What to do when a printer runs out of ink...

[John V.]

Buy more ink! haha.

No, but seriously, I'm kind of concerned because I'm not sure how my 4900 will behave. The new cart won't be here for a few days.

Bad timing on my part. I ran out of Vivid Light Magenta the other day. It became apparent it was nearly gone when I did my routine nozzle check two days ago.

Looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/3N8Kfg4.jpg

There's not even enough ink to do a cleaning. So I figure it's not a blockage, there's just nothing left.

Is there anything that I should/shouldn't do to help prevent this thing from turning into a doorstop? Or should it be ok?

EDIT 12/18: I was originally concerned about not being able to complete a cleaning cycle because of lack of ink and leaving the VLM channel looking as it does in the picture above. Installing a new cart and 3 days worth of various attempts to bring the VLM back , nothing has worked.

[DeanChriss]

So you're worried about the fact that it's either clogged or missing ink in some nozzles and you have to leave it that way for a few days, right? I have no experience with the 4900, but have had a 7900 for 6 years. It has sat unused for a maximum of 6 weeks, and sits unused for 3-4 weeks a few times each year when I travel, and a couple cleaning cycles always brings it back to 100%. The only difference I see is that to the best of my knowledge the printer always had a good nozzle check when I left it, but it occasionally has nozzle checks worse than yours when I fire it up again, and they could have been that way for weeks.

That's all I know, but I think it'll be fine.  

[John V.]

Yeah I know a 7900 owner and I've seen complete blockages go back to 100% after just a normal clean. My inexperience with how these print heads technically work, combined with the variety of 4900 "horror story" threads just got me thinking...

[Jglaser757]

I was told that sometimes you can do a super clean and if it is still clogged, leave it for a few hours and sometimes the ink will dissolve the clog.

[rmyers]

I mistakenly thought I had a spare cartridge once, and let my 3880 run out of a color completely while a print was being made.  I left it on and ordered a spare cartridge.  It arrived a few days later, and I plugged it in and it completed the print like nothing happened.  I was impressed. 

[John V.]

"while a print was being made".. ? wow, that is pretty impressive...

[davidh202]

There's not even enough ink to do a cleaning. So I figure it's not a blockage, there's just nothing left.

You are correct ... not a clog- just no ink!

Leave the empty cart in, and turn the machine off and let the head sit on the capping station to keep from drying the outer surface of the nozzles until you can put the new cart in. The machine will do a  ink charging cycle when you do put the new cart in and hopefully the channel will come back. DO NOT DO multiple cleanings without printing in between, it should not be necessary to do anything but a regular pair clean if necessary.

[John V.]

>DO NOT DO multiple cleanings without printing in between

would printing a nozzle check be considered a print? Or does that not exercise the nozzles enough?

I usually print a check, clean if necessary, print a check, clean if needed, etc etc...

[aduke]

I believe that the Epson printer cartridges are not actually empty when the printer reports that they are. I think that there is still some ink, perhaps a couple of ml's worth remaining, not to mention the ink still in the line.

The Epson system is normally able to continue with a print even if it reports that it is out of ink during the print process. Putting in a new cartridge does not seem to involve pumping ink into the lines in order to continue. I change a cartridge and the print continues from the same horizontal position that it was in when there was ink. I would guess that the printing could not reposition the head to get back to the exact same position if the head was moved during the ink change procedure.

Therefore, if you do not have a replacement cartridge in your possession when it becomes empty, you will lose the current print when you turn off the printer, but that is best practice for these printers if it will be one for a long period of time.

The purpose of the low ink warnings from the print driver are so you can purchase the soon-to-be-needed cartridges. 

The above has been my experience with the 4880 over the last several years.

Alan

[Ken Doo]

If you're out of ink---nothing on the shelf and the wait for the big brown truck to deliver your new cartridges gets to be a bit long (or makes you nervous)-----I would simply make sure that the capping station stays moist.  You can put a few drops of warm water to keep it wet, but it'll probably be just fine by the time UPS makes the delivery.   

