Compat inks giving me issues!

[mrapoc]

Hey

Firstly, I have ordered a full replacment for the ink off choice stationary.

Anyway, all the prints are heavily pink (if colours are involved).

Which would be the culprit for over using magenta, i dont know why its doing this, but what you think may be causing it?

[Simon]

Are the other inks loaded correctly? 

[Rik]

Air locks in the other cartridges, Sam? Cartridges not fully home, bad batch of cartridges?

[mrapoc]

No idea, which ink cartridge do you reckon i should try changing first?

[Rik]

Everything except the magenta, Sam.

[Simon]

Great answer, Rik! 

[Rik]

There isn't any other, Simon. From what Sam says, only the magenta is working fully. Without seeing a patch print, I can't say what the other cartridges are producing.

[mrapoc]

http://inkjetprinterhelp.us/Color.html that do?

[Rik]

That would be perfect, Sam.

[mrapoc]

lol... check this out

u might wanna print one urself as this is unrecognisable

[Rik]

That's odd, Sam the red and yellow patches suggest the magenta head is clogged, the opposite of what you would expect. OTOH blue seems fine, and that's magenta+cyan. Green is yellow+cyan, so it suggests the yellow head is completely clogged. As red is magenta+yellow, from the image I'd say you have a partially clogged magenta head and a fully clogged yellow one.

[mrapoc]

Head cleaning doesnt seem to help - how would i do a manual clean?

Even white has pink and yellow streaks hmm

Is that image good enough or do u want a better pic?

So its a head clean rather than to replace the inks?

damn epsons, why cant the heads be on the carts..

[Rik]

Ideally, Sam, I'd like to see a scan, but there's enough in that image to be reasonably certain of what the problem is. Remove the yellow and magenta cartridges, one at a time, and make sure there's ink flowing (tip, test with a cotton bud, it's hell to get off you hands. If it isn't, swap the cartridges. If it is, it means stripping down the printer to get at the print heads (depending  on model). Then use a flushing solution or warm water on a piece of kitchen roll and let it soak against the heads for an hour or two.

Sadly, Epsons are notorious for clogging.

[mrapoc]

Unfortunately i have tested the carts and they both drop ink. So stripping down it is...

Its an epson r220 photo printer if theres a guide or something...

For the future, is it best to keep a printer turned on so it can do its cleaning routine (if there is one) rather than leaving it off for longer periods of time?

Maybe I should print something once a month even if not necessary or a head clean.

Or maybe a printer with heads on the carts/an efficient cleaning routine

[Rik]

I have owned Canon, HP and Epson, Sam. Only the Epson gave me this sort of grief. At one time, they dominated the professional market, but people found they wasted so much ink on cleaning cycles that they moved, mainly to Canon. Both they and HP manage to avoid this sort of grief. If you're keeping the printer, then my advice would be to run it at least once a week, print a test page and, if necessary, do a cleaning cycle.

See if this helps you any:

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=60202&infoType=Doc

[mrapoc]

did some agressive head cleaning and now the only issues are

green is just pure yellow

all the text is yellow.

got some replacement carts. shall i just change them all as they are obviously poor quality carts

[Simon]

Sounds like that might be a good idea, Sam.

[mrapoc]

changed them all and the test page comes out fine now

thanks all and choice stationary gets a thumbs up from me!

now, how long till i can convince the rents to get a diff printer

time to make another printer thread for a replacment i think 

[Rik]