Epson CX5200 Clogged Heads?

[Bruce]

I've got an Epson CX5200 multifunction printer. It's worked great since
I got it 1.5 years ago. I use Epson inks, never let it run dry, and keep
it on all the time.

Yesterday, my wife printed about six greeting cards, and they all printed
very nice. This morning, I noticed that my kids unplugged over night to
use the outlet. When I plugged it back in to do a print job, the print
had minor streaks, so I did a head cleaning. It got worse. I did a
total of five head cleanings, and each time it got worse. Now, nothing
prints.

It's been unplugged before, and never had this problem. The manual says
to leave plugged in overnight, and try again.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what may have happened?

Sincerely,
Bruce

 

[Davy]

Sounds familier - just like my C62 (see 'Woe of Epson' & 'May
have found the problem' ).

My fault started by a gradual nozzle clean, requiring more and more.
Don't like repeating myself but just a quick run down.

Eventually it got so bad that the effect I had was lines through the
picture and a yellow cast about an inch wide on the left hand side of
the print and along the bottom. This appeared to get worse as you
'upped' the print quality.

In my case it happened after 6 months after purchase and the
replacement went the same way, which is now in the dustbin just the
other day.

When I stripped it down I discovered the head was leaking from one
side of the clamp, when I say leaking I mean a weep not a drip, and
behind the clamp there were loads of dried ink the three remaining
sides are intact.

Note:
This is not saying that this is your problem, I stripped mine down as
a last resort.

There are Ink cleaning cartridges you can get, I have never tried
these myself and can not say how effective they are.

Davy

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Chances are very good you can get your printer working again at minimal
cost and time.

Please just email me privately at the same address used in the header of
this message and request the "Epson Cleaning Manual" and mention having
a CX5200.

I don't charge anything for this service and you will not be spammed.

Art

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Note:

This is not saying that this is your problem, I stripped mine down as
a last resort.

That next to the last line should have been first. What this guy's
printer is showing is unlikely to be the same problem your printer or
printers suffered from.

Art

 

[Davy]

Hi Arthur

Oh boy....! It's abit too late mine went yesterday, I would loved to
have tried to get down to the 'nitty gritty', but I just could'nt be
bothered anymore., but you oughta pay attention to the cleaning method
as suggested previously - think there's some help to be added there,
even if a extra tank was added for cleaning purposes (or even fluid
in one of the chambers), many easy way's of 'dousing' the heads.

What if the tank was slightly pressurised? I think some HP tanks you
have to inject air by squeezing the plastic bottle after its been
emptieds to inflate a little air sack - at least thats what I was
reading on one site.

OK, I'm gonna suggest something rather stupid here, what's the effect
of trying an 'El cheapo' UPSIDE DOWN (call me what you like - no
offence given), KNOW what I'm driving at - but will it print? And one
step further what about a 'Thermal Jet', you know one of them
Napolean's - in theory they should..... (should'nt they)? What I'm
trying to get at is the ain't all that much 'blast' through the
nozzles.

When these Epsons are 'powered' on the heads are subjected to small
amount of energy to keep the dye/pigment suspended in the actual head
chamber, but not enough to eject the ink. (I turned mine off).

Just suppose Arthur that some form of 'STIRRER' in form of a peizo
plate
is located at the bottom of the ink tanks If you resolve this...
don't forget I thought of it first.... couple of thousand bucks will
do fine (and a FREE PRINTER and FREE ink for life).

I very nearly directed Bruce to the Email address you give in that
post some pages back, but I thought you would have picked his post
up, he does have another post inquiring about Multipurpose ones
higher up the page.

I take your point about the first quote, totally agree that it should
have been first, Oh dear......sorry about that, I did say though.

Davy

 

[Bruce]

Chances are very good you can get your printer working again at
minimal cost and time.

Please just email me privately at the same address used in the header
of this message and request the "Epson Cleaning Manual" and mention
having a CX5200.

I don't charge anything for this service and you will not be spammed.

Art

snip

Art,

Thanks for the reply. I read it from work today and then googled to see
some of your other posts about Epson printers. I ran across this thread

http://tinyurl.com/7vp8h

where in your May 21 post, you describe that sometimes the waste tube
falls offs, "worse yet, the dang tube tends to fall off during cartridge
replacement, so all the sudden the printer stops working after a
cartridge has been replaced."

Although the last time I had changed a cartridge was at least a month
ago, I did remember that when the problem occured two days ago, and I
took the printhead out to have a look see, I did notice that the waste
tube was empty, and only had a few smears of ink inside. I could see
through it. I also noticed that the printhead had ink oozing out of it.
This was after I had performed about six head cleanings, after which
nothing would print. (I was surprised that even if nothing would print,
that the oozing ink just didn't brush up against the paper being pulled
though and smear.)

