Hi, I’ve been trying for a few weeks now to fix incorrect color issues with my Epson R3000 without success. Initially I did a nozzle check and saw that some nozzles were misfiring and some were flat out missing. I followed the instructions in Dana’s professional cleaning video to clean the print head, wiper blade, and installed new cartridges with Piezoflush. I did an ink change and let the printer sit with the Piezoflush cartridges for 48+ hours. I performed a nozzle check and a couple of head cleanings and the nozzle check now looks better, but all lines were in pink. I figured that was OK because it must be the Piezoflush printing on the paper(?). I reinstalled the refillable cartridges (I’m using Cone Color ink) and tried the WIC Reset Utility to perform an “ink charge.” But when I try to do this, I get an “ink out” error and the Epson printer displays a message that it does not recognize Y, VLM, VM, C, LLK. All of the cartridges are at least 80% full with ink (if not more). The ink levels do not read correctly though and I cannot reset the ink level because these cartridges are the newer style with no battery. The cartridges are recognized by the printer OK when I turn off/on the printer, just not when I try to do the “ink charge” with the WIC Reset Utility.
Any idea what I am doing wrong or what my next step should be? I’m really frustrated. Also, is the only way to do an “ink charge” from the WIC Reset Utility? Is “ink charge” the same thing as changing the inks (i.e. changing from Photo Black to Matte Black). Any help would be appreciated.
The R3000 carts only allow for 1 initial charge. These are ARC chips meaning they have to be printed with in order to “auto reset” to full.
This means that you need to print purge sheets per channel until each chip resets to full unless you have a full set of chips on your other set of ink carts which you can pop into the printer to do a second init fill with to go back to printing ink.
Hi Walker,
Thank you for the helpful information. I have used the QuadTone RIP program to successfully flush out the PiezoFlush from most of the channels. However, I am having an issue with 3 channels. Two of the channels, LLK and PK are not printing anything at all. I have the ink cartridges (with Cone Color ink) in the printer and they print nothing during a nozzle check or when I try to flush the channel with QuadTone RIP. With the LLK, it WAS printing magenta PiezoFlush, but then printed nothing when I assume it ran out of Piezoflush. These two channels were printing on the nozzle check before I introduced PiezoFlush, although it wasn’t perfect (gaps during nozzle check). What could cause this problem?
Second issue: With the LK channel, I successfully flushed out the PiezoFlush to see light black printed out, but now the printer has stopped recognizing the LK cartridge and keeps telling me to check it. I tried replacing that cartridge with the LK (new) cartridge filled with PiezoFlush and the cartridge is recognized again. Is this a sudden problem with the chip on the original cartridge going bad or another issue?
Lastly I still have never successfully been able to perform an “Ink Charge” using the WIC Reset program. When I try, the printer always tells me a certain number of cartridges are out of ink/cartridge not recognized, even though all of the cartridges are at least 80% full with ink. Any ideas why this is?
Lastly I still have never successfully been able to perform an “Ink Charge” using the WIC Reset program. When I try, the printer always tells me a certain number of cartridges are out of ink/cartridge not recognized, even though all of the cartridges are at least 80% full with ink. Any ideas why this is?
This is because the cartridges need to be registering as full before you start the initial fill (as described above).
But now the printer has stopped recognizing the LK cartridge and keeps telling me to check it.
If you take the cartridge out and put it back in, does it reset and work? This is how the R3000 system works (also as described above.)
I have the ink cartridges (with Cone Color ink) in the printer and they print nothing during a nozzle check or when I try to flush the channel with QuadTone RIP. With the LLK, it WAS printing magenta PiezoFlush, but then printed nothing when I assume it ran out of Piezoflush.
