Epson 9900 ink cartridge error after taking head out to clean

[crwoo]

Hi, I have an Epson 9900 that has a few nozzles clogged on the orange head. I followed a video on youtube to replace the print head, but instead of replacing it, I soaked it in alcohol. after the surgery, the printer booted up and was happy, so I tried doing a head cleaning to get ink flowing, and in the middle of it the printer said 'ink Cartridge error" replace cartridges. the cartridges are from ink owl they have head cleaning fluids in them.

what's weird is that if I remove any cartridge, it tells me that cartridge is missing. If i put them all in, it will say they are all missing. I have replaced the cartridges with a new set and that didn't make any difference.
has anyone ever seen that or solved that? I am guessing there may be an air bubble stuck somewhere. any way to get get the pumps going to remove the air bubble?

Any help would be appreciated, the printer is out of warranty.
Thanks

[crwoo]

Can anyone help me with this?

[BobDavid]

I had that very same issue with my 9900. I think the problem had something to do with both the orange cart and the other cart it is paired with (LLK?). I cleaned the head several times and tried (regretfully) the Windex trick (appropriate for earlier generations). The clogs just got worse and worse. I ultimately ditched the printer and replaced it with a 7890. I suspect there is something about the orange ink that causes problems. Orange is rarely used for photo printing. It is there for matching PMS colors (same for the green). I had to do frequent pair cleanings due to the orange nozzles clogging up. I have since learned that cleaning is hard on the print head. I've only had to do one or two pair cleanings with the 7890 over the course of the last few years. Now when I run a nozzle check and see a dropout, I print a corresponding patch of color about 6" X 6" on inkjet paper. 95% of the time, the problem goes away after two or three rounds. I think air bubbles somehow get into the ink lines and that is why colors sometimes drop out.