PITA to run out of ink, so I always keep a spare cartridge on the shelf. Shame on you---you're not following Epson's preferred practices to keep/purchase ample reserves of that liquid gold.....   

ken

[PhotoEcosse]

Can't speak about your model but, on my R3000, if a cartridge runs out in the middle of a print, it is simply a case of replacing that cartridge and the printing will continue. On a couple of occasions that has meant leaving it lying mid-print for a couple of days while new cartridges were ordered. There is absolutely no visible sign on the print that the process had stopped and restarted.

Ink is far too expensive to change a cartridge just because it looks "like it might run out soon".

[BobShaw]

My experience is that most times the print completes with no mark and sometimes there is a mark. If it is below 2% and you are going to print something big or important I would change it.

[John V.]

>>DO NOT DO multiple cleanings without printing in between

would printing a nozzle check be considered a print? Or does that not exercise the nozzles enough?

I usually print a check, clean if necessary, print a check, clean if needed, etc etc...

Good stuff.

Do I get a yea or nay on this?

[Wayne Fox]

>DO NOT DO multiple cleanings without printing in between

would printing a nozzle check be considered a print? Or does that not exercise the nozzles enough?

I usually print a check, clean if necessary, print a check, clean if needed, etc etc...

No.  A nozzle check uses an extremely minuscule amount of ink, not enough to resolve air that can get pulled back into the nozzle during cleaning.  sometimes you even lose other colors during a clean because of this. You may be OK after doing a simple channel clean to run a nozzle check, but if you do more than one clean, or use the powerful setting, print something.

Find a good image that uses all colors. you are welcome to use a couple of images I’ve made just for this purpose.  the first mixes colors to try to simulate more of the process when printing a photograph.  the second one tries to isolate each color in it’s own strip.  It’s helpful to show banding in specific channels.  I’ve tried to isolate each color to use the exact matching color of ink, but not much success, they all mix a little of other colors.  Still a good page to print after a clean.  Print from Photoshop on plain copy paper, PS manages color with Epson Premium Luster profile.

CleaningPage_v2.jpg
Individual Color Bands Cleaning Page

I have a few customers that print one of these each day they don’t print something else, seems to help.  (humidity helps the most, I rarely have issues with the printer in a room that is a constant 45%)

[John V.]

Alright, thanks for the test charts.

However, it happened.

New cart came today. The entire channel of VLM is still blocked , with the exception of little strips here and there, no more than a 1-2 mm long. Only 3 or so of those strips in the nozzle check pattern.

1) I installed the cart and printed a nozzle check pattern. It looked the same as it did when the machine ran out.
2) executed normal cleaning cycle.. printed a nozzle check.. repeated this process twice. minimal difference.
3) executed power clean. printed Waynes individual chart. I can see VLK ink coming through, also with a a slight striped pattern
4) Repeated these processes variously. Still making a print after each cleaning.
5) I now get one little 2 mm strip of VLM.

Before I start digging through the threads, is there anything I should consider to be the real problem here?
Is there a chance this could just be air trapped in the system?

[Wayne Fox]

So have the segments on the VLM changed?  Are any showing that were not showing before?  Each segment is produced by a single nozzle, if all the cleaning isn’t changing anything, then you may have a bad damper (allowing air in), or worse a head.  A bad damper usually exhibits loss of all nozzles, sometimes all at once.  The damper is designed to let air escape from the feed line to prevent a bubble from getting through to the nozzles, if it isn’t working right then it allows air in, so ink doesn’t get to the head.

The one thing you might try is moistening the area inside the capping station with some distilled water, and then shut the machine down for 24 hours which will seal the head in the capping station.This will often will soften stubborn ink so a clean will free it up. When starting it do a power clean followed by printing a cleaning page,  See if this changes any thing in VLM with the nozzle check.

If any nozzles that previously weren’t showing up do show up, this indicates the head is probably OK.

[John V.]

