Digital BW, The Print

This is a follow-up to my earlier post about a problem with these
carts on a 1280 with UT2 inks. This is a silver 1280 just over a year
old. Epson replaced the printhead in December. The printer works fine
with one of MIS's cheap color carts installed.

I have two spongeless color carts for this printer filled with UT2
inks. The older one has been refilled only twice and the other is new.
Neither is working properly.

I've had erratic output with one channel or another dropping out
entirely from time to time for the past 2-3 months--not during
printing, but between printing sessions. Until a few days ago, I
thought it was probably a printhead problem, but decided to get
another cart just to see what it would do. The new cart worked fine
when I first filled it, but has been just as problematic as the older
one ever since.

As of this morning, the older cart had both the yellow and magenta
channels missing entirely. The newer cart had the light magenta
channel missing.

I spoke with MIS tech support today and they suggested using a blunt
instrument (e.g., a ballpoint pen) to push the poppet valves up into
the cartridge. I asked about using the bottom fill adapter and was
told that would work just fine, too.

So I did that with both carts. I did a cleaning and immediately got
two good small prints from the newer cart. But on the third print, the
light magenta channel began fading and was gone entirely by the end of
the print. I eventually got the cart to print again--two good small
prints--and then, a while later, no light magenta again. Further
efforts to revive that channel have been futile by pushing up the
poppet valve and/or pulling a little ink with the bottom fill adapter.

I installed the older cart, and after just a few passes of the
printhead the yellow channel print began printing perfectly, but there
was no magenta ink being put down at all. A few additional attempts to
push the magenta poppet valve up into the cart and one occasion of
drawing a little ink from the cart made no difference. The magenta
channel is still missing entirely and the yellow channel is currently
printing consistently.

So, the poppet valves seem to be the problem based on my experiences
today. However, MIS' solution doesn't always work or may only work
intermittently. I've just emailed them this evening with this info,
but am wondering if anyone else here has had the problem or has a
working solution that I can try over the weekend.

My original 1280 worked flawlessly with a CIS and VM/UT2 inks for
yeasr. I rarely turned it off and rarely even bothered with nozzle
checks. This silver version, after about eight months of light,
generally trouble-free use, has been a royal pain in the butt--both
with the CIS and now the MIS spongeless carts.

TIA for any suggestions...

Tom Keesling
Hoosier Recollections
Indianapolis