Still big Epson C82 printing problems

[Michael P Gabriel]

Boy, do I hate to bug people, but I'm at my wits end with his dumb
printer.


FIRST: Blank paper coming out of printer: I pulled the color
cartrdiges and , depressing the sprung valve in each, I added a tiny
amount of pure ammonia and water, diluted about 20 percent ammonia.
Then I gently shook the cartridges.

I ran several print head cleanings, and printed the nozzle check
which showed broken lines in the reds and blues, despite the fact that
the pictures and text now were quite nice, the colors came out
beautifully, except the red was still a bit weak... but not as bright
red as the picture looked on my PC. Even the text sample of all the
colors showed the red to be a little weak..with the rest being nice
and bright.

Then I pulled the color cartridges and I gave them each a another
tiny drop or two of ammonia water, ran the head cleaning, ran and
nozzle check. The reds deinitely improved , but not still not perfect.
But the nozzle check still showed the broken lines on the red and the
blue.

All of the test photos I printed were 3" x 5" , or so. Today I
tried an 8 x 10 picture. To my surprize the reds were banding
terribly!! I went back to the 3 x 5 and guess what....also
banding..to the point where the pic was almost undistinguishable.!
I'll accept the weaker reds, but the banding now? What gives? I hope
it is simply the weakened ink cartridges, and that new cartridges
should fix everything. But I don't want to invest in new cartridges
unless I'm sure I can get the brighter reds.

Now...what precisely is the diagnosis. Anyone?

 

[Michael P Gabriel]

colors have checked in as true as could be!! Lucky ME!!!

 

[Arthur Entlich]

For people having problems with no ink coming out of the head of the CX
and C series printers, often after replacing the cartridges...

This is often due to an air lock plus a build up of dried ink under the
head.

The first thing to try is placing some ammoniated window cleaner into
the ink outlet of the new cartridge. In order not to dilute the new
ink, only put a few drops in the outlet and a drop or two on the ink
nipple (the stem that enters the ink outlet). You can also place some
of the same fluid into the cleaning station / head capping device on the
right side, using an eye dropper and allow the head to sit over it for
an hour or two to help dissolve the dried ink. For more information on
how to get the head out of the way, email me at the above address and
ask for the Epson Cleaning Manual.

If you have some nearly empty cartridge, the best way to clean the heads
between cartridge changes is to put a couple of eye-dropper full of
ammoniated window cleaner into the cartridge. To do so, you have to get
the spring valve that closes the end of the outlet open. Using the
eyedropper tip put a bit of pressure on the outlet valve to open it and
then squeeze the eyedropper bulb to get the liquid into the cartridge.
This will create a dilute ink and cleaner mixture, but it will only work
if the cartridge is not indicating as empty. Otherwise, you will have
to reset the cartridge chip so the printer will acknowledge it as having
ink. You can then run some printing or cleaning cycles and that will
help to clear the nozzles and to lessen the risk of an air lock.


Art