Digital BW, The Print

I agree with Chris' advice.  

I just removed my 4000 from storage after about 12 months with the 
original cartridges installed and without having flushed the lines of 
ink prior to storage.  Frankly, I was expecting a nightmare, but it 
wasn't as bad as I expected.

Before trying a power clean which uses a lot of ink, try doing a 
normal cleaning a few times, then an auto clean if it is still 
plugged.  

If this doesn't do it, you may wish to consider doing a "puddle 
clean".  This consists of going into the maintenance menu, cutter 
replacement (to move the head aside), then adding some water into the 
parking pad so that it creates a shallow puddle of water.  I usually 
mop up the old ink with a paper towel first, then inject more water 
to give me a cleaner puddle.  Then, when you close the cover, the 
head will park itself in the well moistened pad.  After it has 
parked, turn it off using the printer's power switch.  Let it sit 
overnight and then power it up the next morning.  The water in the 
pad contacting the head will help loosen up crud and ink.

Then do a nozzle check.  It if is still partially clogged, do a 
normal cleaning.  If still clogged, try an auto clean.  These use a 
lot less ink than a power clean.  It may take a few normal cleanings 
to clear the heads.  If all else fails, do a power clean, but be 
prepared to consume about 1/3 of all your 110 ml cartridges of ink.  

My 4000 cleared after doing this procedure without resorting to a 
power cleaning routine.  Hope it works for you.   BTW, I usually put 
a few drops of water on the parking pad every few days to make sure 
the heads stay moist.  This helps to reduce some of the clogs that 
are a persistent problem with the 4000.  

Good luck.

Lou

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "guangchengshui" 
<cklee313@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Paul,
> 
> I recently got a 9500 back to life after about 12 months of non-use,
> collecting dust in a storage area.  I would say the first thing 
would
> be (after wiping it down of course) to plug it in, hook it up to a
> computer and see how its doing.  If it still has ink in its
> cartridges, make some test prints.  There will most likely be 
banding
> (horizontal white lines) and the color will probably have shifted, 
but
> it should give you an idea.  
> 
> I would recommend using a coated matte paper (like Epson Enhanced
> matte or equivalent), not plain or glossy to do tests.  When you are
> doing the tests, experiment with different output resolutions (720,
> 1440, 2880) and the high speed/super controls.  If there is banding,
> go into the maintenance mode and run a power cleaning cycle (press 
the
> menu button, scroll down to Maintenance, and select Power 
cleaning). 
> I wouldn't recommend bothering with the regular cleaning cycle at 
this
> point, it won't do much good.  
> 
> If, after the power cleaning, you are still getting banding, you 
might
> want to try some print head cleaner.  I know that
> fixyourownprinter.com and MIS (inksupply.com) both sell one.  By the
> way, I am not affiliated with either of those companies.   The
> cleaners should come with instructions, but if not, let me know and 
I
> can explain it to you.  
> 
> In my case, I had to go all the way to the point of flushing the
> printer with distilled water, and then flushing fluid from before it
> was completely fixed.  With the distilled water, I just flushed and
> filled the old carts, making sure not to leave any air bubbles in
> them.  Afterwards, I put some flushing fluid (different from the
> cleaning fluid mentioned before) in the carts and ran that through. 
> You can also buy pre-filled flushing carts from MIS, but they run
> about $20 a cart.  When using this method, the best thing to do is
> print solid blocks of color (one line each of MK,C,M,Y,PK,LC,LM,LK)
> until it is running clean.  Then install new cartridges and do the
> same thing until they run solid.  Good luck!
> 
> -Chris 
> 
>  
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Paul Repacholi
> <prep@> wrote:
> >
> > 
> > I can get an Epsom 4000 that has sat unused for about 12 months.
> > As in put under a table and kicked on odd ocasions unsued :(
> > 
> > Can anyone point me to a tips and traps help for getting it
> > back to life? 
> > 
> > tnx
> >
>