3880 has taken an attitude toward Vivid Magenta

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

This is a longish tale. I have a 3880 which I have had about a year. I bought a set of Cone inks and refillable cartridges a few months ago. It has come time to refill some of them, and thereby lies another take which I will get to. One of the cartridges, for Vivid Magenta ink but labelled Magenta I suspect because it doubles in a 3800. A month ago or so, time passes quickly when the printer doesn’t work, one print went seriously bad after a long, interrupted string of great prints. I did all the things necessary, cleanings, power cleanings, and filled the maintenance tank. I had to pause as I ordered a new maintenance tank, two actually. When it arrived I back myself up and checked all the cartridges only to discover that several seemed to be empty. I had not, it being my first rodeo, not been checking them at each print session. So, I filled the nearly empty ones and in so doing managed, now I have forgotten how, to damage a couple of the resetter chips such that when the cartridges was inserted they were caught up inside the printer cartridge chamber. When I pulled the cartridge out they got caught and I had to pull them out with pliers, bad work on my part. So, I ordered new resetter chips for the two cartridges affected, I still had a poorly performing LLK nozzle that had not been fixed. When the two chips arrived, I slipped them into the cartridges, expecting all to be made right, but while the LLK cartridge mounted correctly the Magenta did not: it showd a message of “no cartridge”. Thinking I had damaged something in the chamber I took an OEM cartridge and inserted it; bingo, the printer registered a cartridge present; its just that the cartridge is nearly empty so I can’t do much. I communicated with Inkjetmall and asked about the resetter chip. Jon graciously sent me a new one. When he asked what to send I specified VM, and there came to a revelation–I had actually ordered an M chip originally because the cartridge says M on it, it must double in the 3800. But the second time I specified correctly the VM, it arrived and I installed it with high expectations; same result. I replaced the original chip that sits under the resetting with a space VM one I had around, same result. I tapped the OEM chip onto the OEM cartridge I still had, inserted that and, bingo, we were back in business, just no ink.

So, I am completely puzzled about what to do. Meantime, with the limited amount of ink I ran a head cleaning and a couple of test pages. The LLK cartridge is back though the LK one is now skipping.

Clearly I should be able to buy an OEM VM cartridge and carry on, but that’s not the point of using Cone inks and cartridges. So, I’d like to get this solved, but may have an effective work around which I will try as soon as I have an OEM cartridge shipped to me as I’m pretty sure there isn’t one near enough to where I live to go get it.

This has been an odyssey. I need to return the V resetter chip to Inkjetmall as that was wrong–then we are square. But I still don’t have a functioning Cone cartridge.

Thank you.

2

I have received and installed the OEM VM cartridge and the printer sprang to life, recognized the cartridge and was ready to print.

So what should I do about the Cone cartridge that has had two resetter chips and two OEM chips in it? Should I just order another Cone refillable cartridge and start all over when this OEM cartridge runs out?

I’m puzzled.

3

[FONT=Arial][FONT=arial]Hi JLewis~

Sorry for not responding quicker! Both the 3800 M and 3880 VM cartridges are labeled “Magenta” on the cartridge, but the SKU# and chip are different between the “38XX-M” and “38XX-VM” carts.
Based on your explanation, it sounds to me like you have a faulty 38XX-VM chip or a bad connection between the VM reset chip, Epson VM chip and/or printer’s chip sensor inside the cartridge carriage. I included info below on how to check the reset chip and connection between the reset and Epson chips on the cart.

The plastic base of the 3800/3880 reset chip should have three small plastic tabs around the side that hold it onto the cartridge. If any of these tabs are broken or bent inward, the chip will not stay secured to the cartridge, therefore not have a good connection with the Epson chip underneath, which will cause an error. Also, on the back of every reset chip, there should be three metal pins that stick out and touch the Epson chip- the three pins should be equal length for proper contact with the Epson chip. Please check the plastic base to make sure there are three plastic tabs, and if they are all in place, gently bend them outward slightly to ensure they catch and hold onto the cartridge. Also check to make sure the three metal pins are present and equal length. On the front of the chip, please check the gold contacts to make sure nothing is on the contacts that would interfere with the printer’s ability to read it- if you see anything on the gold contacts, gently clean them with either an alcohol pad or pencil eraser. After checking all these things, push the reset chip back onto the VM cartridge and make sure it pushed all the way onto the cart for a good connection with the Epson chip, then reinsert the cartridge into your printer and see how the printer responds.

If you continue getting an error with this VM refill cart after checking and reattaching the chips (Epson and reset), please let me know and we will send you a whole new VM cartridge with reset chip attached.

Please let me know if you have questions, your results, or if there’s anything further I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

[/FONT]
[/FONT]