Epson Stylus Photo RX500 Grinding noise

[suegreen301]

I had a paper jam and I cleared out the paper. Now, my printer makes
an unusual grinding/whirring noise when I turn it on (during the
self-diagnostic phase), and when I print. The print quality for b/w
text is seems to be OK, but I have stopped using the printer for fear
of further damage. I did not attempt to do a test of color printing.


There is no unusual readout on the LCD screen.

To be more specific, prior to this problem, when I turned the printer
on, I would normally hear a 4-beat series of noises which took about 2
seconds to complete; the first two beats were high pitched, and the
second two beats were low-pitched. Now, during this 4-beat sequence,
there is additional grinding/whirring. It does not sound metallic --
it has a softer sound.

The grinding/whirring sound also occurs each time a new line of text is
printed.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[Davy]

Jeepers no response yet...?
Well, if I just say 'howdy' I'll have propped the post up near the to
for ya, hoping someone will come along

Paper jam and then grinding noise, the easiest question of all i
...have you dropped anything inside, the next thing I'd say, rightl
or wrongly is may be nothing more than a spring whats come adrift an
jammed up

Now for the naughty bit'
I doubt it's something you are going to fix without at least removin
the cover, cos you'll need to see where the rackets coming an
luckily you'll see what the cause is

Mi marbles are sure rattlin' tonight, in the stop position is the hea
parked on the docking bay.. and nothing on the docking bay has com
adrift like a spring.... you may be better putting the printer i
cartridge change mode and having a peep

Another thing could be the pump unit which is fed from the paper fee
rollors, in the 'C' series there's a spring on the arm, but if it wa
the pump faulty you wouldn't see ink flowing through the plastic wast
pipe as you switched it on or did a cleaning cycle, if you can se
this happening then I'd assume the pumps ok and look elsewhere

Dav

 

[Ed Ruf (REPLY to E-MAIL IN SIG!)]

Jeepers no response yet...?
Well, if I just say 'howdy' I'll have propped the post up near the top
for ya, hoping someone will come along.

Doubtful. Many who use threaded news readers sort by thread, not by date.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I missed this one somehow... thanks for jumping in.

As Davy said, check that nothing is stuck in the printer, or that
nothing appears to have been pushed out of place or even popped out of
position and is sitting in the wrong position. There are a number of
switches and sensors that can get popped out, like the paper sensor
switches.

Other causes or grinding noises are a stripped gear (if you pulled on
the paper to get it out or if the paper jammed up enough to causes gears
to mess and not be able to move or even a problem with the vacuum pump.

A common one is the ink wiper next to the cleaning station getting
gummed up and remaining extended. and in the way of the head at it goes
by or during cleaning. What can work is to drip some ammoniated window
cleaner on the wipe and just below it to soften ink up that might have
built up there. Also, the cleaning station is spring loaded and it can
get unsprung and be too tall and the head can collide with it.

The bushings can get out of place on the head carriage (the bushings are
what the head carriage ride on over the cylindrical bar), or the encoder
stripe that goes through the head carriage can get bent, or dirty and
cause the head carriage to move along poorly.

Art