Ink Cartridge Error Epson 9900

[BobDavid]

Anybody ever have this happen when during a cleaning cycle, an "Ink Cartridge Error Replace Cartridge" message comes up on the LED panel, even though the cart has plenty of ink? Then, when you replace that particular cartridge, the message comes up again. No matter what you do, the message keeps popping up and the printer is paralyized. You call Epson, they are sympathetic and overnight a new cartridge and the same thing happens? Then the you are told that Decision One, Epson's preferred repair contractor, will phone you to schedule a repair visit. Then Decision One calls, asks for a credit card number, and says that it may cost anywhere from $300 to $2400 to fix a printer that is five months out of warranty?

[Ernst Dinkla]

One would check and clean  the chip contacts in the cartridge slot first before getting a serviceman I think. Also check whether one of carts could have damaged the contacts due to a misaligned chip.

And tap all the carts gathered on the table to free any air bells that may reside in the ink "conductivity" sensor of the cart. Pulling some air/ink with a syringe (no needle) from the cart connector is another step. The chance is probably less than a promille that all carts suffer of that problem but 2400$ is a lot of money.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

[Farmer]

Also, if you haven't already and if you can get the printer to let you, upgrade the firmware.

[BobDavid]

I did get the 9900 to work today. I pulled out the carts in the left bay, and used the same cleaner/solvent that I use to clean the digital sensor in my medium format camera. I soaked a lint-free cloth with the solvent and rubbed the contacts in the Epson. Now it is working.

[langier]

For any type of contact cleaning, I use zero-residue cleaner available at most electronic supply houses, such as Frys, Radio Shack, etc. Also known as "tuner cleaner" from the days of analog.

Between this juice and a Q-tip, most contact problems are resolved.

[jule]

I had this happen to me a couple of weeks ago. I had half a cartridge of yellow, and express posted another - which I opened and inserted - with the same error message being displayed. My lockal Kayell rep advised me to get some electronic cleaning fluid and q-tips and clean both the chip on the cartridge and where it rests on the sensor bit inside the printer.

He suggested I do all of them, so I diligently turned the printer off and removed them all and cleaned all the surfaces as i was instructed to. The left bank of cartridges seated back into place, but it was weird that none of the right cartridges would push into place. I was wishing at that stage I only did the Yellow which the error message was for. I turend the printer on thinking that perhaps it needed to be fired up again to get it accepting the cartridges.... but alas this didn't do anything either.

Another phone call to Kayell, and Phil then suggested to remove the offending cartridges torally away from the holding bank, turn the computer off... wait a while.... then insert the cartridges. Presto! They would seat correctly in place. he said that sometimes the electrical residue/current from all the cartridges sitting nearly in place can upset the electrical something in the computer. Anyyway it worked.

The cleaning however only worked for about another half an hour and another cartridge was the cause of this same error message. Cleaned the offending bits and then worked worked for a few days without any further incident. Decide to leave the half yellow cartridge in storage rather than the full one in case something dried out and therefore the less watage option. Would have prefered the error message to say - "Clean contacts" rather than "replace ink cartridge though" !

Julie

[StarkRaven]

Here's my take (I have a 9900).

My problem was similar to that stated by so many... new cartridge inserted, followed by an "error" message. And I took the same steps suggested by so many: I burnished and cleaned the contact (using an eraser followed by alcohol & Q-tip): I tapped the cartridge on various density hard surfaces; and  I made a mess by trying to release any air bubble(s) with the straightened end of a paper clip (some of the ink got released into the interior of the cartridge case - ugh). I alternated between these three strategies repeatedly over the course of hours. Nothing worked, no luck.

I did notice something that no one seems to have mentioned:
When inserting the new cartridge, the bar display in the window would indicate "100% full". That was encouraging (suggesting that the contacts were clean and being read by the printer). But my next step (printing out a nozzle check) inevitably resulted in an "error" message, immediately followed by the bar display in the window going down to zero with a mocking "X".

This suggested to me that the problem was not the contact, but air (or whatever) in the cartridge. After dinking around with this for hours last night, I settled on one last thing: setting the cartridge on end on my table, with the hole upward, thinking that any air bubbles might need time to work their way up through the somewhat viscous ink and rise to the hole. I intended to let it sit overnight, and then "burp" the damned thing in the morning before calling Epson.

This morning, I tried inserting the cartridge before burping (and then calling Epson in a panic) - and it works. My conclusions?

1.) Diagnosing whether a cartridge error is based on the contact, or on an air bubble, might be determined by whether or not the printer initially registers the cartridge as "full" (before trying to print anything). If it doesn't register, then it's probably the contact.

2.) Reasoning that the cartridge has been bounced around during shipping & subjected to all kinds of variations in temp, barometric pressure & humidity, I'm resolving to let it sit for a day to relax and to get used to its new surroundings. Treating it like a good red wine & exercising some patience might not be a bad strategy. Maybe it's significant that the cartridge shipped out of Dallas and was delivered to me three days later in Albuquerque (5000 foot elevation difference, low humidity, temps in the 95-100 degree range, and it probably spent the night in an air-conditioned UPS warehouse before spending hours in a hot UPS truck).

3.) Enormous stress might've been avoided. I've had a couple of jobs stalled since before the weekend pending getting this cartridge. My customers were already impatient, and I'd foolishly promised that I'd have their prints ready last night (knowing the new cartridge was scheduled for delivery yesterday, and figuring that I'd simply replace it & get straight to printing). From now on, I'm planning on ordering early enough that I'll have at least 24 hours lead time, after cartridge delivery, before planning on getting any promised prints out.