Help with Epson 2880

[Ari]

Hi,
I was set to print this morning, but my Matte Black cartridge was very low, so I replaced it with a Photo Black cartridge.
Now the printer indicates that my Light Black cartridge has to be replaced, and the Magenta and Light Light Black cartridges have some unspecified problem; the lights for those cartridges just stay on.
The ink light on the printer stays on, and I can't print anything.
I've turned off the printer, unplugged it, rebooted the computer, etc, but nothing.
I'm using Mac OSX 10.8, I have the latest software, and up until this switch, the printer was working perfectly well.

Is there any way to reset the printer? I'm finding nothing on the internet.

Thanks for any help.

[sanking]

Hi,
I was set to print this morning, but my Matte Black cartridge was very low, so I replaced it with a Photo Black cartridge.
Now the printer indicates that my Light Black cartridge has to be replaced, and the Magenta and Light Light Black cartridges have some unspecified problem; the lights for those cartridges just stay on.
The ink light on the printer stays on, and I can't print anything.
I've turned off the printer, unplugged it, rebooted the computer, etc, but nothing.
I'm using Mac OSX 10.8, I have the latest software, and up until this switch, the printer was working perfectly well.

Is there any way to reset the printer? I'm finding nothing on the internet.

Thanks for any help.

Every time you replace a cartridge the printer does a cleaning cycle which uses ink from all of the cartridges. I am guessing that when you replaced the MK with the PK cartridge the level of ink in the LK cartridge was so low that it could not complete the cleaning cycle. So now you probably need to replace the LK cartridge to continue. When you replace the LK cartridge could be that it will use up ink from one of the other cartridges and it will also have to be replaced. All of this sounds perfectly normal to me as I have experienced the same thing with printers like the 2200 and R1800.

This kind of experience is one of the major reasons many people prefer printers with larger cartridges, like the 3800 or 3880. Sounds to me like you just need to do a run to an office supply store and stock up on extra cartridges for your 2880.

Sandy

[Ari]

Sandy, thanks for your answer.
The Light Black cartridge was half full before this happened, and your solution doesn't explain why the Magenta and LB cartridges are problematic.
It doesn't say that they are empty (they aren't), just the light for those inks stays on, and the printer is frozen with the ink light on.

[sanking]

Sandy, thanks for your answer.
The Light Black cartridge was half full before this happened, and your solution doesn't explain why the Magenta and LB cartridges are problematic.
It doesn't say that they are empty (they aren't), just the light for those inks stays on, and the printer is frozen with the ink light on.

Are you using a MAC. If so, delete the printer in the system preferences, then re-add it. If this does not work I am out of suggestions.

Sandy

[Ari]

I will try that Sandy, thanks.
Yes, it's a Mac; if that doesn't work, I'll go and get the "problem" cartridges replaced.

[Ari]

Sandy, thank you for your help.
Your initial answer was correct; when switching to Matte Black from Light Black, the printer dumped a lot of ink.
I bought the other replacement cartridges, installed them, and now all is well again.

[Ari]

I spoke too soon: this has been a miserable day, printing-wise.

As soon as I replaced the "empty" cartridges, I resumed printing, except now my print looked very pale and red.
So I ran a head cleaning, which the printer was unable to finish, because it caused another cartridge to empty.
I went back and bought three cartridges, one for the newly-empty Yellow, and two others having low levels.
I installed everything, but the prints looked like crap still, and I started to experience software issues; all of a sudden, the printer didn't recognize the paper size, and I was bleeding ink.
I tried for a few more hours, but still got crappy prints, very pale and red, and the software was not co-operating.
The last straw was trying to clean the heads again, and finding that the Photo Black cartridge is now unreadable (it's behaving like it is empty).

I'm at my wits' end, I'm going to toss this printer out of here.
What should have been a routine cartridge swap cost me a whole day and $100 of ink, half of which has been wasted already.

Can anyone find a light in this tunnel?

Thanks

[paulr]

I feel your pain, Ari. This has been my experience with the 2400 (your printer's predecessor), and every other lesser model I've had. I'm waiting for delivery of a 3880, which everyone promises will put an end to the torture. It seems to me there's a trinity of problems with the consumer printers: they clog a lot, they use outrageous amounts of ink during a cleaning cycle, and the cartridges are tiny. This all creates the situation where we spend more time and money on ink clogs than on printing itself.

[Ari]

Thanks, Paul.
The funny thing is the printer was working perfectly until this morning, when I swapped the Matte Black for Photo Black.
This is apparently a very common thing to do, as it will mate appropriate blacks with different paper surfaces.
The swapping started a chain of events that are now out of my control and expertise.
I'll re-swap the Matte Black tomorrow and then probably go back to making darkroom prints :)

[paulr]

I've had my 2400 for such a short time that I never actually got around to using switching black inks. I know that it uses up a lot of ink in the swapping process, so it's not too surprising that this could start the whole cycle of one cartridge change leading to another.

[Gabriele Campagnano]

Hi Ari,

I also had the same problem even if now I am using refillable cartridges. As previously mentioned by Sandy King if the cartridge (PK for example) is almost empty
the printer cannot flush the other black ink (MK), the only solution is to have a new cartridge (the old one can still be used once the ink swap is done).
What is frustrating with epson is that a lot of ink is wasted, probably also the other colors.
I would like to share here another thing that I noticed when using refillable cartridges with auto reset chip. In order for the chip to reset
the cartridge should go completely empty, so if you try to do an ink swap before the cartridge reset you might not be able to put it back.
A possible solution is to use a chip resetter or be very careful that the ink level is high enough to allow for the swap.

As side remark, on another thread I mentioned problem with gloss differential with 3rd part ink, I must say that once the ink set is profiled
I am not annoyed so much anymore, moreover I asked Cone to send me a sample of their (color) print and I was very impressed with what I saw,
their ink is very close to what I see with epson ink, definitely much better than the ink set I am using now.

[Ari]

Gabriele, good luck, it's a frustrating experience.
I used to have the Ink Republic set; not bad, but I had constant issues with the printer because of the CIS system.
I switched to cartridges, and spent more money, but I've had peace of mind for a year now, until this.

I was just about to post here, since I figured out the solution, no thanks to Epson, who told me that the problem is related to the mechanical aspect of the printer.
I told them repeatedly that the software was indeed the issue, since the printer utility kept saying: "ink set not compatible with selected inks-please reset..."
There was nowhere to reset this.

Here was the solution, at least in my case, on a Mac:

I went to System Prefs>Print & Scan and I chose the 2880; I pressed the minus sign to remove it from the list, and I right-clicked to reset the whole printing system, as I had done a dozen times previously.
Only this time I immediately rebooted the computer; when everything came back on, the printer and scanner were there, but this time the printer worked perfectly, as did the software (it, too, had been buggy).

I hope that helps anyone in similar straits, I spent $140 and four frustrating days on this, and drove my wife crazy.

Thanks to everyone who helped.