Thanks a lot for an excellent reply. It is weird but the printer stopped showing the symptoms and started printing in both black and color. Moreover, now it is showing that the color cartridge almost full :D (???)...
Main Topics
Browse All Topics
Loading Advertisement...
Question
epson c40 cartrige/printing problem
I am an owner of the printer Epson c40ux.
Since I was unable to find sufficient documentation, I am unsure what to do next.
Another person bought a black ink cartrige for me. Prior to that he removed the black cartrige from the printer and left it this way for a couple of hours, which obviously he should not have done. Does it, however, necessarily mean the printer will have to be repaired before it will work?
Also, my color ink cartrige is out (it was not completely out when the black ink cartrige was removed). The red light on the top of the printer is lit. So the printer seems to be refusing to print without the cartrige (black printing mode selected), which is stupid - I am not using color printing but I have to spend my money on color ink cartrige. Is there any way to overcome this?
So I am left wondering if the only way to make the printer print the b/w pages is to buy an expensive and useless color cartrige, whether it will refuse to print even with a color cartrige because of the solid black ink in a printing head (result of the cartrige being removed for a long time)?
Thanks.
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get
Instant Access to this Solution
- Plus...
- 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
- Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
- Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
- Never be left without tech help again
Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.
- "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
- "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
- "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.
See what Experts Exchange can do for you.
Got a question?
We've got the answer.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
Need individual assistance?
Our experts are ready to help.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Want to learn from the best?
Read articles from industry experts.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Working on a long term project?
Store your work and research.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Trusted by the world's most respected brands.
Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Free Tech Articles
-
WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
-
SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
-
Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
-
Create a Win7 Gadget
This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
-
Outlook continually prompting for username and password
There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
-
Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...
Cloud Class Webinars
- Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
- Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
- IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
- Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
- How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...
Join the Community
Give a Little. Get a Lot.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
Answers
Just to be certain the cable is not the problem check it and see if it says IEEE1284 on it if it does not it is not an IEEE1284 compliant cable and will not update the PC properly on your ink levels etc.. and could cause error conditions.
Also since you changed out the ink cartridges and put them back in the monitor may show full but it is really not. I can do this to a used cartridge on my printer. The system does not measure the actual ink in the cartridge it measures in what is called pico liters it knows how many pico liters the cartridge contains total but it does not know if you take the cartridge out and put it back in that it is not a new cartridge if you tell it is new or go through the change procedure and the printer automatically assumes it to be new then as an example say your cartridge has 750 pico liters when it is full.... What the printer software does it monitor how much ink is used on the job you print in pico liters lets say you used 50 now the software subtracts that from the total capacity number and has 700 which shows as still being full... but lets say in reality it is not a new cartridge a matter of fact it is almost empty it has 25 pico liters left in but you told the system it is new it thinks you have 750 not the real amount which is 25 so when you do your print job it says you have 700 left if the job is 50 pico liters but in reality you are negative -25 pico liters (empty)
3 Ways to Join
Business Accounts
- Perfect for organizations
- Multiple users
- Save over 36%
- Create a Business Account
Answer for Membership
- Earn free access
- Showcase your knowledge
- No credit card required
- Sign Up to Answer
Loading Advertisement...
by: briancassinPosted on 2003-05-16 at 10:10:45ID: 8541811
Hello sinexec,
Unfortunately you do have to have the color cartridge installed because the hardware itself is checking for it. As far as selecting to print in black only I am assuming this is from windows you have set this up... if this is the case then only windows knows to print in black it will not override the sensors on the printer which tell it it should have two ink jet cartridges installed.
Leaving the cartridge out of the printer like that would most likely result in the cartridge possibly becomming dryed out but would not necesarily cause the printer to be repaired... The way to determine if the printhead is clogged is to first install the cartridges as required and then try to print if the pages are blank then the printhead could be clogged or the cartridge could be dried out, you would then run the cleaning procedure from the software to clean the print nozzles and printhead if after running this a few times did not fix the problem then the next course of action would be to replace the Black ink cartridge if still blank then possibly printhead...It should still print color the color and the black are seperate nozzles through the printhead therefore the black if it clogged up the printhead would only cause black not to print.
here is the cleaning procedure
How to clean the print head if you're using Windows...
