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EPSON Stylus Photo EX
10 -
EPSON Stylus Photo EX
3/98
Replacing an Outdated Ink Cartridge
If an ink cartridge is more than six months old, you may need
to replace it. How can you tell? You may notice that your
printouts don’t look as good as they used to. If print quality
doesn’t improve after cleaning and aligning the print head,
you may need to replace one or both cartridges.
Follow these steps to replace an ink cartridge before the
B black or
A color ink out light is flashing or on:
1. Make sure the printer is turned on and not printing.
2. Lower the output tray and raise the printer cover.
3. Press the
E load/eject button and hold it down for a few
seconds until the print head moves to the left. (The printer
automatically moves the print head back to the home
position after 60 seconds if you don’t continue with step 4.)
Caution:
To avoid damaging the printer, never move the print head
by hand.
4. Pull up the ink cartridge clamp. The cartridge rises up from
its holder.
5. Lift the cartridge out of the printer and dispose of it
carefully.
6. Follow the steps in the previous section, “Installing the New
Cartridge,” to install the new ink cartridge.
Cleaning the Print Head
If your printed image is unexpectedly light or faint, or dots are
missing from the image, you may need to clean the print head.
This unclogs the nozzles so they can deliver ink properly.
Cleaning the print head uses ink, so clean it only if print
quality declines. You can use either of the following to clean
the print head:
❏ The Head Cleaning utility (recommended) in your printer
software (if the printer is on a local port rather than a
network)
❏ The printer’s control panel buttons.
Using the Head Cleaning Utility
Follow these steps to run the utility:
1. Make sure the printer is turned on but not printing, and the
B black and
A color ink out lights are off.
2. Access the printer settings dialog box.
3. Click the
Utility tab (Windows) or the Utility button
(Macintosh). You see the Utility menu.
4. Click the
Head Cleaning button.
5. Follow the instructions on the screen to clean the print
head. Cleaning takes about two minutes, during which the
printer makes some noise and the
Ppower light flashes.
Caution:
Never turn off the printer while the
P
power light is
flashing, unless the printer hasn’t moved or made any
noise for more than 5 minutes.
When the
Ppower light stops flashing, you need to run a
nozzle check to confirm that the print head is clean and to
reset the printer’s cleaning cycle.
6. Make sure paper is loaded in the printer and click
Print
nozzle check pattern
(Windows) or Confirmation
(Macintosh). Then click
Next. See “Examining the Nozzle
Check Pattern” for further instructions.
If your print quality has not improved, repeat the steps above.
Using the Control Panel
Follow these steps to clean the print head:
1. Make sure the printer is turned on and not printing, and
that the
B black and
A color ink out lights are off.
2. Press the
R cleaning button and hold it for three seconds.
Cleaning takes about two minutes, during which the printer
makes some noise and the
Ppower light flashes.
Caution:
Never turn off the printer while the
P
power light is
flashing, unless the printer hasn’t moved or made any
noise for more than 5 minutes.
After the cleaning cycle is complete and the
Ppower light
stops flashing, you need to run a nozzle check to confirm
that the print head is clean and to reset the printer’s
cleaning cycle.
3. Access the printer settings dialog box.
4. Click the
Utility tab (Windows) or the Utility button
(Macintosh). You see the Utility menu.
5. Click the
Nozzle Check button. Then click Next. See the
next section for instructions on examining the nozzle check
pattern.
If your print quality has not improved, repeat the steps above.