printer faulty

[max]

I have an Epson stylus 400 printer which is approx 6 years old. It has been fine until recently when the printouts have lines across the words, blank so they are spaces really. I went into search, control, printers etc and did the prog of cleaning the nozzles and the head. When I came to printout it was the same as before but it now didn't print all the colours it should. I have gone back into the prog and checked it all out again but there is no improvement. has anyone any other ideas and why would it become faulty all of a sudden?

[iain]

Buy a new printer. With a colour printer costing under £50 new you could just treat them as disposable items to be thrown away when the ink cartridge gets used up.

[Soapy Sam]

Max- Have you changed paper type / weight?
Is the paper thickness and pressure setting correct? Any loose belts?

I've just had a Stylus 500c refuse to print anything, despite new cartridges. I think the time has come for a replacement.

I find printers are the pc peripherals most apt to fail. Since donating the Epson to my girlfriend three years ago, I've thrown away two HP inkjets- an 850 and a 930- which just stopped working for no clear reason. As both of them died less than a month out of warranty, I admit to wondering if they are actually programmed to do so. At least the Epson has worked for about seven years, which seems to be good for an inkjet.

If you only need text, buy a cheap Lexmark, or a bottom end laserjet. If you want photocolour- I'm hearing good things from an Epson 950 owner.

[max]

thanks soapy....yea I expect it's come to the end of its life

[jimlintott]

I had one of these printers and had a similar problem. I noticed a little foam pad on the right side near where the print head parks. I think the pad was for cleaning and it was just full of crap. I would disassemble the printer to access this pad and clean it as well as wipe off the print heads with isopropyl alcohol. that always seemed to help.

I've noticed many photo labs offering prints from digital sources for cheap. I haven't checked this out yet but it may mean the end of the need for a photo printer. I'm now using an Epson Stylus Photo 820 which has gorgeous output but is expensive to operate.

[max]

Jim
I cleaned the little sponge underneath the catridges and it worked fine for about three pages of printouts, then it went back to no print at all on the page. I think I need a new printer now. Any recommends? Bearing in mind that all this equiptment is 6/ years old approx. I am on Windows ME

[jimlintott]

I maybe could have or should have predicted that. That's why I have the same printer sitting in a corner no longer being used.

If I was buying another printer I might just get a laser printer and utilise the services of others for colour printing. Many photo labs are doing colour prints very cheaply. I like Epson printers (great Linux support) but my Stylus Photo 820 is very expensive ($80) to replace the ink. The output is very high quality though. Unfortunately the bulk of my printing needs are really just B&W.

[asthmatic camel]

Max, nearly all printers now have only USB connectivity, make sure
your system can cope ! I had real trouble finding a printer I could use as my ageing motherboard uses a VIA chipset which won't support a lot of newer USB devices.

Eventually plumped for an Epson Stylus C64 photo which can use both USB and the old style connection. Photo quality prints are fairly good and I've had no problems so far.

[NoZed Avenger]

Like the laserjets MUCH more than the inkjets - have a cheap color inkjet for the rare occasions I need color, but use it perhaps every 2-3 months.

Have a Lexmark Optra312 at work - laser - pretty cheap and fast. At home, got the cheapest laser printer I could find - they're down to $90-$120 now, but the toner cartridges last so much longer than ink for an inkjet that you make up any cost differences fast.

[Zep]

Try to evaluate EXACTLY how much colour you REALLY need. If you are doing B&W mostly (and can get away with greyscale in some other cases as well), get the most cost-effective laser you can find. They are real cheap now, and run much longer and more reliably than inkjets, and even the refill cartridges are getting cheaper as we speak.

If you do colour only occasionally but it MUST be high quality, then for all the fussing round and cost of ink and special expensive photo paper and draft prints and mistakes and blah blah blah, it turns out to be better economy to email your desired images to a professional printing service and get them to do it instead. I believe many places like K-Mart and similar can do this now. You can also take them in on a CD (or floppy!) and get them done while-U-wait.

[peptoabysmal]

Originally posted by Zep
Try to evaluate EXACTLY how much colour you REALLY need. If you are doing B&W mostly (and can get away with greyscale in some other cases as well), get the most cost-effective laser you can find. They are real cheap now, and run much longer and more reliably than inkjets, and even the refill cartridges are getting cheaper as we speak.

If you do colour only occasionally but it MUST be high quality, then for all the fussing round and cost of ink and special expensive photo paper and draft prints and mistakes and blah blah blah, it turns out to be better economy to email your desired images to a professional printing service and get them to do it instead. I believe many places like K-Mart and similar can do this now. You can also take them in on a CD (or floppy!) and get them done while-U-wait.

I agree with the bit about the right printer for your needs.