You never want to let a cartridge run out of anything. If a chip runs low and then pauses your printer, you NEED to top off the cartridge at this point because when you pull the cart in this state and put it back into the printer, the chip will reset to full. Again, there is no liquid sensor in ink cartridges, the chip levels are independent of the liquid so keep the carts topped off. This introduced air into your printer and ink lines. You need a full set of carts with chips that are also set to full. I suggest getting. set of backup chips from us (or just the chips that need to register as full). You can pop a chip off and replace it with a “full” chip. Top the carts off with Cone Color and then do the initial fill to cone color.
Printing with air in the line will not re-instroduce ink. You need to do an initial fill back to Cone Color.
Blockquote This is because the cartridges need to be registering as full before you start the initial fill (as described above).
OK, I understand what you are saying. What confused me was that the printer isn’t telling me the ink level was low but the WIC utility was, despite there being plenty of ink in all cartridges. But I think what you are saying is that the chips need to be reset on these select cartridges to full when the printer tells me the cartridges are out of ink (when I try to use WIC Utility).
Blockquote If you take the cartridge out and put it back in, does it reset and work? This is how the R3000 system works (also as described above.)
No, it wasn’t working when I removed the cartridge and put it back in. It only worked when I switched the cartridge with a new cartridge (same color cartridge, just PiezoFlush inside). It seems weird that the chip would fail suddenly but maybe that’s what happens sometimes?
Blockquote You never want to let a cartridge run out of anything. If a chip runs low and then pauses your printer, you NEED to top off the cartridge at this point because when you pull the cart in this state and put it back into the printer, the chip will reset to full. This introduced air into your printer and ink lines. You need a full set of carts with chips that are also set to full. I suggest getting. set of backup chips from us (or just the chips that need to register as full). You can pop a chip off and replace it with a “full” chip. Top the carts off with Cone Color and then do the initial fill to cone color.
Maybe I didn’t explain what I was doing very well. I have never let a cartridge run out of anything. I have never gotten to the point where the chip runs low and pauses the printer. Again this is what I did:
Filled new set of cartridges with PiezoFlush (80% or more) and replaced into the printer
Switched the black ink lines (because I was confused about the WIC Utility and thought this was how I did the Initial Charge). Waited a few days, then ran a couple of cleaning cycles because the nozzle check didn’t look correct.
Replaced the PiezoFlush cartridges with Cone Color cartridges (and I topped all of these off to 80% full or more).
Understood that I needed to do the Initial Charge on the WIC Utility but got the error about the ink being out/cartridges not recognized. So I flushed individual channels with the QuadTone RIP utility. (Note I did get the yellow cartridge to successfully pause and reset back to full like you described). Everything looks good except for the 2 lines (LLK, PK) as described above. These 2 lines are not printing anything at all.
Can you tell me how I managed to introduce air in the lines? Sorry I am still confused and if I did introduce air, I want to avoid this in the future.
OK, so from what you’re saying it seems like I should be able to use the chips on the PiezoFlush cartridges (since they read full) and switch them on the Cone Color ones to get the Initial Flush to work. I will try this tonight.
What possibly introduced air into your lines was an improperly primed (or vacuum filled) PiezoFlush or ink on the PK and LLK cartridges. If there is air in the outlet when you put a new cartridge in, it can cause an air-lock in the damper.
Thanks for the information. I swapped the chips from the PiezoFlush cartridges to the ink cartridges and was finally able to active the Ink Charge on the WIC Reset Utility. The printer said it was cleaning… I could hear it making noise (but no flushing of ink) and then I received the following error on the printer screen:
Printer error. Turn power off and then on again. For details see your documentation.
The status window in WIC Reset said:
Could not continue with the current state. Fatal error.
I turned the printer off, then on again, and then could hear the printer flushing ink (my guess) and could see ink being emptied into the waste ink bottle. I’m not sure whether the Initial Charge was completed since I saw these errors. What do you think?
When I tried a nozzle check, there was still nothing being printed in the LLK and PK channels. Do I need to run a Initial Charge again? Is this the only way to clear the air in the lines? Any idea what caused the errors during the Initial Charge?
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