Reset cartridges or no ink

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

Hi Dana- I posted before about 2 cartridges that always come up on the 4800 display that says reset cartridges or no ink yet they are more than full. As you suggested in the past, the chips on each cartridge were replaced and it worked for a while- until now. I THINK INKJET MALL SHOULD REPLACE THE TWO CARTRIDGES SINCE THE CHIPS DON’T SEEM TO WORK ON THEM. I never had this problem with the Epson cartridges for the full 6+ years I had the printer.Very disturbing since I am now unable to print my Xmas prints.What do you think?

                                                                  Regards--Frank
2

Hi FRANK~

I reviewed your other threads, and see in October we discussed the errors you were experiencing. I directed you to attach Epson chips you had on hand to the refill carts, as chips wear out and go bad over time, and Epson chips can be used in place of refill chips. You responded that the chip swap was successful and all was working well again (except the LK channel, which you said hadn’t printed since the printer was new- but were able to fix in a different thread).

Please understand, products are warrantied for only a short time by the manufacturer and not a year and one half. We do not make the cartridges nor the chips. But the chips themselves are very sensitive to handling. While Epson says not to handle them at all - refillable carts get handled frequently and can easily be shorted by just a static charge from your body. We recommend all of our customers to keep spare chips on hand. While the cartridges may possibly out last the life of your printer, the chips certainly will not. If you still have your old Epson chips - pry them off the carts and use these instead of the ones we supply. They are build better than 3rd party chips - and although susceptible to the same static charge or shorting they are more resistant. We sell spare chips for only $5 each and we recommend that all customers with deadline intensive workloads keep spares on hand as very inexpensive insurance.

Also, parts inside the printer wear out over time, so there could be other factors, such as older chip sensors, etc… that could contribute to your issue (just to keep in mind)

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

3

Hi Dana- Can I use any of the chips from my old Epson cartridges or do they have to be from the same color cartridge that I am replacing? Also, I reset the cartridges and got the proper flashing light from the resetter but I still got the "reset cartridge"notation from the printer.Would the chip still be defective even though the resetter indicated the chip was reset properly. I hope you can answer these questions for me.Thank you.

                                                                                Regards--Frank
4

Frank,

The chips need to be from the same printer model and color position. They can be reset after being attached to your carts. It is possible to reset a chip, but the chip can not restore to full functionality required by the printer. Epson chips are usually less susceptible and are often able to be reset more times than 3rd party chips.

Just so that you are aware, the chip can only be reset to 100% full (even if the cart is 20% full). The Epson or 3rd party chip has no way of identifying with how much ink is in the cart. Chips do not work that way. They assume that the cart has been filled to the capacity usually associated with the printer model and then the printer records to the chip what percentage of ink is remaining from a 100% full cart after the print performs cleaning operations and print runs.

If you want the chip to keep up with the contents in the cart. The 4800 uses 220ml carts. So pour 220ml ink into the cart when it is empty and record the ink level line. Epson will consider the cart to be empty when about 45ml ink remains. At that point refill the cart to the marked line and reset the chip. Otherwise, keep you eye on the cart level visually and fill as you like and reset often.

Most of our customers who print for deadlines keep sets of spare chips on hand to avoid crisis. These are sold for $5 each on InkjetMall - but you can also save your old used Epson chips. Mark them by color positions and store them separately in an envelope marked with the printer model and color position.

When you attach them - make certain they are flush with the top of the cart - or you may damage the delicate pin reader inside the printer. Pin readers are available from Compass Micro for only a few dollars - but they take a considerable amount of time to replace.

