Blair said:
My printer (Epson 400) printed very faint black text but colour was
OK. I tried numerous cleaning passes but no difference.
I decided to replace the cartridge but the text was still faint and
the test showed missing parts of lines.Again numerous cleaning passes
made np difference. Is there a cleaning process required apart from
the cartridge cleaning which might unblock the system?
Blair Malcolm
By 'cleaning' the printheads you are merely exacerbating the problem. All
the 'cleaning' cycle does is lay down more ink, on top of what's already
there, and makes the issue worse. You now have two choices: -
1) Take an empty cartridge, one of each colour, and fill with Windex.
Replace the carts you have in there with the Windex carts and alternate
running cleaning cycles/nozzle checks until the paper comes out clean. When
the paper is clean, remove the Windex carts and replace with *BRAND NEW*
ones - do *NOT*, under any circumstances, replace the ones you removed.
Print a nozzle check. If you don't see anything on the paper, run *one*
cleaning cycle, to get the ink flowing, and try a nozzle test again. That
should be all that's needed. You shouldn't need to run any more than two
cleaning cycles to get things going again.
2) If you don't wish to fill your own carts, there are a number of
outlets that offer cleaning carts. Just Google for 'inkjet cleaning
cartridges' - you're bound to find a myriad of companies selling them.
Simply replace your existing carts with the cleaning ones and proceed as
above.
Running a cleaning cycle can use as much as a fifth of a cartridge. It
should be used very sparingly - after all, ink is, obviously, money!
