Help! With my printer

[sash1]

My parents REALLY should buy me a new printer. It hasn't worked for a while now, and I've been forced to print all my papers out in school (which really sucks).

Anyways, I have an Epson Stylus Color 400. You're probably asking, what the heck is this old piece o' crap?

Well, it prints... sort of. Only nothing shows up. The paper will feed thru, and the cartridges will run over the paper like it always does when it prints, only NOTHING shows up! I've cleaned the nozzle too many times to count, and I've tried some other stuff. On the side of the printer next to the cartridges is this little thingy switch button thingy (good description huh? ) which has a + on one end and a 0 on another, and depending on which side the switch is pointed to, the cartridges will move up and down. I have no clue what this does, but it may have something to do why my printer isn't doing anything? I dunno. And the ink cartidges are both new, so that isn't a problem.

Someone help or give me a sight to help? (epson doesn't have anything, or I just suck at looking)

Thanks,

~Aunix

 

[sash1]

And the ink cartidges are both new, so that isn't a problem.

^Yeh, I know they are full, but the printer doesn't display their status... anyone know wtf is wrong with my printer?

 

[kd7fhd]

Try here: epson

Read the sentence at the bottom.


And I found this also:

Q: My printouts are missing color and/or black print. How can I resolve this issue?

A: If the printer is printing blank pages, make sure you are using the correct printer driver and make sure the paper size is correctly selected in the driver. If the printer is printing black only, the Ink option in the printer driver may be set to Black instead of Color or a setting in the software may be set to print black only. Also, the print head nozzles may be clogged. From the Utility section found in the EPSON printer driver, clean the print heads by performing a head cleaning followed by printing a nozzle check pattern. A head cleaning and nozzle check must be performed as a cycle. After printing a nozzle check, examine the printed dot pattern. Each staggered horizontal and straight vertical line should be complete, with no gaps in the dot pattern. If there are gaps in the dot pattern, continue with another cycle. Perform up to 6 cycles if necessary. If the nozzle check is not printing completely, and if the head cleanings do not help the nozzle check pattern to print completely, try replacing the ink cartridge. If you continue to experience this situation, please contact the EPSON Connection for further assistance.. Also, make sure you are using a genuine EPSON ink cartridge which has a white label on top of it. If the white label has been removed from the ink cartridge, do not install the cartridge. Using an ink cartridge which does not have the white label on it may damage the printer. If you have already installed a cartridge which is missing the white label, or if a previously installed ink cartridge was missing its white label at the time it was installed, and now head cleanings do not help the nozzle check pattern to print completely, your printer may require service and you should contact the EPSON Connection for further assistance.






ALSO on the ink status:

Q: Why doesn't the Status Monitor show the ink levels in Windows 95 or 98?

A: The Windows Print Manager may be interfering with the Status Monitor. Open the Spool Manager4 and make sure the EPSON Stylus
COLOR 400 is selected. Click on Queue, Setup and make sure the box for "Use Print Manager for this port" is not checked, then click OK.
Close the Spool Manager. Also, the parallel cable should be IEEE-1284 compatible for the Status Monitor feature to function.

At the price of printers anymore, I wouldn't even mess with it, but good luck.

 

[KarmaWahoo]

Perform the following:

Ink out reset

Press all three buttons (load/eject, power-on and cleaning buttons) while powering on printer.

Release after 10 seconds

Press load/eject momentarily

All 3 lights will flash and printer resets

 

[sash1]

Well, I am at least getting somewhere with all this. I got the status monitor to display correctly.

Originally posted by: KarmaWahoo
Perform the following:

Ink out reset

Press all three buttons (load/eject, power-on and cleaning buttons) while powering on printer.

Release after 10 seconds

Press load/eject momentarily

All 3 lights will flash and printer resets

^hmm. Well, this did something interesting, but it didn't seem to correct anything.

I'll keep trying random stuff and hope they work

 

[DaiShan]

When you say you are cleaning the nozzle, how are you doing this? I would put some isopropyl alcohol on a q-tip and clean it thoroughly.

 

[sash1]

Originally posted by: DaiShan
When you say you are cleaning the nozzle, how are you doing this? I would put some isopropyl alcohol on a q-tip and clean it thoroughly.

From the properties of the printer, there is a clean nozzle thing, in which the printer does some random stuff. Apparently doing this a lot of times should fix my printer, yet it does nothing (yay!).

Maybe I'll try the Q-tip idea, I got nothing better to do, and nothing else is working.