Just getting started. 3880 will not recognize Yellow Cartridge

I just received my order and installed my first cartridge which happened to be the yellow cartridge. After following instructions and the video to the letter I was getting a “no ink cartridges” warning. All 9 were showing up as absent. After power cycling the printer a few times I still had no success. This wasn’t good in building my confidence.

I pulled it out and verified that the chip was correctly seated and that contact, to the best of my ability to tell, is being made.

Now if I press the cartridge and wiggle it a bit in place it would seem to be ok. But after doing this a number of times and closing the ink cover it would again go to “no cartridges”. I tried and tried because I had time on my hands. After a dozen or more tries it finally was recognized.

Now I’m worried that it’s a matter of the connection precariously working because of the particular way that I wiggled the cartridge. I don’t want to get halfway through a job to have the cartridge once again become unseated… but for the moment it is recognized.

What do you recommend I do? I want to be able to use ConeColor inks and cartridges with confidence.

Thanks for any advice you may have.

PS - Noticed on the forum that others seem to have issues with the yellow cartridge in particular. Is there a known issue?

Hi ununiform~

Thanks for the detailed information, and I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble having your printer consistently read the yellow refillable cartridge.

Please check the chips by following the instructions below:
38XX “80ml” refill cart reset chip check:
The plastic base of every 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 chips, 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 chips back onto their corresponding cartridges and make sure they are pushed all the way onto the cart for a good connection with the Epson chip, then reinsert the cartridges into your printer and see how the printer responds.

In my experience with the 3800/3880 refillable carts over the years, I have never installed them in any special way- just pushed the back of the cart straight into the cartridge chamber until it clicks, and have good results with proper fit/recognition. On a very rare occasion, I have installed a new cartridge and the printer doesn’t read it correctly. In this case, I remove and reinstall the cartridge. If the error remains, I carefully check the chip, then reinstall the cartridge by watching the printer’s LCD screen while gently moving the cartridge to see how the printer responds. Out of all the carts I’ve used/tested, there has only been one that didn’t have a good fit in the printer and I had to put a piece of folded paper under the cart to raise it up slightly, but it worked well after that. Other cartridges have continued working well after checking the chip and reinstalling into the printer. As long as your chips are positioned correctly and have good connection, then I expect you’ll have good results with this cartridge.

Please let me know your results after checking the chip, or if there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

Hi Dana,

Thank you. I had read this info in another post before your reply and had already checked this. To the best of my ability to tell, everything looked fine. But as I mentioned, it took a dozen or more tries to get it to seat properly. Now that it is in place I am reluctant to take it out to check. The best I can hope for at this point is, when I need to change this cartridge again (probably in 6 months time or so) that it will work ok.

J

Please keep me posted and let me know if you continue having trouble with this cartridge, have further questions, or there’s anything else I can help you with.

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile: