Epson chipped cartridge troubles

[googlegroups]

I bought a new Epson Stylus DX5050 multifunction printer/scanner a few
weeks ago. Everything worked well for a few days: we printed about 20
or 30 pages in grayscale, and maybe 3 or 4 pages of color. I checked
the ink levels, and all 4 cartridges were on 90%. During the following
10 days, the printer was barely used - I printed 1 page of color and 4
pages of grayscale. I checked the ink levels again, and the cartridges
were on 30%/10%/20%/10%. How could the ink levels go down so
drastically in 10 days when they were barely used?? How did I lose 80%
of a magenta cartridge by printing one color street map and 4 pages of
black text? I simply don't believe those ink levels are correct; where
could the ink physically have gone? It can't vanish into thin air.
Something must be wrong with the chip system. My Linux printer driver
has records of all the print jobs I've ever submitted, so I *know*
that only 5 pages were printed during those 10 days.

Does anyone else have this problem? I know that Epson changed their
chip design a few months ago (April 2007) to invalidate most of the
"compatible" cartridges on the market, and I wonder if they introduced
some kind of bug. I am angry that Epson not only prevents customers
from using up all the ink in a cartridge, but also has bugs that make
a full cartridge suddenly become unusable. What should I do? I can't
*prove* to anyone that my color cartridges have yielded only 5 pages
before falling to 30%/10%/20% - but yet I've clearly been cheated by
the manufacture.

 

[Yianni]

I don't suppose a problem for the ink tracking consumption. I suspect that
when it shows 90% this was wrong. Because the first time you put the
cartrdiges, it consumes much ink for cleaning and filling the printhead. Not
only 0.7ml for each cartridge (10% x 8ml each cartridge). I expet about 30%
consumption in the first installation.
On the other hand, every time you open and close the printer, it does a
cleaning cycle, consuming ink.
From my experience, the estimation of ink consumption from epson printers is
accurate. I see an accuracy of less than 0.2ml each 10ml (in older models).

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Since the printer is under warranty, I would contact Epson immediately
for an explanation, and I agree with your POV that this chip system
introduces new complexities that may confound things while supplying
little to no value to the end user.

Just so you are aware, the chip and ink monitoring system doe snot
actually measure how much ink is in the printer cartridges. It figures
out the approximate usage and subtracts that from the full cartridge.

The very first installation of cartridges does tend to use a lot of ink.
The ink is used to flush the heads of the packaging liquid that us
installed to protect the heads during shipment and storage before us.

Each time the printer goes through a cleaning cycles ink is used up as well.

Your description does indicate something isn't right, so ask Epson to
explain.

Art

 

[GeoffC]

Since the printer is under warranty, I would contact Epson immediately
for an explanation, and I agree with your POV that this chip system
introduces new complexities that may confound things while supplying
little to no value to the end user.

Just so you are aware, the chip and ink monitoring system doe snot
actually measure how much ink is in the printer cartridges. It figures
out the approximate usage and subtracts that from the full cartridge.

The very first installation of cartridges does tend to use a lot of ink.
The ink is used to flush the heads of the packaging liquid that us
installed to protect the heads during shipment and storage before us.

Each time the printer goes through a cleaning cycles ink is used up as
well.

Your description does indicate something isn't right, so ask Epson to
explain.

Art

I don't know anything about Epsons, but the Canon printers generally
estimate the ink level in their tanks from two fixed points ("full" and
nearly-empty) which usually works well, but can be confused, which in
turn confuses the users.

http://www.printerhelp.me.uk