Handy hint for anyone with an Epson inkjet which does like this -
id
your printer packs up without warning and flashes its "no good any
more" sequence of lights (varies from printer to printer) it's
reached
its useful life according to Seiko-Epson. What they don't tell you
is
that the printer hasn't, the "sponge" mechanism beneath the print
head
probably has. Find an Epson repair centre, they'll fix it for you,
it
cost me £23 although DIY fixes exist on the web for many Epson
printers who go through this, to save you throwing away a printer
which might yet have life in it.
Normally all one needs for this is the "SSC Service utility" program
which
can reset the printers internal counters. It is a good idea to
clean out
the sponges but that is not always necessary.
Well, we did download the SSC service utility, although I don't know
if there are different versions for different Epson printers. The SSC
utility we downloaded did not work for us, although the software
seemed to run OK on my PC and claimed the job was done but the printer
did not resume working (which reminds me, must remember to uninstall
it now).
There is, for some Epson printers like the Stylus Color 880, a
"control panel" method too:
1. Hold down cleaning and paper feed buttons while switching on the
printer
2. When the light flashes after switching on, quickly hold down paper
feed for 10 seconds (timing critical)
3. This resets the counter.
After this, if the sponges are up to it, you can extend the printer's
life, though this isn't likely to last long unless you clean or
replace the sponges, as Dave says. Although I called it "built in
obsolescence", it is more of an indicator or estimate of end of ink
sponge life, with a small margin of underestimate which sometimes
allows the reset alone to seem to work, but eventually the sponges
will saturate and your printer may have thick ink sludge running
inside.
Looking at the various forums for info, we found people had mixed
results with both methods. For some, they worked first time, for
others several stabs at the control panel were necessary because of
the critical timings. Apparently both methods should work with the
Stylus Color 880 but neither method worked for me.
There are both paid-for downloads and free downloads to do this out on
the web. Don't pay - you can get the SSC utility free.
The Epson shop rang me back within a couple of hours of leaving the
printer with them, so something like this is most probably what they
carried out.
With Epson printers with control code sets suitable for use with QL
now being fairly rare (I don't know if Rich Mellor has any of the ones
he bought left), this might enable some of us to continue to use these
printers beyond the expected end of our printer's life!
Dilwyn Jones
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