1900 blinking lights

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
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1

I may be done with my 3rd 1900… paper feed and ink lights blink… I reset the pad counter… restart, then I get an ink light, hit it, reseat the indicated cart, hit the ink button, does a cleaning, then back to both lights flashing again…
Can go through all that again and it indicates a different cart… same story all over…
Time for the dumpster?
Tyler

2

Hi Tyler-

Are the paper feed and ink lights blinking at the same time, or alternately? Are you using the manual chip resetter to reset all carts at once- or using the auto reset feature? Have you checked the printer thoroughly for anything that might cause a jam (and blinking light error?) Have you removed the whole set of carts and tuned the printer off for a minute, then back on, all ink out lights on- reinstall the set of carts (it may be good to manually reset the chips so they all read full at the same time- after topping off any that are low to avoid premature emptying)?

Let me know, this sounds very strange but fixable- Dana :slight_smile:

3

HI Dana-

yes, blinking at the same time…

no manual resetter, mine "reset’ by reseating…

have checked for jams, can’t find anything

no I haven’t removed all carts at once, then off and on yet, I’ll try that. Have you found any way to physically unlock the head from park? Not sure I can get past the error again to hit the ink light to do this… if I can is it still worth doing without a resetter?

thanks for your attention Dana

4

Hi Tyler~

Blinking at the same time indicated a jam of some sort… when did this strange light problem begin?
When the printer is going thru the startup cycle (when the print head is out of the far right/locked position), you can unplug the printer to be able to manually move the print head and check around inside the printer. When you are done, just make sure to slide the print head back to the far right position before plugging the printer back in.

After checking your order history, it looks like the last time you got a set of R1900 refill carts was back in Oct 2010- does this sound right? If so, it would be worth getting a new set of carts and a SF chip resetter to have manual control of resetting the chips.

Please keep me posted and let me know if you have questions or if there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

5

well… there’s nothing anywhere in the feed path, I even forced it to pass something by putting a sheet in the back then turning it on, it fed it through no problem before then doing the same thing again…
But I did try powering it down with no carts, then on, then reinstalling carts. Back the the same thing, blinking lights… then I restarted it with the paper in the back… it fed through then gave me the ink light, showed 2 inks “out” again… reseated those, did it’s cleaning thing, now we’re back to double blinking lights.

This began after a period of little use, was going to work with it on a new blend… previously had worked fine, then a few weeks “off”, put new test blend in, and now this.
I’ll try some of the newer carts when I can Dana, thanks for the help.
T

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Your experience is very strange, therefore I am extra curious to learn the cause and solution- so please keep me posted and let me know if you have questions or if there’s anything else I can help you with.
All the best~ Dana :slight_smile:

7

well I have to assume it’s not the chips or carts, I just installed empied the carts, turned printer on, then installed the entire set of new Epson carts that came with the printer, and the situation remains. Perhaps there is something in the paper path I can’t find, or a sensor malfunctioning… I’ll have to get back to this later… it’s always something!
Thanks Dana

8

Well, that rules out the carts/chips and narrows it down to something with the printer it’s self. The two flashing lights is a jam error, so I would check thoroughly in the paper and print head paths, make sure the capping station and wiper blades are correctly positioned and attached, etc…

I hope you can discover the cause of the jam error and get it working again! Keep me posted~ Dana :slight_smile:

9

I came back to this thread because of a “development”. The printer has been sitting for months after giving up on all the various potential cures, I assumed it was dead. I finally found a good deal on a replacement, and just turned it on to hit the ink button to retrieve my refillable carts… it works. For no reason, after every conceivable fix, disassembly, cleanings, cart changes, paper path clearings, etc etc, after sitting for months it’s just happy. Perhaps it needed a sabbatical, I do.
Tyler

10

That’s a long sabbatical Tyler. After I read this thread some months ago, I read another thread here < http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/showthread.php?306-R2400-Paper-and-Ink-Lights-Flashing-Together >, which sounded similar to yours. I was tempted to post here but I assumed that you had seen it, since it’s under the same heading. If your problem was a similar type of short then perhaps it has dried out over the intervening period?

11

Thanks Brian, I have been suspicious of some kind of electrical problem from moisture, my testing involves a LOT of mixing, refilling, and the resulting automatic cleaning cycles. In fact I think I’m going through more ink from cleanings than actual testing… interesting that I had wound up on the T-shirt forums too, but hadn’t tried that fix yet. Was too tired of “fixes” to go through all that with the strong suspicion it would not work anyway, and moved on to other things for a bit.

12

Yes, if I was faced with removing the print head to solve a problem then I might baulk too. It sounds like you’ve seen a lot of printer problems in your time, have you ever seen the one that I’m currently having? http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/showthread.php?535-2100-2200-faulty-carts-or-dead-printer I’m in the same position that you were - needing to decide if the printer is finished or whether the fault can be fixed. I could burn though a lot of ink and replacement cartridges only to find that the printer is dead, or perhaps that the print head is. While the printer is old, it hasn’t had a lot of use - I’ve only just reset the waste ink counter for the first time, so you’d think that the print head would still be alright.

13

Amazing news Tyler- unexplainable, but great news, and I think we’ve all experienced things with printers that just don’t make any sense- at least this was a good strange result, and I hope it continues cooperating!

All the best~ Dana :slight_smile:

14

You overlook gremlins and their nesting behaviors. In the Northwest, where you reside, gremlins have a natural inclination to prefer moist places such as under Tyler’s capping station. Here in Vermont, if we put a cold drink down next to a printer, we can have a higher expectation that gremlins may overtake the printer as a suitable nesting environment because gremlins in Vermont prefer cold dry places.

Also, it is widely accepted that gremlins often party “a lot” - and there is some alcohol content in ink that while unpleasant to digest by humans may be party central to gremlins.

I refer you to this technical bulletin on gremlins filmed underneath the capping station of Epson 1900 printer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYvr4k06Wkg Towards the end of this film, you can see definite tendencies to interfere with micro electronics.

15

Damn things, always show up at the worst times. They partied in my 9880 in December. I got out my old Daisy Red Ryder BB gun… the party turned ugly