Epson 1270 stops in the middle of a print

[Chris]

After several months of not being used, I've recently got my 1270
going again. Amazingly enough there were no major problems with
clogged heads, and it's been fine... until today.

Now it's begun to stop printing at apparently random points during a
job. The print head goes to the far left of the paper and stops, while
all the lights on the front panel start flashing. The head won't move
and the paper is stuck, until I power off then back on again, when it
is slowly ejected, and the print head moves back to its normal start
position. Sometimes, I can retry and it prints the job OK, but
increasingly, it seems to halt again.

The progress window shows "general printer error", and the manual says
"unspecified printer fault", which is not terribly helpful. Anyone
here got any ideas what's going on?

Many thanks in advance!

Chris.

 

[Chris]

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 16:28:12 +0000, Chris
<Chris-at-nospamplease.rfirt.freeuk.com> wrote:

Actually, it's just happened again, and I see that in fact, the
cartridge lights are steady, while the paper and power lights are
flashing. The manual says this might indicate an obstruction
preventing the print head returning to position. Unfortunately, I
can't see anything which might cause that and the paper - not Epson,
admittedly - 210 gsm canvas embossed paper - looks fine and I've
printed many pages of it before.

 

[Irv]

try reinstalloing the drivers.

i tried running an epson cx3200 though a usb print server and it would print
an inch and stop.
returning it to normal usb operation worked.

 

[Safetymom123]

Have you tried cleaning and lubricating the silver guide bar that the print
head travels on?

Use a silicone based lubricant. Wipe down the bar with the lubricant. Try
the printer. Then wipe down the bar again.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

If you don't have easy access to a silicone lubricant, even a simple
lightweight machine oil, like sewing machine oil will do. You only need
a couple of drops well distributed. Before doing so, it may be
worthwhile using a clean lintfree rag and some rubbing (isopropyl)
alcohol to clean the cylindrical rail the head carriage rides along, to
remove any built up dirt or dust and/or thickened lubricant on it.

If this doe snot resolve the problem, check the connections at the
printer and computer, make sure your print spooler area on your hard
drive is large enough, and then if all else fails, remove and reinstall
the most recent drivers for the printer.


Art

 

[Tony]

Actually, it's just happened again, and I see that in fact, the
cartridge lights are steady, while the paper and power lights are
flashing. The manual says this might indicate an obstruction
preventing the print head returning to position. Unfortunately, I
can't see anything which might cause that and the paper - not Epson,
admittedly - 210 gsm canvas embossed paper - looks fine and I've
printed many pages of it before.

Chris
The light sequence you describe is a "Fatal Error".
You can try cleaning the carriage bar as someone else has suggested, you can
also check that all internal connectors are pushed well home (needs the covers
removed).
In my experience when an Epson printer starts to give Fatal Errors it is the
end of the road for that printer. It most often indicates en electronic failure.

Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[Chris]

Thanks all for your help. I cleaned the guide rail and I've done a
few more prints on Epson paper which were OK. With the non-Epson
paper, I turned off high-speed printing, and they were OK too.
However, a couple of times the status monitor hung before printing and
I could only get it to restart by rebooting - after which it printed
fine.

So maybe there is a deeper problem. I hope it'll hang on long enough
to use up my ink supply!

Chris.