In the last couple of months I have been getting worried after reading
quite a few stories from people with Epson printers that are failing.
Especially because I recently bought my olds an Epson printer for
Christmas so they can print out their photos.

Today my R200 has gone potty! I have only had this printer I believe
just over a year! (I guess that means its out of warranty?) It has
decided to suddenly not recognise any of the ink cartridges. I have
also discovered that at the right hand side some black ink has been
leaking down and onto a screw under where the stationary print head
usually rests to the left of the sponge pads.

So far I am trying to clean up the spilt ink using tissues. I have
also removed all the ink cartridges from the print head so more ink
can't leak down.

It seems this is a common problem as others have also had this issue:
http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/printer/34303

And a search of comp.periphs.printers brings up many posts with people
have issues with Epson printers. And the number one issue seems to
always be the print heads getting clogged.

In the past I have never had any problems when I used cheaper HP and
Canon inkjets where I had the same printer for many years, and Epson
supposedly have more expensive and advanced print heads?

I guess that going for an Epson printer with it's high resolution
figures and fancy Durabrite Ink cartridges has it's drawbacks, and the
biggest one is the reliability of the print heads?

If anyone has any information by the way on how to clean the print
heads for my Epson R200, I'd be very grateful. I suspect that they
probably need cleaning and hopefully I should be able to do this
without any more problems.

Cheers for your help

John

Note for future: Always buy extended warranty with Epson printers!

You might want to try fixyourownprinter.com itself. I don't know about your
printer, but they sell cleaning kits for about $9.95 for many Epson
printers. They come with instructions, fluids etc. I just ordered one myself
for a CX4800.

Mike


"John" <buggs@buni.com> wrote in message
news:e8cku1hkf2u79n288kqeuc9mi3rm4pr7ib@4ax.com...

MY FRIEND HAS AN R300. HE USES EXCLUSIVELY EPSON OEM INK. HE HAS HAD
NO PROBLEMS OTHER THAN WITH THE CD FEED TRAY WHICH IS A KNOWN PROBLEM.
BUT HE HAS COMPARED HIS PHOTO PRINTS COMPARED WITH MY CANON IP4000 USING
CANON OEM INK AND FEELS THE CANON PRODUCES BETTER RESULTS.

GO BUY A CANON IP5200 AND USE CANON OEM INK WITH COSTCO/KIRKLAND FULL
SHEET GLOSSY PAPER. THE RESULTS ARE FANTASTIC AND NO PROBLEMS.

John wrote:

measekite wrote:

You should only use Canon paper with Canon ink.

--
Ben Thomas, Melbourne, Australia

"Red Bull tastes like canned carbonated concentrated evil."

John,
Don't worry for the ink onto the pads and onto the blades to the left of the
pads. It's normal, because of cleaning cycles.
The problem of not recognised cartridges comes from the electrical
connection between the chips on the cartridges and the contacts on the
printer. Remove the cartridges and clean the chips, either with water or
alcohol. You have to rub the chips hard enough. Then put back the
cartrdiges.

--
Yianni
in@mailbox9.gr (remove number nine to reply)

On Wed, 08 Feb 2006 21:39:32 GMT, measekite <inkystinky@oem.com>
wrote:

Do you known where the caps lock button is on your keyboard? Please
press it!

Do you not find the Epson Durabrite ink to be better? It is dry as
soon as it comes out the printer whereas I have found other printers
like HP and Canon often are still wet and need to dry. Also the Epson
ink I feel might have more longevity? I.E. photos and other printed
matter are less likely to fade over time?

What is the max colour printing resolution on these Canon printers you
are using compared to the Epson? And can you print onto blank DVDs
and CDs? This is also one of the reasons I bought the R200 and I have
not had any problems so far printing direct onto disc. No beer
coasters made!

John

John wrote:

Ben Thomas wrote:

Right On

Yianni wrote:

Having never cleaned contacts I do not know how messy the area is, but if it is
NOT messy you can clean any contacts by using a pink eraser found on the end of
a pencil. Works for contacts on plug-in boards too.

Lou

Your printer doesn't use "fancy Durabrite Inks" (to use your phrase),
but just Epson dye inks.

If you email me at the address below, and give me details of what LEDS
were flashing and how they were flashing (speed and sequence, etc) I may
be able to help you.

I can also provide you with a free Epson Cleaning manual that explains
how to clean the heads.

Art

e-printerhelp(at)mvps(dot)org

(at) = @
(dot) = .



John wrote:

Your R200 uses dye inks, not Durabrite which are pigment. The R800 and
R1800 are the two R series printers using pigment inks, and they use
Ultrachrome.

The Durabrite inks are mainly used in 4 color printers, in the C and CX
models, and in one 6 color model called the 2000P.

HP printers use a swellable polymer paper for their best results, and
you are correct the paper takes longer to dry. The Canon uses dye inks
and microporous paper which is also usually dry to the touch on output.

Both Epson and Canon produce pretty good results, but the standard Canon
inks do tend to fade fairly rapidly in sunlight or under fluorescent.
They have a new ink set that is better.

