Printer malfunction

Discussion in 'Windows Vista' started by akritasge, Mar 24, 2009.

  1. akritasge

    akritasge MDL Member

    May 25, 2007
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    There is an old inkjet printer EPSON STYLUS C40UX which has the following problem:
    The power button and the maintenance button are both flashing alternately and the printer does not work. That happened unexpectedly.
    Does anybody know what can I do except from throwing it away?

    Thanks in advance.
     
  2. smilie1964

    smilie1964 MDL Novice

    Sep 14, 2007
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    there is a sponge for the ink during cleaning the printer. the sponge is full. you can clean it and take the printer back to normal status.
     
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  3. akritasge

    akritasge MDL Member

    May 25, 2007
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    First of all thanks for reply. You seem to be right, but how can do this?

    Thanks once again.
     
  4. urie

    urie Moderator
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    May 21, 2007
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  5. urie

    urie Moderator
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    May 21, 2007
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  6. smilie1964

    smilie1964 MDL Novice

    Sep 14, 2007
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    urie has right. you need the software to reset the printer.
     
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  7. akritasge

    akritasge MDL Member

    May 25, 2007
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    OK OK Thank both of you (Smilie1964 & Urie) for your Valuable help.For the moment I have dismantled printer and cleaned the pads and the printer itself by putting them under fresh water.
    You will hear from me as soon as I have some news. If I have.

    Thank you once more.
     
  8. akritasge

    akritasge MDL Member

    May 25, 2007
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    :) After having cleaned and resetting the counters, using the DRT.EXE program, of the EPSON STYLUS C40UX, the printer worked again without any problem.
    Unfortunately however, I have to leave the usage this printer because of the high cost of the ink cartridges (in each second change it is better I buy a new printer) and the difficulty of finding cartridges because of age.
    Many thanks to Smilie1964 and Urie for their valuable help.
     
  9. HMonk

    HMonk MDL Addicted

    Nov 3, 2008
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    Printer head

    Rather than just water, you will get better and quicker cleaning of the printer head by soaking it in isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol (70 or >%). I have had ink jet printers gum up because I did not use them for a while; I let the head soak overnight in the alcohol then rinse well with water. Thereafter, I dry the head with a hair drier (low heat, high volume) which simply blows out most of the water. Once replaced in the machine, it make take a few cycles for the ink to express all of the water.

    To avoid the problem, and to conserve ink, every two or three days I run a "nozzle check" that simply prints out a very short pattern for each of the 5 tanks in my printer. Since I refill my tanks with bulk ink, using a bit every few days for the nozzle check printout does not consume that much and is not too expensive to do on a routine basis. It sure beats the hassle of cleaning the head.

    Monk
     
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  10. urie

    urie Moderator
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    May 21, 2007
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    @ akritasge, Glad you got it working

    @ HMonk, thanks for the info but akritasge wasn't cleaning the print heads. Epson printers have felt pads in them which absorb the ink used when cleaning or charging the ink cartridges, there is also an ink counter when this counter gets to a certain number the printer will come up with a service error or it wont print even if you have replaced the ink cartridges this is normally because the ink pads need replaced or washed and counter reset.
     
  11. HMonk

    HMonk MDL Addicted

    Nov 3, 2008
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    Head Cleaning

    I have an older Epson CX3200 attached to one of my machines. Whenever I clean it I clean it all. As Google attests, Epson is stingy with their maintenance info, cautioning against using this that or the other to clean pads/heads. Some folks use Windex to clean both (active ingredient: Ammonia). I use alcohol (91% isopropyl) because it dries quickly. (ammonia products are approximately 90% water)

    Added my head clean regimen just for drill. Sorry if I confused the issue.

    Monk
     
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  12. urie

    urie Moderator
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    May 21, 2007
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    @ HMonk, thats funny i have an old cx3200 also:)