ok so here i am again...my printer has been acting up ever since I put refillable ink cartridges with pigment ink its been acting funny, now when i do a nozzle check it gives me one box i ran a print head cleaning a bunch of times and still it doesn't work I called epson they told me that the head is bad and I need to get a new printer...is this correct? please dont tell me this is true i will cry...i have a epson 1400 by the way
epson 1400 nozzle check only showing one box after using refillable ink cartridges
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Where did you get your cartridges and ink? The head may be clogged, in which case you would want to get empty cartridges to run cleaning solution with (50% original blue Windex, 50% distilled water), but a lot of the time "banding" is due to air in the printhead. If you bought cheap cartridges off eBay from some Chinese reseller it may not be making a good seal with the printhead. If you got good cartridges from an American refill company (who also use Chinese parts but have also tested dozens of companies to find reputable ones and will also give you support for your products) you may not have primed them properly and got a lot of air in there.
I bought them from over here it was from cis inks...well I read online that it may be clogged my nozzles so I put rubbing alcohol on some cotton balls and put the cartridge upside down and placed the wool on the bottom Ofthe cartridge...so your saying I need to get some empty cartridges? Well Epson is telling me to buy a new printer lol
Everyone thinks rubbing alcohol is the trick but it's ammonia based cleaners that work. In the UK they can't get blue windex so easily so they just use straight household ammonia cut in half with distilled water. I would not use cotton balls, you could get cotton lint into the printhead which will really destroy it. Use an old t-shirt rag, cut up and shaken a lot so that all the lint from the edges are gone. Most people use a syringe with some kind of adapter (either tubing or a plastic injection tip) to gently push cleaner into the printhead. Bad clogs will require the blank cartridges and have them sit there overnight, run cleaning cycles and purge sheets.
I've never heard of that company before. It's not one of the major refillers in the US. Cobra, Sawgrass, InkJetCarts, InkJetFly, OctoInkjet (UK based but has reasonable shipping prices), and MIS Associates are some of the big ones. Maybe someone else has bought from CIS Inks and can say whether or not the ink was a problem.
Epson can't legally void your printer warranty for a broken roller anymore if you use ink refills, but they're definitely still able to reject any printhead claims. If you have the wrong ink then you could have actually damaged the printhead and need a new one. Epsons tend to be pretty forgiving though. That's why you can run dye, pigment, sublimation, and DTG heat set inks through the same printer.
I've never heard of that company before. It's not one of the major refillers in the US. Cobra, Sawgrass, InkJetCarts, InkJetFly, OctoInkjet (UK based but has reasonable shipping prices), and MIS Associates are some of the big ones. Maybe someone else has bought from CIS Inks and can say whether or not the ink was a problem.
Epson can't legally void your printer warranty for a broken roller anymore if you use ink refills, but they're definitely still able to reject any printhead claims. If you have the wrong ink then you could have actually damaged the printhead and need a new one. Epsons tend to be pretty forgiving though. That's why you can run dye, pigment, sublimation, and DTG heat set inks through the same printer.
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::ok so there was some dried ink inside the printer,kind of cleaned it of my question is pigment ink good? or shall i use dye?? its still not printing like it should...
thank you.
If you are doing t-shirt transfers, you need to use the pigment inks. The dye won't work. If you are making film positives for screens, the dye is better, though people here have used both with satisfactory results.
The used 1400 I bought has been a nightmare ever since I finally bought the refill supplies and started working for it on Monday. Since I started out with cleaning carts (because the thing had been left with no ink tanks in it (never ever do this!) I didn't have a reliable gauge to the nozzle check, but it kept going Fatal Error/General Error on me. It finally refused to turn on (probably for safety). I got mad enough at it that I looked up how to take the printhead out and tore the carriage apart trying to get it (it's not hard so much as frustrating). I soaked the printhead overnight in cleaning fluid (You cut the bottom of a cup off or find a shallow container small enough to balance the printhead over it (it's attached to the nozzles so there's a wide flat piece with the smaller square hanging underneath it) and so that the printhead soaks in the cleaning fluid but not the circuit board.
When I went to put it back in I found the ribbon cables were all corroded! I didn't notice this when I took it out last night. And there was both ink and corrosion inside the slot for the ribbon cable on the printhead. I cleaned it off with alcohol on a rag (be gentle doing this, the contacts started to peel off the ribbon) because ammonia will cause more corrosion. So far so good.
Anyway, the main point being that before you give up on the printer, maybe you should take the printhead out. First, download the WICReset tool from OctoInkjet (it's actually hosted on 2manuals).