Recently I saw a 6 color Epson photo printer (with 6 tanks, so you only replace the one that runs out) selling on Dell.com for $179.

With a little bit of effort to learn and experiment, you can turn out great photos on a printer like this for a fraction of what it costs to go to KMart in the gas er.. petrol alone.

[CFLarsen]

Originally posted by iain
Buy a new printer. With a colour printer costing under £50 new you could just treat them as disposable items to be thrown away when the ink cartridge gets used up.

Same thing in Denmark. You can get a new colour printer for 300 DKR, but a refill costs 429 DKR.

Never, ever buy a printer because it is cheap. The only things that matter are:

1) Cost per page
2) Durability

[T'ai Chi]

Originally posted by max
I have an Epson stylus 400 printer which is approx 6 years old. It has been fine until recently when the printouts have lines across the words, blank so they are spaces really.


Hi max,

A while back I used to do tech. support for HP brand printers, and ran in to this (and many other) issues. I've found that they extended to other printer brands as well.

Some questions:

How old is the black cartridge and how old is the color cartridge you are currently using?

And just to make sure, do these lines across the words include smearing or smudging of ink along the lines, or are the lines just white with no smearing or smudging at all?

[CFLarsen]

I've worked professionally with printers, ranging from small pc printers (matrix, ink, laser, thermal) to as big as they come (IBM, Xerox and Siemens), and I've learned one thing when troubleshooting: You need to be there, physically. You need to get your hands dirty.

Remote printer troubleshooting is a waste of time.

[T'ai Chi]

Originally posted by CFLarsen
I've worked professionally with printers, ranging from small pc printers (matrix, ink, laser, thermal) to as big as they come (IBM, Xerox and Siemens), and I've learned one thing when troubleshooting: You need to be there, physically. You need to get your hands dirty.

Remote printer troubleshooting is a waste of time.

I've done troubleshooting both in person and over the phone. Successfully. (In fact many companies spend thousands if not more to hire people to do this very thing). As you know if you have done it, common issues arise and are sometimes easily spotted, which is what I was trying to do.

[CFLarsen]

Originally posted by T'ai Chi
I've done troubleshooting both in person and over the phone. Successfully. (In fact many companies spend thousands if not more to hire people to do this very thing). As you know if you have done it, common issues arise and are sometimes easily spotted, which is what I was trying to do.

I have done it. Which is why I consider it to be a waste of time. It is far more efficient to actually be there.

[T'ai Chi]

Originally posted by CFLarsen

I have done it. Which is why I consider it to be a waste of time. It is far more efficient to actually be there.

"far more efficient to actually be there", I agree 100%.

"Remote printer troubleshooting" being a "waste of time", I disagree, and so do the thousands of tech companies who are involved with over the phone tech support, apparently.

[CFLarsen]

Originally posted by T'ai Chi
"far more efficient to actually be there", I agree 100%.

Thank you.

Originally posted by T'ai Chi
"Remote printer troubleshooting" being a "waste of time", I disagree, and so do the thousands of tech companies who are involved with over the phone tech support, apparently.

You are confusing the map with the territory. You think that because these companies have phone tech support, it is not a waste of time.

These companies have these "services" (ha!) because it saves them money. Not because they want to give real service to their customers.

When I say "a waste of time", I mean that the resources could be used far more efficiently.

You ask companies what they think of their remote tech support, and you will hear the same song: They would rather have technicians come to them.

Almost 20 years in the IT business have taught me that (if nothing else!).

[Captain_Snort]

have you tried cleaningthe printheads?

I refill my tanks with ink, and the packs I buy come with head cleaner, just leave the heads in it for an hour or two, breaks down any clogged ink and it works fine.

I was getting lines on my Canon BJC 6200 but after cleaning, fine, you may have to print a few pages before the cleaner is flushed. I do think any solvent will work, try nail varnish remover or methylated spirit if you can't get the 'proper' stuff.

[Soapy Sam]

Asthmatic camel- re your Stylus C-64. Is your parallel cable bidirectional? A friend was using a C64 but getting no on-screen ink level advice. I swapped the parallel cable for a USB lead and the ink level status program ran for the first time, to his amazement. There are, of course, many types of parallel cable. Which type do you have and does the status window work correctly for you?

[max]

Thanks everyone. The print has totally gone now, I just get a blank page. The ink cartridges are brand new and from a good dealer. I followed all the instructions that Epson give about cleaning etc but it doesn't give a detailed account as to why a printer wouldn't work at all. I have even tried to reinstall it but the darn PC won't let me. It was suggested I uninstall this one but when I get to the 'port' thing it just says......port (cam&ldt) so the printer isn't on a separate port. Anyhow I shall look into buying a new one when this damn weather brightens.:D