[Ti] Help, epson printers or is it me!!!!!

[Dennis Fazio]

--On Monday, March 8, 2004 11:25 PM -0600 Daniel T Kegan 
<daniel at keganlaw.com> wrote:

> If the heads are not in the replaceable cartridge units, where are they and
> how get to those likely "user non-serviceable" parts.
> (with ammonia?)

On Epson printers (not sure of all, but surely on the Stylus Color 800) the 
print heads are built into the printer, not into the cartridge. Therefore the 
alignment is more solid and quality is supposed to be better than if the 
heads were on a replaceable component. If your print heads are clogged, 
changing the ink cartridge will have no effect. You need to run it through a 
few cleaning cycles (either from the computer driver or from pressing the 
buttons in the right sequence as shown on the diagrams inside the flip-up 
cover). You may have to run several cycles (do so without powering off in 
between, since it counts cycles and increases the intensity each cycle) If 
after 3 or 4 cycles, no jets are printing, then something more serious is 
wrong and it may not be your print heads. If it all of a sudden stopped 
precipitously, it may more likely be faulty electronics that are failing to 
drive the heads. It's unusual to have all heads clog simultaneously.

If it is clogged heads, there are some instructions on the net for soaking 
the heads with various solvents including commercial cleaners that Epson 
repair folk use, detergents, or other. You can do this by putting a few drops 
on the pad where the head rests when idle and soaking for a while, or by 
putting a few drops into the head assembly from the top when the cartridge is 
removed. You can also take it to an Epson repair shop for the definitive 
answer.

-- 
Dennis Fazio
dfz at mac.com