Epson 7890 --old ink questions

[Dave Gurtcheff]

Hello folks. I am an 86 year Amateur that used to sell my framed seascape prints to feed the habit. I have not used my 7890 in quite a while as the Pandemic really screwed up my little side business (we live in a summer resort area). I have to make a big 24"x32" matted and framed print as a donation to our local Maritime Museum Fund Raiser. When I fired up the printer and tried to print out a test print nozzle check, it came out blank (not good news). The printer showed a warning that one ink was empty. I checked and I had a spare 150ml cartridge. I had mistakenly cut open the sealed plastic wrap, some months ago,  then realized my error, and taped the bag shut. When I put this in my printer I got an "X" warning that said "cartridge error" . I assume this must mean the ink in the opened cartridge partially dried up. I did remove and shake it, and replace several times. I tried to run a nozzle clean again several times, and still get low ink warnings on three other colors, plus the "X" bad cartridge warning. I ordered a brand new cartridge for that color (LLK), and ordered the three other colors from ebay that are factory sealed and boxed but out of date at a low price. My thought process is I will waste a lot of ink running multiple nozzle cleaning sessions, so why waste new ink? Once everything is up and running I will probably get brand new inks. Every time in the past that I have had to run multiple nozzle cleanings I make a resolution to print a nozzle check pattern weekly, but I never do. To make matters worse we live on a barrier island, bay front, and we have a lot of damp salt air conditions. I guess I am looking for advice (other than scolding me for letting it go so long between nozzle checks). Thanks and be kind to an old man. TIA.
Dave Gurtcheff
Beach Haven, NJ
web site to see what I do:
www.modernpictorials.com

[tastar]

The 150 ml cartridge is probably bad - the chip on the cartridge keeps track of ink usage, so I would guess that this chip is bad since it's a new cartridge. If you use expired ink, like your eBay ink, you should be fine - but you should rotate the cartridges before putting them in (don't shake them but rotate them to refresh settled ink pigment). You can also soak the head for a couple of hours (or over night) using a lint free cloth dipped in Simple Green (or ammonia free Windex) - move the head off the capping station and put the cloth under the head - the cloth should pull ink through the head. Humidity is good for the printer.

Hope that you get it running!

Tony

[Dave Gurtcheff]

Thank you Tony. If I get to the manual head cleaning I may be past my comfort zone.
Best to you.
Dave

[Dave Gurtcheff]

Somewhat of a miracle: Last night I recleaned the chip and reinstalled the cartridge that gave me the error warning. The printer then said cleaning, please wait. I waited for 4 or 5 hours and nothing happened. The printer made no "cleaning noises". Before bed time I decided to power off the printer. It hung up and said shutting down please wait, but nothing happened, it would not power off. I waited and it would not power off, so I went to bed, thinking I would need to craw behind the printer and pull the power plug to shut it off. When I got up this morning the printer had powered off! I fired it up, did one nozzle cleaning and made a nozzle check print, and it was perfect! I made a successful 20"x30" print. When the print was finished I got a clogged nozzle warning so I did a cleaning cycle. That finished and I got another clogged warning and asked if I wanted to repeat the cleaning, which I did, and the warnings all went away, I shut down the printer, and covered it up. My wife marked up our calendar we keep on the refrigerator with "Nozzle Check" on every Saturday for the remainder of the year. I mounted, matted and framed the image and we are  donating it to the local Maritime Museum Fund raiser. It is a scene never to be seen again, as the quaint buildings (shacks) in the background were knocked down and replaced with multi level condos. I think the print will auction off at a nice amount for the museum. Here is the image;