5

Hi JON- THE TWO CARTS THAT NEED RESETTING ARE THE SAME CARTS I REPLACED THE EPSON CHIPS ONTO PREVIOUSLY AND THE PRINTER WORKED FINE UNTIL NOW. I RESET THE CHIPS AND THEY STILL NEED RESETTING EVEN THOUGH THE RESET PROCEDURE WAS PROPERLY DONE. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE CARTRIDGE IS DEFECTIVE? IF I ORDER NEW CHIPS THE SAME THING MAY HAPPEN-A REAL DILEMMA. I WOULD LIKE TO RETURN THE TWO CARTRIDGES FOR NEW ONES BUT I KNOW YOU WOULD NOT AGREE WITH THAT. WHEN YOU SAID THE CHIPS SHOULD BE FLUSH WITH THE TOP OF THE CART, I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE REFERRING SINCE THE CHIPS ARE LOCATED IN A RECESSED AREA OF THE CART AND APPEAR TO BE LEVEL IN ITS COMPARTMENT. EXCUSE THE RAISED CAPS–I AM NOT YELLING. THANKS JON. REGARDS—FRANK

6

They reset you say, but now they again read empty? How much ink do you estimate you printed before the read empty again?

The chips and carts are separate and do not function together. The chip can not read the amount of ink in the cart. The ink remaining % function is written to the chip by the Epson printer. You can restore it to 100% full whether you put ink in the cart or not by resetting it.

Yes - the chip must be level with the plastic in which they reside or it will rip out the pin reader inside the printer.

You bought these carts in July 2012. And they are well beyond warranty. But, if this is also happening with Epson chips - then you may have an issue with the printer.

Or a simple solution is that you can only get 180ml ink to print before resetting and the carts hold nearly 300ml. Is this just a sync issue?

7

Jon- I just turned the 4800 on an “no ink cartridge” flashes on the light magenta but there is as much ink in it as the other 7 cartridges.When I move the blue release lever to the up position, "set ink cartridges "# 6 and 7 flash and when I move the lever to the down position, #7 flashes “no ink cartridge”. All cartridges pretty much have the same level of ink in them and I have not printed that much with your inks and cartridges–I did not install them until last December since I still had ink left in my Epson cartridges. That is why I mentioned if I had a defective "6 and "7 cartridge.I do not understand your last sentence re: 180ml vs. 300ml of ink as being a sync issue. You have to excuse my ignorance on that. From the above, what do you think now–really bizarre. The printer does a beautiful job and I am disappointed in what is happening.The inks are better-in my opinion to the Epson inks- but what is happening now is very sporadic and disconcerting. Thanks Jon for trying to help–Frank

37 flashes and it says

8

there is no relationship to the amount of ink in a cart and a resettable chip. so i am just trying to make it clear that if you take an empty cart and reset the chip, it reads in the printer as 100% full. If you take a cart that reads empty and fill it full but do not reset the chip. it still reads as empty in the printer. drain out all the ink from it and reset the chip and it reads as 100% full even though you drained it.

So if you fill these carts with 300ml of ink which is what they hold. when they are nearly half full you will need to reset the chip because the printer will believe they are empty. so this is the sync issue. the chip is not actually connected to the ink. the chip can only read full and then count down the use of 180ml. But if you fill the cart you will have 300ml of ink in it. So therefore the chip reads empty before the cart is empty.

so from my end trying to help you - i am not certain if your system is behaving normally. if you can reset the chip - the chip works.

it will help me to help you if you answered my questions from the previous.

9

Frank,

I’m sorry, your RAISED CAPS threw me off. I suddenly thought that you had a printer that was being used regularly and you were having a chip resetting issue. I did not get a reply from my question about ink usage, but reading everything again to the beginning, you have not used this printer enough to actually need to reset the chips. As you point out they are quite full and you installed them last December. I believe that you are resetting chips to try and get rid of a “no ink cartridge” error. If that is the case then resetting is not the fix. As Dana pointed out to you earlier you need to replace the chips rather than reset them. They may have shorted. You can probably re-chip the carts with Epson or our spare chips. A lot of what you are dealing with is covered in our frequently asked questions here.

