Solving Ink cartridge problems

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Solving ink cartridge problems

Note: This article assumes you are using ink cartridges purchased at ccs-digital.com or genuine Epson. If you are using another brand, there may actually be a compatibility issue. Periodically, Epson changes the way their printers access the chip on the cartridge. Depending on the manufacture date of the printer, a cartridge may or may not work. Even though Epson T069 cartridges will fit many printers, the same compatible cartridge may work on a CX5000 but not on a CX8400. The CX8400 was manufactured later and its programming has been updated to better detect a non-epson cartridge. Even within the same printer model, one may work with a compatible and another may not. This is fairly common with many compatibles but extremely rare with ccs cartridges.

Why do ours work better than most compatibles?
A lot of time passes from when the manufacturer perfects and tests their chips, makes the cartridge, ships to the master wholesaler who ships to the smaller distributor who ships to the dealer. By the time the customer gets it months later, Epson may have changed the programming on their new printer and the older chip used in the cartridge is no longer compatible. We have found a way to cut that lag time considerably so you get the latest chip with your cartridges. First, our manufacturer makes the chips as the final stage of the process, to ensure that the latest design has been incorporated. Then the chips are packed separately in the box. We get these cartridges direct from the master distributor. They reach us within days of manufacture - not months like some other dealers. And should a customer require an updated chip, there is no need to exchange the entire cartridge, since the chips are packaged separately.

When we first started selling T069 and T078 cartridges about a year ago, we did have a few customers for whom an entire order of cartridges did not work. Since switching to this manufacturer early this year, only one customer returned an entire order of ten. We have had to replace less than 1% of the cartridges sold. In some cases, the problem wasn't even the cartridge itself. Here are some common problems and how they can be resolved.

Printer does not recognize the cartridge
If this happens with any cartridge other than T069 and T078, the problem is almost certainly at your end. I say this because so far, in the very few times this happened, it has always been resolved at the customer's end. Except for the T069 and T078, the other epson cartridges and printers which use them have not been changed. The chips they contain today are identical to the ones manufactured years ago (and identical to Epson's.) It usually means you inserted the wrong cartridge, such as a yellow in the blue slot. Each chip is matched to its color and putting the wrong cartridge in the wrong slot will cause the printer to report an unrecognized cartridge.

Another cause is a short within the printer itself. At one customer (fortunately a local one) I used a flashlight and spotted a tiny fragment of the cartridge chip stuck to the pins inside the printer. This was shorting out the connection and causing the printer to fail to recognize any cartridge in that slot. Removing the fragment solved the problem. At another client, the printer refused to recognize any cartridge, including Epson, and had to be sent back.

If it is a T069 or T078 cartridge, it becomes a little harder to diagnose. How old is your printer? If it is brand new, there is a chance that Epson recently changed the programming again, in which case it is possible the cartridges are outdated and you need new chips. If it is a few months old, this is highly unlikely. Did you remember to plug the chip into the cartridge? Take the cartridge out and try removing and resetting the chip. Shake it a little and put it back in. Are you sure it is reporting the correct cartridge? Sometimes after you replace the cyan, it suddenly reports a problem and you assume it's the cyan you just replaced but it's actually a different one which came loose. Try reseating or replacing a different cartridge. Of course it's always possible that something happened to damage the chip on the cartridge. I have seen this happen with genuine epson as well. In this case the cartridge must be replaced.

Cartridge runs out of ink too quickly
There are several reasons for this problem. First, now that Epson has a near-monopoly on ink cartridges, they have drastically reduced the amount of ink supplied. It used to be about 24ml. Now it's 12ml. If you don't grasp how little this is, it's 12/1000ths of a liter. It takes about 80 of these to make a liter and about 300 to make a gallon. Yet Epson is charging $20 for this. This means printer ink is $20 x 300 or $6000 a gallon! And you thought gas was high! So you can begin to understand why it seems your new cartridges are running out of ink too quickly. Our cartridges give you about 10-15% more ink than Epson (which is still not enough, in my opinion, but at least the price is about 75% less).

When you run a printer head cleaning, it uses about 3-4 ml of ink per cartridge. That can be more than 25%. Whenever you replace a cartridge, it automatically runs a cleaning. So you should understand why a new cartridge can suddenly appear to have lost a good deal of ink. When you turn the printer on, it may decide to run a cleaning. That is why lots of people never turn their printers off. Printers don't use much power in idle mode and the electricity you save turning it off is less than the ink you lose turning it back on. Ink also has a tendency to coagulate. Otherwise, it would never dry on paper. If you don't print for several days, your print heads can get clogged by dry ink. So it's a good idea to leave the printer on or at least turn it on every couple of days just to keep the ink circulating and prevent your print heads from getting clogged.

Sometimes you can solve the low-ink problem by shaking the cartridge and putting it back in. Inside the cartridge is a floating sensor which decides how much ink remains by its position in the cartridge. The sensor may stick to the bottom and decide the cartridge is empty when it really isn't, which is why shaking can help solve this. Once the printer says a cartridge is completely out of ink, it is too late to solve the problem. The new T069 and T078 cartridges have a chip which "self-destructs" when the cartridge reports empty. It can not be reset by a chip resetter. This is done to prevent refilling, which is never a good idea.

Cartridge doesn't print
The printer recognizes the cartridge and shows it as full but that color does not print: Did you take the tape off the top of the cartridge? It covers a tiny air hole. Air has to get in for ink to flow out. If you did remove the tape, perhaps a tiny bit remains which is still covering the hole. Take a sharp object like a pin or scissors and carefully scrape the top of the cartridge to make sure the hole is uncovered. If that's not the problem, print a nozzle check pattern. Does ANY of that color print? If there is some showing, perhaps the print heads for that color are clogged. Run a head cleaning and try another nozzle check. Did it get better? If so, you have a head clog. You may have to run several cleanings.

None of these suggestions work. What next?
We have a full replacement or money-back guarantee on our cartridges as long as the customer behaves reasonably. Our cartridge warranty. We will replace a reasonable number of open cartridges and any number of sealed ones returned to us as long as you follow the guidelines. If you purchase 10 or 20 cartridges, do NOT open all of them and then send them all back saying they were defective. We can understand your opening a set and discovering a problem. We can understand your opening a few more in the hope that maybe there was just a bad cartridge which had to be replaced. But if you tried 2 and they didn't work, then you tried 2 more and they didn't work, there is no reason to keep opening more. The steps to handle a problem are:

First, email us or call with your problem. If we can't resolve it by email or phone, we will ask you to return them. Seal the open cartridge(s) TOP and BOTTOM with clear tape. The hole on the bottom is where ink comes out. The minute hole at the top is where air gets in to let the ink out. Put the open cartridge(s) in a plastic baggie and seal it. Do NOT put closed cartridges in the same baggie as the open ones.