WICReset Utility : Reset key code(s)
You do not need to pay to use the read function, only to reset. Once you install it (and update if needed), go to Advanced functions and Retrieve information. Read the warnings on the Advanced tab first. Remember, any of these unauthorized utilities and whatnot can break your printer in the worst case scenario. I use them all the time, but remember there is always a slight risk it will make your printer's firmware fandango itself to death. Proceed at your own risk.
Once you retrieve the information there will be a slot that says "Last fatal error". Come back here and post what it is before you do anything else.
Here is the video I found on how to remove a printhead. I would not recommend you do this unless you are 100% comfortable with doing it. Otherwise if you know a computer geek in the area, ask them to do it but don't be surprised if they refuse - I probably wouldn't do it for a customer, only for a friend, because there's a much bigger risk of messing up this procedure.
how_to_remove_the_epson_stylus_1400_print_head.htm
The "hook" he uses to push in the tabs on the cartridge chip pin reader is absolutely pointless. You need something very stiff and unbendable to easily push those tabs in. You can see where the tabs are from the front with a flashlight. You need an L shaped tool. If I did it over again I would use a very small allen wrench with the shorter end of the L cut down to half an inch or less to push the tabs in from the back to release the chip reader.
Again, attempt/destroy at your own risk. I only did it because there was no other way... what was I going to do? Break the broken printer?
The used 1400 I bought has been a nightmare ever since I finally bought the refill supplies and started working for it on Monday. Since I started out with cleaning carts (because the thing had been left with no ink tanks in it (never ever do this!) I didn't have a reliable gauge to the nozzle check, but it kept going Fatal Error/General Error on me. It finally refused to turn on (probably for safety). I got mad enough at it that I looked up how to take the printhead out and tore the carriage apart trying to get it (it's not hard so much as frustrating). I soaked the printhead overnight in cleaning fluid (You cut the bottom of a cup off or find a shallow container small enough to balance the printhead over it (it's attached to the nozzles so there's a wide flat piece with the smaller square hanging underneath it) and so that the printhead soaks in the cleaning fluid but not the circuit board.
When I went to put it back in I found the ribbon cables were all corroded! I didn't notice this when I took it out last night. And there was both ink and corrosion inside the slot for the ribbon cable on the printhead. I cleaned it off with alcohol on a rag (be gentle doing this, the contacts started to peel off the ribbon) because ammonia will cause more corrosion. So far so good.
Anyway, the main point being that before you give up on the printer, maybe you should take the printhead out. First, download the WICReset tool from OctoInkjet (it's actually hosted on 2manuals).
WICReset Utility : Reset key code(s)
You do not need to pay to use the read function, only to reset. Once you install it (and update if needed), go to Advanced functions and Retrieve information. Read the warnings on the Advanced tab first. Remember, any of these unauthorized utilities and whatnot can break your printer in the worst case scenario. I use them all the time, but remember there is always a slight risk it will make your printer's firmware fandango itself to death. Proceed at your own risk.
Once you retrieve the information there will be a slot that says "Last fatal error". Come back here and post what it is before you do anything else.
Here is the video I found on how to remove a printhead. I would not recommend you do this unless you are 100% comfortable with doing it. Otherwise if you know a computer geek in the area, ask them to do it but don't be surprised if they refuse - I probably wouldn't do it for a customer, only for a friend, because there's a much bigger risk of messing up this procedure.
how_to_remove_the_epson_stylus_1400_print_head.htm
The "hook" he uses to push in the tabs on the cartridge chip pin reader is absolutely pointless. You need something very stiff and unbendable to easily push those tabs in. You can see where the tabs are from the front with a flashlight. You need an L shaped tool. If I did it over again I would use a very small allen wrench with the shorter end of the L cut down to half an inch or less to push the tabs in from the back to release the chip reader.
Again, attempt/destroy at your own risk. I only did it because there was no other way... what was I going to do? Break the broken printer?
yeuh thats too risky for me is there any other options that i may have??
Didn't pull a vacumn by not having the vent open did we?
Seems to me ensuring ink flow first, since you got only one channel (box) would be the first item up for bids, before I tore into the gizmo. We have several printers and find NO box means "Where's the Ink", which of course means issues upstream to the head.
If the head is totally clogged, just trash it. Those bitty holes will never perform perfectly after a dry out or clog up that bad.
In reality, the new 1430 is out and only in the 300 buck range, with a warranty. Might want to consider your additional cost and time vs. new and move on.
Seems to me ensuring ink flow first, since you got only one channel (box) would be the first item up for bids, before I tore into the gizmo. We have several printers and find NO box means "Where's the Ink", which of course means issues upstream to the head.
If the head is totally clogged, just trash it. Those bitty holes will never perform perfectly after a dry out or clog up that bad.
In reality, the new 1430 is out and only in the 300 buck range, with a warranty. Might want to consider your additional cost and time vs. new and move on.
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