The symptons did indeed point to a waste tube that has come loose, but...

When I got home tonight, I put the printer in 'change cartridge mode' so
that the printhead assembly would move as to unobstruct my view of the
waste tube. Well, I could see the tube just fine, but I couldn't see the
ends of the tube or where it was connected. I took a pencil and pushed
and pulled a little at it, and it seemed to be well connected to the main
part of the printer. It showed no signs of being loose.

Both the printer control panel and software maintenance panel tell me
there is not enough ink to perform a head cleaning. I do have a new,
high capacity ink cartridge though, if needed, and cyan.

I'll write to you at the addy in the header.

Sincerely,
Bruce

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I have correspond with you privately at this point, but I wanted to
comment on your posting, for the sake of others who might be reading this.

I never recommend removal of the print head in Epson printers. There is
a chance of damage to it, or knocking it out of alignment. It will also
void your warranty, should you still have one.

A quick lesson regarding Epson printers and how the head and cleaning
station work.

Epson's head are relatively "passive" in that they don't go squirting
ink in their cleaning cycles as some do. They mainly relay upon the
vacuum that is produced via a purge pump output applied to the heads.

So, in general if you were to see ink coming out of the heads during a
cleaning cycles, the purge pump is working and the hose is connected.
It is only if no ink is flowing in the cleaning station or from the
nozzles of the head that one may consider the hose not being connected.

The other cause of a "dry" cleaning station (no ink after several
cleaning cycles) is a fully or nearly fully clogged head or the nozzles
being coated in enough dry ink not allow the cleaning cycle to break
through that coating. So, a dripping inky head is one that is getting
vacuum applied during cleaning cycles.

Another thing that head indicates is that it should print something
(maybe no all nozzles) to paper when engaged, because it has ink going
through it. If you get no output from a head that is showing wet with
ink from the nozzles, something electronic is at fault in the printer.

Art

 

[Bruce]

Thanks very much, Art, for your Cleaning Manual. I did read it, and I went
to the links given in the manual that applied to my symptoms.

I have correspond with you privately at this point, but I wanted to
comment on your posting, for the sake of others who might be reading
this.

I never recommend removal of the print head in Epson printers. There
is a chance of damage to it, or knocking it out of alignment. It will
also void your warranty, should you still have one.

A quick lesson regarding Epson printers and how the head and cleaning
station work.

Epson's head are relatively "passive" in that they don't go squirting
ink in their cleaning cycles as some do. They mainly relay upon the
vacuum that is produced via a purge pump output applied to the heads.

So, in general if you were to see ink coming out of the heads during a
cleaning cycles, the purge pump is working and the hose is connected.
It is only if no ink is flowing in the cleaning station or from the
nozzles of the head that one may consider the hose not being
connected.

The other cause of a "dry" cleaning station (no ink after several
cleaning cycles) is a fully or nearly fully clogged head or the
nozzles being coated in enough dry ink not allow the cleaning cycle to
break through that coating. So, a dripping inky head is one that is
getting vacuum applied during cleaning cycles.

Another thing that head indicates is that it should print something
(maybe no all nozzles) to paper when engaged, because it has ink going
through it. If you get no output from a head that is showing wet with
ink from the nozzles, something electronic is at fault in the printer.

I think you may be correct. I don't see that a wet, drippy head and an
empty, yet connected, hose go hand in hand, unles there is some electronic
fault.

 

[CarBone]

Thanks very much, Art, for your Cleaning Manual. I did read it, and I went
to the links given in the manual that applied to my symptoms.



I think you may be correct. I don't see that a wet, drippy head and an
empty, yet connected, hose go hand in hand, unles there is some electronic
fault.

The CX5200 Epson is the same design as the C82 Epson and if it is not
printing, then I suspect that the purge hose has become disconnected.
Follow directions at:: http://www.inkjetprinterhelp.us/duraink.html

 

[Arthur Entlich]

You may have missed part of his description, in which he speaks of very
ink wet "parking pads" or cleaning station. If the purge hose has come
off, the vacuum does not get transferred to the heads and they should
not be ejecting enough ink to wet the cleaning station pads. The vast
majority of the ink ejection is a result of passive ink movement from
vacuum applied externally. The hose in question must be connected to
provide that vacuum.

Further, if the heads are releasing ink, regardless of the state of the
purge hose, the print head should be printing, since the nozzles are
delivering ink, so I suspect something else is going on.

I've helped dozen of people with printers where the purge hose has come
loose, and they usually show little to no ink in the cleaning station.

This one seems a bit different.

Art





CarBone wrote: