Is my 7900 dead?

[Garnick]

Hi Gary,

I just had a look in case Access would have anything of interest. All I saw was HP and some odds and sods. Then I read the corporate blurb and see they were acquired by HP in 2007, so small wonder. How Canadian, eh? :-)

Hello Mark,

And again, thanks for the 7600 profile, although I sold that printer about a year ago.  Of course I did include your profile for Epson Cold Press Natural, and it was a good one.  I haven't had an opportunity to check Access for a while, so it's no surprise that they have been taken over.  However, they were still selling Epson parts when I purchased the 9900 wiper blades about 3 years ago.  Too bad really, since most of the U.S. sites that sell Epson parts are not allowed to ship to the Great White North.  I imagine due to some sort of Epson restriction/edict, not sure.  "How Canadian, eh? :-)", quite true unfortunately.

Gary     

[Mark D Segal]

........  Too bad really, since most of the U.S. sites that sell Epson parts are not allowed to ship to the Great White North.  I imagine due to some sort of Epson restriction/edict, not sure.  "How Canadian, eh? :-)", quite true unfortunately.

Gary     

Uhuh, possibly - the workaround would be a helpful friend in the US.

[Wayne Fox]

For stubborn nozzle problem, one thing to watch carefully is whether anything you do changes the pattern.  If despite all efforts the exact same nozzles are still missing, that’s a pretty good indication the internals of the head have gone bad or the head itself has been damaged in a head strike.  If there is variation in the pattern of missing nozzles the problem most likely isn’t the head, and could be resolved with proper cleaning/moistening.  If the missing nozzles are moving yet nothing seems to be able to get them all to clear, we have found a damper replacement often resolves the problem.

As far as the wiper, it can normally be kept cleaned and maintained quite easily, it really doesn’t need replaced unless it has been allowed to build up so much ink it won’t clean easily.

Additionally for any reading this thread, I can’t stress enough to not use Windex in the process of trying to clear a nozzle.  Windex has evaporative agents and while they may temporarily dissolve hardened ink, it will re-harden quickly, and in such a way it may make the problem worse not better.  There is also evidence windex can damage the internals of the newer heads used in the 78/9890 and 79/9900.  Use only distilled water, or a solution such as that provided by AIS.

Last, for stubborn nozzles patience is required ... challenging sometimes because the job needs to get printed.  But it may take saturating the capping station with AIS solution and letting the printer sit overnight.

[GeraldB]

Sorry to resurrect such an old topic but since the question of whether the printer is dead was resolved yesterday.

Yes the printer is dead. Yesterday the print head was replaced and it is working fine again. This was after a lot of on site diagnosis by the Epson tech.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I had really hoped to avoid such an expensive repair but in this case it was necessary.

[Mark D Segal]

That's quite a hit, but now that you've had to do it, all the best going forward.