So have the segments on the VLM changed?  Are any showing that were not showing before?  Each segment is produced by a single nozzle, if all the cleaning isn’t changing anything, then you may have a bad damper (allowing air in), or worse a head.  A bad damper usually exhibits loss of all nozzles, sometimes all at once.  The damper is designed to let air escape from the feed line to prevent a bubble from getting through to the nozzles, if it isn’t working right then it allows air in, so ink doesn’t get to the head.

The one thing you might try is moistening the area inside the capping station with some distilled water, and then shut the machine down for 24 hours which will seal the head in the capping station.This will often will soften stubborn ink so a clean will free it up. When starting it do a power clean followed by printing a cleaning page,  See if this changes any thing in VLM with the nozzle check.

If any nozzles that previously weren’t showing up do show up, this indicates the head is probably OK.

>>The one thing you might try is moistening the area inside the capping station with some distilled water.

I'll do this.


Last night, I turned the machine off for 24hrs, as that has helped to clear things up in the past.

I printed a nozzle check pattern just now, and unfortunately it looks the same. I executed a regular cleaning and after printing another check pattern, things actually look worse. There were fewer segments. I'm looking at some recent threads, and started to document all the happenings. Will follow up.

I have had very few real problems with this machine (it's humid here). To have this all come about because of running out of ink it really odd.

[davidh202]

If you do not have the printer set to auto clean & check do it and see what the printer does on it's own when you try an do one of Waynes test prints!
It may take a couple of tries to work the air out of the line and get VLM flowing again I don't thinke the head is bad or the dampers ,It is lack of ink ,I had the same situation with Cyan on Saturday and brought the channel back after two cleans.
DONT do power cleans !

[John V.]

Still no real improvement. Before I call Epson, I'd like to throw this out there...

1) http://i.imgur.com/izg9uW0.jpg

This is about as good as it's been since the cart ran out. Over the past 5 days, it's gone from that, to basically nothing, with all kinds of patterns in between.
Cleanings seem to make it worse. Letting the machine sit powered off overnight seems to help, though minimal.

2) http://i.imgur.com/5joq5Xv.jpg

I took only the VLM from Wayne's chart and enlarged it. This is what it looks like when it prints. This stared to improve after about the 4th print. Though you could sill see the stripes. What is this?

Does this make any sort of sense? This machine has had no real problems until now (Merry Christmas).

[Chris233]

Wayne, excellent advice!

Damper, maybe if there is a nasty pocket of air blocking that channel.

Check pump cap seals to printhead.

Initial fill for VLM is much like a Hail Mary, but usually resolves air pockets. And doesn't require opening the machine.

More advanced, not recommended if never serviced these machines:
Disconnect damper kit from print head and disconnect the tube junction at ink bays. Using  a syringe, push warm water from the ink bay all the way through and out the damper kit; While redirecting the waste water to a bucket. Then remove dampers, inspect and flush/ replace if needed.

Remove printhead, inspect for damage, clean platen very gently by running warm water (pure bottled water) over the nozzle plate surface.

Remove printhead first, soak platen in ink drawn from one of the cartridges while flushing the ink delivery lines. reinstall printhead last after wiping off the ink using warm bottled water.

Reassemble, run initial fill, nozzle check, initial fill if needed, nozzle check.

This procedure, while very risky to non-service techs, does usually resolve. If unsuccessful, it's 95% due to a failed printhead and/or failed pump cap.

To further complete this procedure, remove ink bay(s) and flush with warm, pure water.

Note, while flushing the system; I've found the most resistance pushing through water due to a bad damper or a kink in that ink line. Sometimes the plastic mounting brackets for the ink tubes apply pressure on the lines, starving the system of ink. The ink tubes sometimes expand. Removing these brackets sometimes recovers the system.

But your problem is the system ran out of ink. Flushing the system has a good chance to resolve, pending the printhead is not permanently blocked. Which brings me back to checking the pump cap connection; and flushing the system of dry ink..

Calling Epson will just throw a bunch of parts at it, at your expense after warrantee.