epson880.html

	Re: 880 print head won't slide to left by Denny Conway (2/17/03 11:34 AM) reply	+ / -
Hi Again! Nice link to pictures of dis-assembly for in-depth servicing, but you don't have to remove the bar to clean the bottom of the print head assy. Your method will work, but may take too much time and drives up the cost of repairs [labor hours], if the printer you are working on is not your own... REMEMBER that ink is water soluable and most ink will dissolve by using water [hot water even better]. I use flat coffee filters, cut into strips approx 3/4 to 1 inch wide [length depends on the brand of filters used, but usually ends up being 3 to 5 inches long]. With the print head assy unlocked, so that you can manually move it back and forth by hand, I will put the assy in the middle of the carriage assy. Using the paper thickness lever [lever with "+" on one end & "-" on the other end], I will put the lever on the "+" side. This rotates the print head assy further away from where the paper would pass while the print heads are moving back-n-forth during the printing cycle [for thicker paper such as photo quality]. I then boil a cup of distilled water in the microwave. You take around 5 to 7 strips of coffee filters, piled/stacked neatly on top of each other and dip them into the hot water [ be careful the waters very hot still. The strips will absorb the hot water like a sponge, but you need to squeeze the excess [hot!!] water out of the strips [back into the cup of water], or it will just drip/run all over and fill up the waste ink pads, or worse. You then place the hot/wet stack of filter strips on top of the black plastic plate that runs just under the print head assy, during the printing cycle. You then manually slide the print head assy over the stack of hot/wet filter strips: if you use too many strips, it will be hard to get the assy over the strips; if you don't use enough strips, then the following cleaning steps won't be as effective; be sure the lever is set on "+" so that you have extra room; leave the assy in approx the middle of the strips. Once the wet/hot strips are in place, set the lever back to the "-" position: now closes the assy tighter over the strips. Now manually slide the assy back-n-forth, from left to right, over the wet/hot strips and you will see much ink build-up [from the face of the print head assy's] + lint + dust + hair + etc, being cleaned off the print head assy and being deposited onto the strips. You will need to replace the stack of wet/hot strips many times, until little or no ink is being deposited onto the strips. This not only may help open a clogged nozzle, but is the easiest way to clean the print heads when streaking/smearing of black ink occurs during printing cycle: lint/hair/dust/etc, sticks to the wet/sticky ink and acts like a paint brush, smearing the fresh ink on the paper, when the print head assy moves back-n-forth over the paper with fresh ink on it, during the normal printing cycle. Once the bottom of the print head assy is relatively clean, run a new "Nozzle Test". If a nozzle is printing crooked [line is at an angle on the test page], or not firing/open, at least you will know its not because the bottom of the print heads are dirty. As ink is water soluable, you can now use a syringe to "Puddle" the "Cap Assy" and park the print head assy [over the puddled cap assy], to soak the nozzles longer and possibly dissolve additional dried ink inside the offending nozzle/nozzles... CAP ASSY: the felt pad thats under the print head assy, when its parked at its far right "Home Position"; when everything is working normally, the cap assy has a rainbow look to the top of it, from the 3 colors + black. PUDDLE: when you use a syringe to fill up the felt pad/cap assy with water; you keep applying water to the top of the pad until just before the last drops start to overflow: you may need to watch the pad and add more water, until the water does not soak into the pad anymore; once the cap assy is full, to the almost overflowing stage, you slide the print head assy over to the "Home Position", leaving the nozzles to soak in the water for 4 to 6 hours; this MAY dissolve any remaining ink clogged in/on a print head nozzle. Remenber that "Nozzles" are easily damaged and even if removed in Asimov's procedure, you have to take care while manually cleaning them: some cleaning fluids can damage the nozzles and even compressed air, if blown into the nozzle to try and blow out a CLOG, will probably damage the print head. This could result in all your hard work [cleaning procedures/dis-assembly/servicing] being for nothing, if the print head has to be replaced in the end [ which is not really economical]to do]...Good Luck! Denny Conway P.S. I usually recommend not using WD-40 as a lubricant on a carriage assy, as it is a good cleaner, but doesn't last as long as "3-IN-ONE-OIL", or even sewing machine type oil. Remember that water on a rag, or a damp "Q-TIP" will clean off ink build-up, or drops of ink. You can use water, or alcohol to clean a carriage bar with, but make sure to dry off the bar prior to applying any lubricant. Besure to clean off the outsides of the brass/copper looking bushings, where the carriage bar runs thru the print cartridge holder assy. Once you apply lubricant to the carriage bar, manually slide the print cartridge holder assy back-n-forth several times to lubricate and clean the insides of those brass/copper looking bushings. Keep wiping off thr bar until no more dirty, black looking stuff ids deposited onto the bar. You nay have to re-lube the bar several times during the cleaning process for those bushings/inserts. Once the bar starts to come out clean, besure you don't leave too much lube on the carriage bar, or dust/dirt/hair/etc will just stick to the bar again. This is what causes the black build-up that results in the grinding/ratcheting sounds. Once this build-up gets bad enough [noise occurs more and more] it usually results in the slamming of the print cartridge holder assy, to the left side/end of the printer. This noise and resulting slamming is actually the timing being thrown off. Once the timing gets off far enough, those anoying "Error Lights" usually come on. By that time, because the printers logic is so confused it does not know what is going on, or happening, so it just shuts down in an "Error Condition". Just resetting the printer [turning off & on] only lasts so long. THE PRINTER'S CARRIAGE ASSY NEEDS TO BE PROPERLY SERVICED... PLEASE DO NOT USE THE "MASTER RESET", IF YOU HAPPEN TO KNOW HOW TO USE IT. IT WILL NOT HELP THIS CONDITION AND IF YOU RUN THE "MASTER RESET", YOU HAVE TO INSTALL NEW INK CARTRIDGES, OR YOU WILL RUN OUT OF INK AND NOT KNOW IT [CLOG!!!]. THE "MASTER RESET" ALWAYS RESETS THE INK CARTRIDGE COUNTER TO ZERO AND IT ASSUMES NEW CARTRIDGES HAVE BEEN INSTALLED...