However, you point out that you have replaced the chips with Epson chips and that does only remedied the issue for a short time. So, that leads me to believe that ‘possibly’ your chip readers inside your printer many not have enough spring in them left to maintain a good contact with the chip. When a chip reader loses contact you receive the “no cartridge”. That is the result of the chip reader not contacting a chip. You may need to replace the pin readers (which are only a few $ each), or see if pushing or pulling the cartridges one way or the other will make contact with the readers. Do not attempt to pull or reshape the fine wire pin readers which are reachable. They are so fragile as they age that any contact may break them. This printer is now nine years and parts like the springy chip readers wear out. They are available by Epson to its customers through Compass Micro. These are pain to replace (the first time). So I hope it’s just a matter of pushing and prodding to make contact and perhaps wedging the carts to maintain it.

My greater concern is that you have left pigment ink sit in your printer for nearly a year. So once you have corrected the dead chip or chip contact issues, I will recommend that you shake the inks gently for about 15 seconds - then perform three POWER CLEANS to flush out the old inks from your printer. You should not let pigment ink sit in any printer for this long. The minimum recommended use by Epson for a 4800 is about 400ml per ink channel per year. Below this you will suffer pigment settling.

Jon

10

Hi Jon-- You will not believe this but I pushed in and held tight in a forward direction all 4 right hand cartridges and the warning signs disappeared from the printer window and the printer proceeded correctly.I held the cartridges in tight and printed a nozzle check and it came out perfect. The printer works great as it always had in the past. I just wonder if I have to do this from now on. I just printed three 17x22 prints from the computer program and all is well–so far. How would you analyze this?
Temporarily relieved–Frank

11

Thanks for the update FRANK. I’m glad to hear you were able to make some prints, but 1. this is very strange, and 2. you certainly shouldn’t have to push/hold carts into the printer for a good connection and read. Are you saying you had to push and hold the carts in the whole time during printing, and if you stop pushing the error returns? This makes me think there is a poor connection between the cartridge chips and printer’s chip sensors, and the “NO cartridge” error you previously reported will happen when there is no connection between the chip and sensor (so the printer thinks nothing is installed), or the sensor is damaged. If the error goes away and printer prints well while pushing carts in, then I suspect your sensor is ok (whew), but something is preventing a tight connection. Can you send me a few photos of the carts in question, showing the exit valve and chip areas for my review?

Thanks~ Dana :slight_smile:

12

Hi Dana–I am printing now without holding the carts in–I only held them initially so I was sure to get a nozzle check and when I let go, the ready sign stayed on. I also think I should leave the printer on all the time since I do not think this will hurt anything. The Epson repair man said it should be left on all the time and this was necessary for this machine to operate at maximum peak. Seems strange but who am I to question his reasoning. Anyway, I do not know how to get a really tight connection unless I use your wedge solution on both sides of the cartridge. What do you think?
Enjoy your evening–Frank

13

Thanks for the update Frank. I’m glad to hear you can print without holding the carts in, and hope you continue having good connection/communication. We haven’t received any other reports of these carts not fitting well for a good chip read, so not sure what would help in your situation, but suggest first trying to print normally (without wedging the carts).

I don’t fully agree with what the Epson tech told you about always leaving your printer on, and he should have given more details/tips than that.
Regular use, keeping the printer clean/maintained, maintaining proper humidity levels, and regular agitation of inks are all important to getting the best results and longest life from your printer. Keeping it on all the time with infrequent use will lead to dying/clogging, and settling/build up of pigment in your ink lines and dampers…

Keep me posted, best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

14

[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;2628]Thanks for the update Frank. I’m glad to hear you can print without holding the carts in, and hope you continue having good connection/communication. We haven’t received any other reports of these carts not fitting well for a good chip read, so not sure what would help in your situation, but suggest first trying to print normally (without wedging the carts).

I don’t fully agree with what the Epson tech told you about always leaving your printer on, and he should have given more details/tips than that.
Regular use, keeping the printer clean/maintained, maintaining proper humidity levels, and regular agitation of inks are all important to getting the best results and longest life from your printer. Keeping it on all the time with infrequent use will lead to dying/clogging, and settling/build up of pigment in your ink lines and dampers…

Keep me posted, best regards~ Dana :)[/QUOTE]

Actually, I’m having the exact same problem with my 4800 except that now no matter how I wiggle the Cone Color cartridges, I can’t get them all to work (when I first insert the Cone cartridges, sometimes five or six show errors; however, after reseating the cartridges, albeit sometimes it takes several tries, I can usually get all but two of the cartridge errors to go away.

