

I was following this with interest. I have an HP1120 which I bought nine
years ago. About three years ago the yellow nozzle started being
intermittent and finally gave up after a few days. This didn't matter
much as I used the printer for printing music which is mainly black.

A week or two back, without thinking, I printed a piece of music with a
title page graphic in colour. To begin with, it printed correctly but
then the yellow nozzle stopped even before it had got through the first
page.

When the problem first happened I changed colour cartridges and tried
cleaning, both to no avail and I gave up on it, deciding that, when the
black cartridge gave out, I would buy a new printer.

I have put the printer out for recycling but, having read this thread, I
am wondering if it might be possible to get it working properly again. I
don't want to trash a printer that could possibly work for a bit longer.
I know the printer is old and one can't get proper drivers for the
latest OSs (I'm using an HP1280 driver with WIN XP in order to get
things like booklet and manual duplex printing), but it is still usable.

David

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I'm not well versed in the HP model numbers. Can you tell me if that
printer uses a ink cartridge with a disposable head incorporated into
it, or are the ink cartridge and heads purchased separately.

Epson heads are piezo-electric and they are designed for very long use
without replacement (pretty much life of the printer). However, HP has
several technologies they have used over the years.

1) head is disposable "per cartridge change' (thermal head)
2) head is separate and lasts about 8-10 cartridges or about a year to
18 months (semi-permanent thermal)
3) for life of printer, piezo electric, similar to Epson

Most HP are in the first two categories. If you can help me to
determine which type it is, I may be able to help you to get it going
again. Some of the technique sin the Epson printers cross to other brands.


Art

 

[David Rance]

Hello Art,

Thanks for a quick response.

I'm pretty sure that it's type 1 that you describe below. There's
nothing in the docs to suggest I need to change the head, nor have I
seen any heads for sale. If it's any help the cartridges used are 23 for
colour and 45 for black.

David

 

[Tony]

David
Those are both type 1 (as described by Art). So a new cartridge includes a new
printhead.
Tony

 

[David Rance]

Those are both type 1 (as described by Art). So a new cartridge includes a new
printhead.

Thanks for the confirmation, Tony. I was pretty sure they were type 1.

David

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Thanks David, those are the types of cartridges that use an integrated
disposable head as part of the cartridge. The good news is that it
allows you to replace the cartridge and get a new head if the head
should fail or clog. The bad news is that if it happens to two
cartridges in a row, it probably isn't the cartridge/head at fault,
although occasionally, especially with yellow inks, a residue can form
in some ink formulations from the cartridge sitting too long, or getting
too cold. I am not sure about HP inks for these particular printers and
if that is a known problem with the yellow ink or not. The fact that
you rarely used the color inks may indicate that the yellow ink settled
out or otherwise clogged the head.

How old would the color cartridge in the printer be? What we want to do
is isolate the cause. If it is a rarely used color cartridge there rae
two possibilities. One, is as I stated above, that the yellow ink
clogged up the head, but the other is that the cartridge may have run
out of yellow ink. All inkjet printers do cleaning cycles at differing
points, and the color cartridge can run out of ink even if not used at
all for printing if enough cleaning cycles occur. Also, in a 3 color
cartridge (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow) yellow tends to be the first to run
out because it is required for red, green, orange and yellow, all colors
which are used a lot by most color graphics and photos.

You can sometimes salvage a clogged HP cartridge by removing it and
placing it with the head part down on a paper towel or two soaked in
warm to hot water (not boiling, just hot) and pressing the head down and
letting go many times to create a bit of a vacuum like action. This may
dissolve clogged ink. You will definitely see colors on the paper towel
if the clog dissolves. You are looking for all three colors, cyan
(turquoise) Magenta (hot pink) and yellow.

If that doesn't do it, try doing the same process, but use room
temperature ammoniated window cleaner (Like Windex with Ammonida D)
instead of water. Make sure it has the ammonia in it as it works as a
solvent to the inks. Do not use household ammonia straight out of the
bottle, as it is too concentrated and may damage the head. Although the
window cleaner is better because it has other solvents in it similar to
the inkjet ink, if you have to use household ammonia, use NON-sudsy
version and dilute it about 1 part ammonia to 10 parts water for the
mix. You can let the cartridge sit on that for several hours if
required to dissolve the solidified ink.

However, if that doesn't fit it, and you know the cartridge had ink in
each color chamber, assuming that the problem is external to the
cartridge and head, the most likely cause is bad contact between the
cartridge contacts and the contacts in the printer. Check to make sure
the cartridge contacts points seem to be clean. If not gently rub them
with a lintfree paper towel or rag just enough to buff them so they look
clean. and try the cartridge again.

Also look at the contacts within the printer that mate with the
cartridge contacts. If they look contaminated with dirt or old ink,
gently buff them with a cotton swab and warm water. Some are spring
loaded so just be gentle not to bend or otherwise distort them.

Then try again to see if you have any success.

