Epson C64 Loss Of Ink Output to paper

Problem:

"My Epson Stylus C64 was working fine, but when I tried to print yesterday it went through the motions of printing but the paper always came out blank. I installed all new cartridges and also cleaned the heads many times but nothing works. It acts as if it lost its brain. I also notice that it used a lot of black ink during the cleaning. I also ran all the tests and nothing was printed out at all after cleaning the heads"

I feel I will just go out and get a new printer due to the fact that it is about 2 years old. I just will not get this brand again:)

Solution(s)

It's probably not dead.

Are you using compatible cartridges? If so have you removed any tape that covers the vent hole if required. Many compatibles need to have a piece of tape removed. If you forget the ink cant get out as the air can't get in.

If it not a piece of tape and there are no flashing lights it could be that the nozzles are blocked or the wick has dried out.

You can do a manual cleaning using some kitchen paper and a little solvent and a small plastic bag.

The first thing we need to do is get the head away from its parking position. Switch on the machine and when the head has moved away from its park position, remove the power lead.

With the top of the machine open, you should be able to move the print head carriage by hand.

Look to the right where the head carriage is normally parked and you should see the pump cap area. It will be a black looking spongy pad covered in ink.

Now take a piece of kitchen paper and fold it over a couple times to make a pad approx 3"x1". Now lay this pad over the top of the pump cap and fold the left edge down toward the base of the machine as in image one (the tissue is the yellow bit in the image)

Now take a syringe or similar and put some solvent into it. The solvent I use is JR Ink Jet Cartridge flush as seen on eBay and the like. If you have any ammoniated window cleaner like Windex you can use this. Put the solvent onto the tissue making it quite damp, but not totally soaked.

Manually move the print head GENTLY back to its park position. The pump cap will try to raise up to meet the bottom of the print head as you move it back. Be careful no to force it or you may break something.

What we are trying to do is bring the solvent dampened pad into contact with the print head. Once located, leave the pad for anything from 5 or 10 minutes to 24 hours whilst the solvent does its trick.

Now move the head away from park - again being gentle. You should now see the pad is a horrible black lump of mush. Pick it out and put it in the plastic bag ? where a glove or use tweezers or pliers.

Repeat the process again but this time let it to soak for just about few minutes. You should now see the individual ink colours soaking into the pad. If the pad is still black, repeat the process a couple more times.

Once you have some evidence of the individual colours you can run a head clean via the driver or printer control panel.

Then print a nozzle check sheet and if all has gone according to plan you should have a full complement of lines.

This method is applicable ONLY for loss of a few lines on the nozzle check sheet. If you have loss of all the lines in a single or multiple colours, you need to investigate further. It is possible that the pump has failed, the pipes are clogged or something else is causing the problem.

If that does not sort it out, try using a syringe to put a couple of drops of solvent into the wick. That is the black plastic spike that sticks up and goes into the bottom of the ink cart when it is installed. Put a couple of drops in, put the cart back in and leave it for about 10 minutes. Then re-try 2 or 3 head cleans using the driver/status monitor.

There is another possibility after this which relates to a hardware problem but this generally causes a loss of all ink. If you think this may be relevant to you try the documents available from
http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1594393

If you need a service manual for this machine, get in touch with the folks over at http://www.TheServiceManualShop.com