Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Martin Wesley" 
<mwesley250@e...> wrote:
> I had my 1280 fail last night. <snip>
> 
> Has anyone else experiences a similar problem like this when using 
aftermarket cartridge chips? It probably is not related, but I am a 
little nervous about the possibility that the aftermarket chips might 
have damaged something in the printer.
> 
> Thanks,
> Martin
> 

Martin,

I had one incident  vaugely close to what you describe, but not as 
bad. I reset my non CIS carts with a QB7 resetter. Once when I 
installed a K cart, the light stayed on, or flashed I can't remember. 
The carriage returned but it didn't prime. The ink monitor was 
grey-busted. I couldn't even get the Russian win98 dos resetter to 
recognise the computer and the cpu hung. 

I rebooted, and quickly taking the k cart out and putting it up 
against the QB7 and re-installing fixed the problem. I was thinking it 
may have been due to my touching the chip when refilling and after 
using QB7, so now I use the QB7 both before and after filling, just to 
be supersitious.

This experience of yours is a little nerve wracking. I have a couple 
of shots in the dark though for you, since it's sitting there with 
it's noggin blown:

1) If you remove the carts and examine the gold tines in the printhead 
carefully, are any out of alignment, touching each other, twisted, 
bent too far out or in, etc? I have heard that chips that fall out of 
the cart can cause the tines to get bent when cart is removed. Maybe 
something less serious but still enough of a disruptive force on 
contacts has caused a misalignment (just takes one contact skewed). I 
now use a small soldering tip to melt the nubbins on the cart over the 
chips. Also remember that even if not shorting, what will happen when 
a cart is put in? Will the tines depress so as to short or not make 
contact when a cart is inserted?

2)I wish I remembered the details of the post, but someone once had an 
1280 with blinking lights, going weird, motionless. There was some 
sequence of button pushing/holding that if done just right, released 
the printer from this and it returned to normal.

3) Static electrical discharge to the chip? Or are there pits on the 
gold plated surface of the chip board from repeated QB7 resetting? 
Frankly, since the Epson carts didn't work either, my bets are on #1 
above, if any.

Martin let me know about this, it worries me too...
Jim H.