Some HP cartridges have time limited chips on them that expire and will
not allow you to print after a certain date. If this is the case, you
will probably get some type of notification on your computer screen, and
no colors will print. If you get some colors and not others, that's not
the cause.

Let me know how this goes for you. Also, Bob Headrick, who also posts
here is a great source for information on HP printers, since he has a
background in the HP printer division. He may be able to fill in some
things I've missed or mis-spoke about here, since HP printers aren't my
area of expertise.

Art

 

[Bob Headrick]

Thanks David, those are the types of cartridges that use an integrated
disposable head as part of the cartridge. The good news is that it allows
you to replace the cartridge and get a new head if the head should fail or
clog. The bad news is that if it happens to two cartridges in a row, it
probably isn't the cartridge/head at fault,

This issue is not a matter of the yellow ink settling out or clogging the
heads, it is typically due to air that migrates into the printhead over a
long period of time (typically years). Check the warranty date (two years
from the manufacture date) on the cartridges as shown at:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bua02014

If the cartridges are beyond their warranty life replace them with fresh
cartridges to solve the problem. Look for the "install by" date on the
package. When purchasing new cartridges I would look for an "install by"
date at least six months in the future, which would be an additional year of
warranty.

The OP's issue can be solved by a fresh color cartridge. You could verify
the cartridge as the issue by gently blotting the printhead on a damp
tissue. A good cartridge will leave a dark stripe of cyan, magenta and
yellow. The OP's cartridges will leave a stripe of only cyan and magenta.
It may be possible to recover the yellow by various methods, including one
the following: (note these have mixed and often temporary results....)

- Get an old sock. Put the cartridge in the toe, with the printhead
pointing out toward the toe end. Go outside and swing the sock rapidly
around overhead to reprime the cartridge.

- Put about 1" of warm water in a coffee cup. Place printhead nozzles down
in the cup and let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then remove and carefully
blot on a tissue.

When storing unused cartridges for an extended period of time keep them
stored in a cool place, and keep the package upright as they would hang on a
store display for maximum storage life.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Thanks for the corrections. I wasn't sure if you were monitoring this
thread because of the subject title, so I jumped in. I've taken note of
your advice for future reference, I get a number of people asking about
HP inkjet issues on my personal email and try to be as helpful as I can
within the limited knowledge I have of the mechanics of HP printer models.

I like the idea of the spinning sock. I imagine it could make for some
colorful toe ends. ;-)

Art

 

[David Rance]

Hello Art,

Thanks for a most comprehensive reply. I'll let you know if I have any
success.

David

 

[David Rance]

Hello Bob,

Thanks also to you for your help.

I think that the details in my original post got a little lost. In fact
the problem with the yellow not printing manifested itself three years
ago when I was using the printer constantly - it was the only printer I
had at the time. And so I was using it for general printing which
involved the use of colour. My first line of attack was to buy a new
colour cartridge but that was exactly the same - no yellow. so I bought
an all-in-one for general printing and have used the A3 printer mainly
for printing music for the last three years, except when there was
something that particularly needed A3 paper.

So the problem manifested itself at the time the printer was in common
use and it has been used occasionally for colour since then. But a few
weeks ago, without my doing anything to occasion any changes, it started
printing yellow again - for half a page! So the problem is intermittent.
It can start to print yellow but then stops. Does that give any clue?

However, you and Art have given me some ideas to follow up which I'd
never thought of before (though I had tried head cleaning with a moist
cloth and cleaning the contacts in the past) and I'll let you know if I
have any success.

Thanks again to you both for your ideas.

Best wishes, David

 

[David Rance]

Thanks for the corrections. I wasn't sure if you were monitoring this
thread because of the subject title, so I jumped in. I've taken note
of your advice for future reference, I get a number of people asking
about HP inkjet issues on my personal email and try to be as helpful as
I can within the limited knowledge I have of the mechanics of HP
printer models.

I like the idea of the spinning sock. I imagine it could make for some
colorful toe ends. ;-)

Something my wife does with some of her dresses that don't need ironing!
Incredible sight!

David

 

[David Rance]

Hello Bob/Art,

Well, I'm pleased to say that your suggestions did the trick!

For the last three weeks or so I'd dumped that printer, complete with
cartridges, on its side on the floor. Of course that didn't help! When I
tried to print all I could get was magenta. No yellow or cyan.

So I tried Bob's suggestion of giving the cartridge a whirl (literally)
in a sock and then I did a cleaning cycle. Surface clean - no change.
Deeper clean - no change. Deepest clean - the yellow started printing!

However, no cyan. Ok, I got a bowl of very hot water and left the
cartridge in it for about twenty minutes. Dried it, replaced it in the
printer and tried another cleaning cycle. Hooray! All three colours
printed!

So I now have an old printer that is as good as new, thanks to you
chaps. Pity that a driver isn't available for Vista but I dare say I can
find a driver for a similar, more modern, printer that will work. It's
what I had to do when I installed XP.

Thanks again!

David