Also, when I put in an empty Epson cartridge (at least for the few that I have), the error clears. I wish I had empty cartridges for all the cartridges that have errors, but I don’t. I’m trying to decide if it’s worthwhile to buy a couple of new Epson cartridges to get definitive proof that the refillable cartridges are causing the problems. I’ve tried new Cone Color cartridges via warranty replacement, but the errors persist. Anyone know where I can get empty cyan and empty yellow Epson cartridges for a 4800 for troubleshooting purposes?

15

Hi Greg~

Since you posted about this issue on two threads, I am copying and pasting what I just responded on your other thread:

Hi Greg~

Thanks for the feedback, I’m sorry to hear the new carts didn’t solve your problem. It’s curious that you’re having trouble with these two positions, after trying two different refill carts and chips, because all the carts are made from the same mold (so are the same shape/size), but have different chips specific to the color position. If it’s a physical fit issue causing your trouble with these two positions, then I would think you would have issues with other position carts, or would have different results with the two new carts. The fact that you’re consistently having errors with these two color positions after trying other refill carts and chips, but the error goes away when you install Epson carts- tells me the chip sensors are working, but makes me think something is preventing a good connection with the cartridge chips and chip sensors…

We don’t have any Epson carts here for you to try, but I did find a few older model refill carts for the 4800. After examining/comparing the two cartridge designs, I see the plastic exit valve cover of the current cartridge sticks out and the previous model exit valve cover is flat/flush with the cartridge face. Although we’ve had good results with these carts (we’re using these carts in our 7600 here, with the chip sensors disabled- since the 7600 uses the same style/shape/size carts as the 4800/4880, but with different chips), and have been selling this model cartridge for nearly two years with good feedback/results, we’ve never been concerned about the exit valve cover, but now have two reports of what seems to be the carts not going into the printer all the way, which I wonder may be due to the exit valve cover… Have you tried pushing all the refill carts into the printer with more pressure, evenly pushing on all four carts on one side, while lowering the locking lever?

I have two ideas to determine what’s causing your issues:

  1. Transfer the chip from the Epson cart to the refill cart (instructions below) and insert the cart to see if your printer displays the error or not (this is the quickest/easiest thing to try), and if you do get the error with the Epson chip,
  2. I can ship you a prior model cart (with flat exit valve cover) to try.

Please let me know so I can help get to the bottom of this, and you back to happily printing.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

Attach Epson chip to refill cart
Before handling any chips (or really any electrical device for that matter), you should ground yourself and mindful of the clothing you wear, and if you’re working on carpet, etc… as static shock can destroy a chip.

Looking at the chip on the Epson cartridge, you will notice there are two small plastic points that hold the chip in place. Make a note as to which way the chip fits onto the cartridge so you can attach it to the refill cartridge in the same direction. Using a straight razor blade at an angle carefully cut the top of these two points off (be careful not to scratch the gold contacts), which will release the chip so you can carefully pry it off the cartridge using the edge of the blade. You can also use a sharp knife or something similar to pry the chip off the refill cartridge. You will notice the same two points on the refill cartridge where the chip goes (pry the chip off the refill cartridge before attaching the Epson chip in it’s place)- gently line up the Epson chip with these points and attach it to the refill cartridge by using single thickness (not foam or thick) double sided tape. Making sure your hands are clean and dry, press the chip to make sure it is tightly seated and flat/flush on the cartridge. Now, using the chip resetter- reset the chip and insert the cartridge into your printer. NOTE: Installing a cartridge without a chip, or with a crooked chip attached can damage the printer’s chip sensor- so always make sure cartridges have chips secured flat before installing cartridges