Epson 3880 No Ink Cartridge persists after follow all suggestions previously posted

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
,
1

I have tried all the suggestions to reset, including cleaning each chip with alcohol, taking out and reinserting each cartridge, all chips on top are flat, sliding out and then re-inserting ink waste tank. All the cartridgess are filled with 70 ml piezo flush, but I can’t proceed, because LCD reads “No Ink Cartridge”. I’ve triple checked the colors are in the right position, I have taken out and re-inserted the cartridges multiple times, rebooted the printer multiple times. PLEASE HELP.

2

Dear Jen.

So all lights are blinking? Not just one cartridge off? I’ve seen this in one of my 9900s before when I was working at Light Work in Syracuse NY. It actually meant that my head was dead. I had let it sit for years and it shorted when I booted back up. The carts register right before the head so this very may well be the issue.

However, one thing you need to do is put OEM epson carts back in to make sure it’s not any bad carts. If it still is blinky and bad, I’m afraid it may be either a bad head, bad ink control board, or a bad main board from sitting un-used.

When using a printer it’s always good to keep a backup set of Epson carts and a backup set of Chips

regards,
Walker

3

The OEM epson carts I have, no longer have the chips because I used the chips to put in the new cartridges that I filled with Piezo flush solution. I also unfortunately let the printer sit unused for three years, and now I was trying to flush out the ink lines with the peizo flush and leave the flush in, as I am about to leave for four months, so the printer will not be used for four more months.
There are actually no blinking lights. The orange light under the ink icon is on, the LCD says “No ink cartridge”, and in the LCD, to the left of the icon for the waste tank, it shows 9 empty cartridges blinking.
It sounds like you are saying there’s nothing I can do to diagnose the problem further until I get a second set of chips? Is there anything I can do now to see if it’s just one bad chip/or cartridge rather than a bad head, ink control board or main board from sitting un-used?

4

Sadly it’s impossible to tell without replacing all the chips.

Did you take the carts out and check for any bent sensor wires? These are in the printer right where the chip makes contact with the printer. Normally a bad chip sensor would show as a single channel blinking instead of all of them however . . . which leads me to believe its a bad chip or board. That said, the “No ink cartridge” warning is often associated with a cartridge (or cartridges) just not reading AT ALL in the printer and that is often a problem with the printer and not the chip.

My suggestion would be to look for a bed sensor wire. Make sure you have all your chips properly in/on their cartridges. Reset all the chips making sure the chip resetter goes green each time, place the carts into the printer gently, and try again.

Do a search on this form as well for “chip sensor.” There is a bunch of information to say the least.

warm regards,
Walker

5

How do I “reset all the chips making sure the chip resetter goes green each time?” How do I reset each chip and where is the chip resetter that is supposed to turn green? I removed all the carts and do not see any bent sensor wires.
Are the sensor wires on top where they would make contact with the cartridge’s chip?

Could I possibly have the wrong cartridges? Several of them say “3800” with the color, and my printer is a 3880. Actually all the cartridges say 3800 on the labels except the magenta and the light magenta.

Also, yesterday, before I removed the OEM cartridges with ink to replace them with the new cartridges with piezo flush, the LCD did NOT say “No ink cartridge”, so doesn’t that mean that it’s either the new chips or the new cartridges that is causing the problem. The printer was able to read the OEM cartridges.

thanks for trying to help,
jen

6

I apologize. These are updated carts from what I’m used to (I’m new here as of a few days ago).

As you know, the Epson OEM chip resides inside the cart (underneath) the “reset chip” that is then connected to your printer when you place the cart in the printer. There may be a connection issue between the OEM chip and your “reset” chip above it inside one or a few of your carts.

instructions:
https://system.netsuite.com/c.362672/site/newinkjetmall-htmls/how-to-replace-controller-chip.html

The reset chip may also not be resetting your OEM chip properly.

I would take out the OEM chips and place them on your old OEM carts and put all of these OEM carts back into the printer. See if this changes the ink error.

Regards,
Walker

7

Could I possibly have the wrong cartridges? Several of them say “3800” with the color, and my printer is a 3880. Actually all the cartridges say 3800 on the labels except the magenta and the light magenta.

Also, yesterday, before I removed the OEM cartridges with ink to replace them with the new cartridges with piezo flush, the LCD did NOT say “No ink cartridge”, so doesn’t that mean that it’s either the new chips or the new cartridges that is causing the problem. The printer was able to read the OEM cartridges.

8

The carts are physically all exactly the same between the 3800 and 3880s. Your OEM chips are the unique identifiers for the printer to know that you have the correct carts in there. (In fact, epson OEM 3800 and 3880 chips are exactly the same except the Magenta and Light Magenta.)

So, double check the exact placement of the oem chips that are in the carts. They can only go into the cartridge in one way and they rest on two small plastic pins. Also, make sure that there is no bent contact between the chips and the “resetter chips” above. Make sure the resetter chips are also perfectly placed.

Once you are satisfied that this is the case, put all your IJM carts back in the printer and wait. If there is still an issue, gently push each cart in while looking at the top of the printer to see if it registers correctly when you move the cart by even a millimeter. This can tell you if a cart is positioned wrong and is not contacting the sensor wire.

best,
Walker

9

I’m just learning this system. Is there any possibility the resetter is not resetting the carts. i.e. The printer is telling you the carts are empty and not that they are not in place? I put my printer up with low ink levels in a few of the Epson carts. When I got it back out, those carts were showing up as empty.