A couple months ago, my two-year-old Epson R3000 started leaving large blobs of black ink, on all of my prints. I have been using Epson inks, purchased directly from Epson, since the very beginning. and, I have only made about 300 prints. When the problem started with the black, I initially hand-cleaned everything with Piezoflush—paying particular attention to the wiper blade. But, it didn’t help.
So, I ordered a refillable cart for the the photo black, and filled it with Piezoflush. I wanted to flush the photo black, to see if that would help. I filled the cart using the vacuum method, described in your instructions. The exit chamber was half-full (but just half full, I could not get it any higher). I then replaced the filler plug, and removed the air-vent plug. I then flushed the black line, by printing strips of solid black, until the strips came out light gray.
However, when I printed a nozzle check (on plain paper) I got NOTHING out of the black—no pink Piezoflush marks. Of course, I assumed that the nozzles might just be clogged, from printing so much black. So, I started a head cleaning.
But, half-way through the cleaning, the printer suddenly decided, that it did not want to recognize one of the EPSON carts (cyan, which had been in use for about a month). The printer is now totally dysfunctional.
What can I do? I certainly cannot afford to buy another cyan cart, especially for a printer that I don’t know can be fixed (I am retired and live on a hand-to-mouth fixed income). Plus, I don’t know if the Piezoflush has been flowing into the black line. I may have run it totally dry. Do I have any options?