The following information applies to the...
EPSON Stylus C40UX, EPSON Stylus C40S
Note:
You can clean the print head from your computer using the Head Cleaning utility in the printer software, or from the printer itself by using your printer's control panel buttons. Instructions for both methods are given below.
Make sure that the printer is on and the error light is off.
Note:
If the error light is flashing or on, you cannot clean the print head. Replace the appropriate ink cartridge first.
Click Start, point to Settings, then select Printers. Right-click the EPSON Stylus C40 Series printer icon and select Properties (Windows 98 or Me) or Printing Preferences (Windows 2000).
Click the Utility tab, then click the Head Cleaning button.
Follow the on-screen instructions. The power light flashes while the printer performs the cleaning cycle.
Caution:
Never turn off the printer while the power light is flashing. Doing so may damage the printer.
When the power light stops flashing, make sure A4 or Letter size paper is loaded in your printer's sheet feeder and then click the Print Nozzle Check Pattern button in the Head Cleaning dialog box.
Your printer should print a nozzle check. Shown below are some examples of what the nozzle check may look like.
If the nozzle check page does not print satisfactorily (as in the incomplete nozzle check example shown above), repeat the head cleaning procedure given above. If print quality hasn't improved after repeating this procedure four or five times, turn the printer off, leave it alone overnight and then do the head cleaning again.
How to clean the print head using your printer's control panel buttons...
Make sure that the power light is on and the error light is off.
Note:
If the error light is flashing or on, you cannot clean the print head. Replace the appropriate ink cartridge first.
Hold down the maintenance button until you hear your printer begin to clean the print head (you should only have to hold the button down for between three and six seconds). The power light will flash while your printer performs the cleaning cycle.
Caution:
Never turn off the printer while the power light is flashing. Doing so may damage the printer.
When the power light stops flashing, turn the printer off.
Make sure that A4 or Letter size paper is loaded in the sheet feeder.
Hold down the maintenance button and hold down the power button for about three seconds. Release the power button first. When the printer loads a sheet of paper, release the maintenance button.
Your printer will print a nozzle check.
If the nozzle check page does not print satisfactorily (as in the incomplete nozzle check example shown above), repeat the head cleaning procedure given above. If print quality hasn't improved after repeating this procedure four or five times, turn the printer off, leave it alone overnight and then do the head cleaning again.
Here are the instruction manuals for your printer
http://www.epson.com/cgi-b
here are the instructions for changing your ink cartridges
Q: How do I know when the ink cartridges need to be replaced?
A: When the printer's Error light flashes, an ink cartridge is low on ink. This is a good time to make sure you have a new cartridge handy. When the Error light stays on, the cartridge is empty and will need to be replaced. If you're printing from your computer, you'll see a message telling you which cartridge is low or empty. Click the "How to" button to see instructions for replacing the cartridge.
Q: How do I replace an ink cartridge when an ink low or out condition occurs?
A: Make sure the printer is on but not printing. Raise the printer cover, then press down the Maintenance button for six seconds until the print heads move to the center. Pull up the empty ink cartridge clamp all the way. The cartridge rises up from its holder and should be disposed. Unwrap the ink cartridges and remove ONLY the yellow tape seal from the black and color ink cartridge. If you accidently remove anything but the yellow seal you cannot use the cartridge or it will damage the printer. To install the new cartridge, tilt the ink cartridge forward slightly as you lower it into its holder. Hang the tabs at the back of the cartridge on the hooks on the holder clamps. Don't place the cartridge tabs under the hooks on the holder clamp; you may damage the clamp when you close it. Install the ink cartridge and press the Maintenance button to begin charging the ink delivery system. Charging takes about a minute and is complete when the power light stops flashing and the error light goes out. For more information on installing an ink cartridge please refer to your Start Here Poster or your Printer Basics Manual.