Art

John wrote:

Not the best solution for printers for a number of reasons. Usually the
contacts are gold plated, so they aren't corroded, but the plating is
thin, so using an abrasive is probably not wise in this case. Also the
residue on the contacts may be ink, so the eraser will just get
contaminated and spread the gunk around. Lastly, some erasers leave a
residue behind themselves which may alter conductivity.

The eraser trick is OK for things like battery posts/terminals and
batteries which develop corrosion, however.

Art


Lou@UnReal.invalid wrote:

Arthur Entlich wrote:

That trick was taught to me by repair folks at Wang labs (about 30 years ago). All
the contacts in question were gold plated. They used the pink erasers cause they are
soft. It does work, have used it often in PCs. Comments on ink are why I specified
"if they are not too dirty". Obvious answer is to try cleaning away any ink first.

Lou

30 years ago gold was cheaper and computers were much more cosly. I have
a few circuit boards around that were made back then. Mainframes
sometimes had the whole circuit plated in gold, not just the connection
points. The gold layer was thick too! Gold plating on current equipment
is often a few molecules thick... just enough to reduce corrosion and
improve contact. It tends to scratch off just from inserting the
cartridges let alone cleaning them with an abrasive.

My Dad happened to be in the drafting supply and stationary biz, so I
grew up with erasers. Pink Pearls (still made today) are relatively low
abrasive, but not all pink erasers are Pink Pearl, and some are rather
abrasive (likes some found on the end of pencils).

I'm not trying to bust your chops here, it's just things have changed
considerably in the last 30 years when it comes to gold plating used in
electronics. My suggestion is alcohol on a soft foam or swab. Cotton
swab are OK, if the alcohol doesn't dissolve the glue they use (some do)
and the fibers doen't get tangled in the wires contacts in the printer
iteself.

Art

Lou@UnReal.invalid wrote:

I GUESS YOUR CAP LOCK KEY IS STUCK! YOUR ARE SHOUTING!!!

It's your nickel, start talking...

--

JANA
_____


"measekite" <inkystinky@oem.com> wrote in message
newsytGf.28427$F_3.2824@newssvr29.news.prodigy.n et...
MY FRIEND HAS AN R300. HE USES EXCLUSIVELY EPSON OEM INK. HE HAS HAD
NO PROBLEMS OTHER THAN WITH THE CD FEED TRAY WHICH IS A KNOWN PROBLEM.
BUT HE HAS COMPARED HIS PHOTO PRINTS COMPARED WITH MY CANON IP4000 USING
CANON OEM INK AND FEELS THE CANON PRODUCES BETTER RESULTS.

GO BUY A CANON IP5200 AND USE CANON OEM INK WITH COSTCO/KIRKLAND FULL
SHEET GLOSSY PAPER. THE RESULTS ARE FANTASTIC AND NO PROBLEMS.

John wrote:

The Canon printers have problems with head clogging. Personaly, I think
Canon makes excellent photo cameras and scanners. But, every Canon printer I
ever owned was a disaster!

The advantage with the HP printers is that when you change the cartridges,
the nozzles are also changed with them. This way, a new cartridge means a
new nozzle. It is worth the extra cost in order to not have the added
aggravation.

--

JANA
_____


"John" <buggs@buni.com> wrote in message
news:e8cku1hkf2u79n288kqeuc9mi3rm4pr7ib@4ax.com...
In the last couple of months I have been getting worried after reading
quite a few stories from people with Epson printers that are failing.
Especially because I recently bought my olds an Epson printer for
Christmas so they can print out their photos.

Today my R200 has gone potty! I have only had this printer I believe
just over a year! (I guess that means its out of warranty?) It has
decided to suddenly not recognise any of the ink cartridges. I have
also discovered that at the right hand side some black ink has been
leaking down and onto a screw under where the stationary print head
usually rests to the left of the sponge pads.

So far I am trying to clean up the spilt ink using tissues. I have
also removed all the ink cartridges from the print head so more ink
can't leak down.

It seems this is a common problem as others have also had this issue:
http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/printer/34303

And a search of comp.periphs.printers brings up many posts with people
have issues with Epson printers. And the number one issue seems to
always be the print heads getting clogged.

In the past I have never had any problems when I used cheaper HP and
Canon inkjets where I had the same printer for many years, and Epson
supposedly have more expensive and advanced print heads?

I guess that going for an Epson printer with it's high resolution
figures and fancy Durabrite Ink cartridges has it's drawbacks, and the
biggest one is the reliability of the print heads?

If anyone has any information by the way on how to clean the print
heads for my Epson R200, I'd be very grateful. I suspect that they
probably need cleaning and hopefully I should be able to do this
without any more problems.

Cheers for your help

John

Note for future: Always buy extended warranty with Epson printers!

JANA wrote:

FREE.

PRINTER. BETTER AT BUSINESS DOCS BUT NOT AS GOOD WITH PHOTOS AS CANON

NO I AM JUS TYPING. AND NOW I AM TOP POSTING.

JANA wrote:

measekite <inkystinky@oem.com> posted the exciting message news:rcVGf.31312
$H71.2542@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com:

They don't tell you what you are getting....blah....blah....blah