880 print head won't slide to left by Asimov (2/14/03 9:13 AM) reply	+ / -
Hello to all: My Epson 880 says it has ink in both tanks. It won't print anything either in B&W or Color. Also when I try to get the head to slide to the left to remove the cartridges by holding down the button for 3 seconds as recommended, it just returns to the right side. Toolkit cleaning of heads and unclogging of heads does nothing. Thanks for your help. Asimov

	Re: 880 print head won't slide to left by Denny Conway (2/14/03 2:52 PM) reply	+1 + / -
Hi Asimov: Holding the button down for 3 seconds will only cause the "Print Cart Holder Assy" to move over, for cartridge replacement, if one of the Ink Lights/Led's is flashing, or on solid. If the printer is not in an "add ink condition" then you can't use the buttons to replace the cartridges. You would have to trick the printer, by manually causing the assy to move over: FIRST STEP: With the printer powered on, in a ready condition, but with the paper removed, push the "paper button". Even with no paper loaded in the printer the print head/cartridge holder assy unlocks and starts to move to the left. You must quickly unplug the power cord. This of course shuts the printer down with the print head assy unlocked. If not done quickly, the printer will go into a paper error condition and you will have to try it again. With the top cover door open, you can them manually slide the holder assy left, or right and can then remove the cartridge you want to replace. SECOND STEP: Only remove "ONE CARTRIDGE AT A TIME" and DO NOT install the new cartridge yet. Once you remove one cartridge, close that cartridges top locking cover, into its normal locked position [both top covers would now be closed, but one cartrige would be missing]. THIRD STEP: Plug the power cord back in and turn on the printer. The printer will go into an immediate "solid error/led light" for which ever cartridge is missing. STEP FOUR: Now when you press the ink button in for 3 seconds, the print cart holder assy will move over to the correct position, so you can open the top cover and correctly install the new cartridge. STEP FIVE: Once the new cartridge is correctly installed and the top cover is closed, into its locked position, you once again press the ink button. The printer now recognizes the new cartridge and goes thru "New Cartridge Initialization", which correctly resets the ink counter for the cartridge you just replaced. STEP SIX: If needed, you can now start all over at step # 1 and install the 2nd ink cartridge [best to do one cartridge at a time]... TECH NOTES: If you just remove the old cartridge and then reinstall it, the printer will still go into "New Cartridge Initialization" and reset the ink counter. Because the printer will ASSUME you have installed a new cartridge [it cannot really tell], it will run out of ink and not know it. Now the print head nozzles run empty, fill with air and dry out [CLOG RESULTS]. Chances are, no matter how many print head cleaning cycles & nozzle tests you run, the nozzles may not all fully open. That dried ink [CLOG] becomes as hard as a rock and the new ink cannot always flush the clog out. Good luck if this happens, because using up the last ink in your old cartridge, just caused you a whole new set of problems. There has to be some ink left in an empty cartridge, or the nozzles fill with air and dry out [CLOG]. This may be why your printer does not print in either black, or color and no matter how many cleaning cycles you run, or no matter how many new cartridges you install, it may not [probably won't, to be honest] flush out the clog and open up the dried out nozzles. Also, some people reach over and turn off their printer at the on/off switch on their "Surge Protector/Power Strip" and this will cause problems with the print heads/nozzle assy's. An ink jet printer [especially Epsons] has to be turned off with the printers on/off switch, to be able to correctly park the print head/nozzle assy's over the cleaning stations "Cap Assy" [felt pad]. This parking stops the print head assy's from being in contact with the air and drying out the nozzles [CLOG]. Over the Cap Assy's the nozzles are locked and kept moist. However the printer needs to have some black and some color ran thru the nozzles, [to flush out the old ink, with new ink]at least once a month to be safe. EXAMPLE: Have your customer, or yourself run a "Nozzle Test" at least once a month, IF the printer is not being used. This will keep the ink from going bad that just sets in the nozzles for a long time [CLOG]. Schools that are closed for the summer [usually several months], should not be using Epson Printers [3 MONTHS = CLOG]. BUT REMEMBER: Some people think they need to run alot of cleaning cycles/nozzle tests, just to be safe. This wastes alot of ink if not really needed. You could install new cartridges and run a lot of cleaning cycles [?? 10 to 20 ??] and actually empty the new cartridges of their ink, which just soaks into the "WASTE INK PADS" and that is another story... Good Luck! Denny Conway

	Re: Epson Stylus Color 880 by Ron (8/13/04 4:02 AM) reply	+ / -
If there's no ink out error condition then press and hold the paper load button to replace the ink cartridge(s). Replace the ink cartridge(s). Press the paper load button. The printer will then charge the print head.