>From: Andrew Conachey, [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Reply-To: 1st PowerMacs, 1st-powermacs@mail.maclaunch.com >To: 1st PowerMacs, 1st-powermacs@mail.maclaunch.com > >I got a Color StyleWriter 2400 from a friend a while ago. I had been >sitting up in a hot dusty attic from the past 8 years unused. I cleaned it >up as best I could and got it working. It came with a black ink cartridge >which seems to have a fair amount of ink left in it. When it prints the >black is dark and neat, but there are blank horizontal streaks every few >centimeters. I've tried cleaning the print head with alcohol on a cotton >ball, and while that improved the print quality somewhat, there are still >streaks. What could I do to fix this cartridge? I would like to reuse it >instead of buying another one. > >Thanks, >Andrew
Hi Andrew; Here is a suggestion I tried some time ago. It assumes you are willing to 'get dirty' to make the attempt. Rubber gloves are WELL worth their cost. You might keep them around in your 'archives' for next time if purple stains don't go over well with the Mrs. I've posted this several times before on other lists, but not here that I can recall. A couple of years ago I had an ink cartridge on a sw 1500 (later a 2500 on a different machine too) that was acting that way too. After all else failed including the 'cotton swabs & alcohol' treatment too... I found something that worked. I like to reuse my cartridges as long as I can get life out of them. I went and bought a refill kit and went to work. * * * LESS helpful method: * * * (Doesn't require refill kit) Using WATER in place of the alcohol seemed to help SOME on one occasion. I even sat the cartridge upright in a little tray to 'submerge' the head a few minutes. My guess is that perhaps the alcohol may have been drying out too fast for the head to be effectively 'cleaned'. This method 'helped' but really wasn't the best since it didn't open ALL of the ports up the way I wanted. Use caution not to 'dunk' the print head too far... just BARELY enough to keep the head itself 'wet'. If there is too much, it might allow water to do capillary action travel IN to the cartridge if you allowed it to stand there for a long time. That's probably really harmless considering that failure means you throw the cartridge where it was going to end up anyhow, but I chose to err on the side of being a little conservative about that. * * * More helpful method: * * * (Ink Refill kit required) After all else failed to open the dry head to my satisfaction, I took the nearly empty cartridge and refilled it with the USED CLEANER that is left after a refilling kit gets used instead of refilling the cartridge with the INK. The used cleaner will be dark purple instead of its original pinkish color. Instead of putting that chemical down the sink, dumping in the yard, or throwing in the garbage, I always kept the extra in an old ink jar just to keep it handy. After filling the cartridge with cleaner to about half its originally recommended fill amount ( I think 1/2 was 20 ML ) I reinstalled it. Just as I reinstalled it I turned it to its upright position and TAPPED IT on a sheet of paper several times before installing. That seems to somewhat clean the head as well as getting the ink directly into place so that all is 'happy' as much as possible. (Air bubbles removed, and clean exterior of print head, as well as perhaps helping the 'ink' to get to position as best as was possible) I then took about 20 sheets of paper and told the thing to start printing a special 'print document' I created. As I started the run I told the 'clean print heads' item to run on my particular software (was the 1500 at that point I believe) The special 'print document' was merely a claris works page with stripes created on it so that it would print nothing more than graphic black stripes all across the page. I stuck the pages in and told the machine to print about 20 copies and let it go. As it ran copy after copy with the cleaner inside, it cleaned those dried up micro ports so that the ink started to flow very nicely. When the ports were clean, the ONLY problem left was the leftover cleaner in the cartridge. Instead of being annoyed, I just let the machine run that way since the cleaner itself merely caused somewhat light 'black' as opposed to the really solid black I wanted in the first place. In the end I went back to 'ink' on the next refill and the cartridge seemed to hold up well for another 2 years after that. Of course YMMV, but it certainly gave an extra extension of life to the ol cartridge until the printer itself was put out to pasture just as recently as a couple weeks ago. Good luck to ya. Don -- 1st-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> 1st PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/1st-powermacs.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:1st-powermacs@mail.maclaunch.com> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List archive: <http://mail.maclaunch.com/lists/1st-powermacs/> --------------------------------------------------------------- iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
