I recently installed a new set of Cone cartridges for my Epson 2880, with the Photo black option installed. Everything went fine and they printed OK. I then swapped to Matt black. Again, everything went fine but when I went to swap back to Photo black, I got an ink low message, so I refilled the Photo black cartridge. I then got an error (“The ink cartridge cannot be replaced” message). I thought this might be because I was trying to fill just a single cartridge at one time, so I refilled all the other cartridges, so that all were the same level. But that did not fix the problem. Does anyone know what this message actually means? Is my problem the same as the cartridge not being recognised, which appears to be a common issue with third party cartridges?
I’ve read about chip re-setting tools but I understand that this deals with printers not knowing the correct level of ink, rather than other types of problems. Is this correct? Will using a chip re-setter fix my problem or do I need to do something else?
The advantage of a chip resetter is that you can keep the chip and the actual ink levels in sync. So when you refill you reset the chip to read as full. This printer has no way of knowing what’s actually in the cart, it estimates the level from how often the print head was fired. For this to be reasonably accurate the chip needs to be set to read as full when the cart is full. Hence the resetter. Otherwise you have to wait until the cart reads as empty and then remove, refill and reinsert, which should reset the chip to read as full. A resetter is a very good idea for an R2880.
Was the precise message that the cart could not be “replaced”, or not “recognised”?
Thanks Brian for the explanation of the re-setter. I will certainly get one. Though I’m not sure if this will solve my current problem. And yes, the precise wording was “replaced” rather than “recognised”.
I don’t know what the source of your problem is. Dana or Kelly may. In the meantime, based on my reading and my own printer here are some things to try. Google may suggest others, although your precise message didn’t show up for me:
. A worst case possibility is that you’ve installed Epson software and allowed it to update the driver and/or firmware, and now it won’t recognise 3rd party carts. This is especially an issue on Macs I believe (I’m on Windows). Is there any chance that you might have done this? If you have, Jon claims that it can’t be undone, although you’d think that a driver could be downgraded, but probably not the firmware. See this thread for a recent discussion, especially towards the end. I don’t know whether the issue applies to an R2880 as well.
. Cart not inserted correctly. Sometimes removing and carefully reinserting helps.
. Dirty contacts. Try gently cleaning with some pure alcohol like ispropyl.
. Has the printer recognised the cart switch? I did this switch in the last few days and had to go into printer preferences and tell it that the PK was now installed rather than MK.
. A faulty chip. Do you have another cart that you can test with? A resetter may or may not help.
[QUOTE=Brian_S;7032]I don’t know what the source of your problem is. Dana or Kelly may. In the meantime, based on my reading and my own printer here are some things to try. Google may suggest others, although your precise message didn’t show up for me:
. A worst case possibility is that you’ve installed Epson software and allowed it to update the driver and/or firmware, and now it won’t recognise 3rd party carts. This is especially an issue on Macs I believe (I’m on Windows). Is there any chance that you might have done this? If you have, Jon claims that it can’t be undone, although you’d think that a driver could be downgraded, but probably not the firmware. See this thread for a recent discussion, especially towards the end. I don’t know whether the issue applies to an R2880 as well.
. Cart not inserted correctly. Sometimes removing and carefully reinserting helps.
. Dirty contacts. Try gently cleaning with some pure alcohol like ispropyl.
. Has the printer recognised the cart switch? I did this switch in the last few days and had to go into printer preferences and tell it that the PK was now installed rather than MK.
. A faulty chip. Do you have another cart that you can test with? A resetter may or may not help.
Thanks Brian for these suggestions. I am on a Mac system, using Mavericks (OS X 10.9.5), and the Epson printer driver is the current one (Version 9.29). I have tried multiple times to remove and re-install, including leaving to settle and then returning. I have also rebooted the Mac. I have tried a different Photo black Cone cartridge (an earlier one I had bought several years ago) but I also got the same message. There isn’t an option with the Mac driver, or associated software like Photoshop, to nominate which black has been chosen (PK or MK). It usually requires turning the printer on/off and sometimes restarting the Mac to make it recognise changes between PK and MK, but this always eventually happens when using Epson inks. I’ve attached a screen shot as requested.
On p35 of the service manual, there’s some information about an “Ink Color Error”. Here is what it says:
Ink cartridges cannot be replaced
There are two possible causes.
Because there is only a small amount of ink remaining, you cannot replace it with a different type of black ink cartridge.
(However, you may be able to replace it with the same type of black ink cartridge.)
Replace it with a new ink cartridge. We recommend using genuine Epson ink cartridges.
Or, the currently installed black ink differs to the type of cartridge used when printing started.
Replace the currently installed black ink cartridge with the same type of previously installed black ink cartridge.
Once it is replaced, printing will resume automatically. If you do not want to replace the ink cartridge, click the Cancel button.
It may just be that the ink level in both PK carts is too low for the printer to accept them, but not low enough for the auto reset to work. This quote from the service manual implies to me that you just need a resetter, rather than you having a driver or firmware upgrade issue.
p.s. this reads to me like it’s the sort of error you get when the printer thinks you’re in the middle of printing something and you put in the wrong cart or one that’s too empty. This make any sense?
I agree with Brian here, I would suspect that your cartridge (both the MK & PK) were reading low, but not empty and when you refilled them and reinstalled them, your printer still sees them as low ink levels. Sometimes when you 1st install a new cartridge your printer won’t recognize the chip and you have to remove and re-install to get them to read. I have honestly never seen the message you are reporting, a screen capture would be good for us to see, to verify and try to duplicate from my side. The highest version I have installed for a print driver is on our 10.10 OS driver version 9.00.
Can you access the Epson Status Monitor from your Printer Utility? Not the Supply Levels tab, but the Epson Status Monitor after selecting “Open printer Utility”. What does it read if you can open this function?
Lets see what the re-setter does and go from there. Otherwise I would be taking a stab in the dark, I don’t believe it would be to 2 faulty chips in a row.
I don’t believe I’ve ever had a faulty chip myself, at least not from IJM, but based on what I’d read here I think you’d get a different error message.
Having installed a waste bottle on my 2880, I’m guessing from visual inspection that it ejects about 0.5mL from each cart during cleaning / priming. If the chip indicates there is less than some number larger than this in the cart, it will yell at you. IJM sells the resetters for only $20, which can completely avoid this problem.
Me personally, I bought 2 sets of carts AND the resetter, and plan to buy at least one more set of carts. When any cart is reading low, I replace them all, which avoids charging cycles whenever one runs out. For the high-drain carts, I refill and reset them. For the ones that aren’t used very much I leave them alone for a re-cycle in the next rotation.
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