Digital BW, The Print

I have started reading about B&W and BO printing recently and found 
that is a HUGE area that I don't really have time to master right now 
as I currently struggle with a million other technical issues and 
digital printing is not my main business.  However I would like to 
produce some "ok" quality B&W photo prints with the Epson 1280 using 
the Epson inks that we currently have.  So far, everything I do looks 
terrible, but am sure it is a problem with my expertise. BO is awful, 
almost like the head is clogged and is out of ink, grainy beyond 
belief, but there is still black ink left, and we have run the 
cleaning routine repeatedly. FI is better but still has banding, the 
ink still seems to spatter and crap out around any text like with BO, 
and is still just really BAD quality. Printing from Photoshop 7, no 
profile (at this point I don't even care about levels or tone, jsut 
want it to print without banding or spatter) I Have tried grayscale, 
RGB and CMYK modes, and nothing seems to help. Tried printing at 720 
and 1440, 1440 is a little better but still unacceptable. I am also 
wondering if this printer can handle different kinds of elements on 
the page such as flat color areas/graphics, logos and text, or if 
this printer is strictly for photos only?

Everything I have read says we ultimately have to buy the Eboni inks 
for BO and/or others for FI, but I want to get at least a passable 
quality from the standard inks with this printer or I don't think I 
am going to have much luck with better inks. I have a need to print 
just 2 photos in the next two days of passable quality and don't have 
a lot of time to learn or order special/expensive inks.  Later I 
would like to learn and get better inks, but right now we just need 
to get something done. I had assumed that this printer was capable of 
basic printing with the standard inks, perhaps I am on the wrong 
track and my problem is somwhere in a software setting or I have a 
bad cartridge?

Is there a way to get the best possible quality out of the 
1280/Photoshop 7 with the Epson inks?

Windows Xp
Photoshop 7
Epson 1280 Photo

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.