Digital BW, The Print

At risk of annoying people who have maybe laboured through  
explanations in the past, I wonder if I could ask a question about  
this issue and the response to it?

I have ESP 7500. I have clogging issues with black but not really  
anything else. It developed after I changed from Epson standard  
pigments to Fotonics but gradually. For reasons which I will not go  
into at any length here I gave up with Lyson and bought MIS PRO  
carts. Between the changes I was very very thorough about cleaning  
using cleaning cartridges and exhausting all the vestiges of ink in  
the system. I am also very well versed in the cleaning processes with  
folded paper towels and old type Windex ( with ammonia ) but I now  
cannot print to plain paper and have to use 720 or 1440 to avoid  
obvious striping and no resolution allows me to avoid banding with  
photo output. If it were working properly I would be perfectly  
content with the printer, so I am loth to change the printer unless  
it is completely uneconomical to repair.

The crux of the matter, for me seems to be (a) a complete lack of  
understanding of how things work at the head end. I do not know what  
a damper does or how it works and would not have a clue as to how to  
maintain them, though I think I should. I have the manual but the  
hints are few and the wording generally a little lacking beginner  
speak and (b) where to get the parts I need here in the UK.

Can someone please point me to a simple explanation and perhaps some  
hints on this. I need to change my waste pads etc and I think other  
maintenance items are recommended to be carried out at the same time.  
I quite like the idea of using bottles instead but I suspect the life  
of the next set of pads will translate as the life of printer for me.  
I would probably upgrade to a 7600 or even a 7800 if there were a  
really good deal around but these seem to be rare in this part of the  
world (Scotland).

Lastly, when I have done the pads change I will need to reset the  
timer / counter and cannot recall how to do this and, again would  
appreciate some guidance. I use the printer with Macs so I think  
there is slightly less access available than is available to PC users  
in terms of controlling the printer from the computer and I cannot  
remember the button combo.

Many thanks for reading this and I hope you can help.

Cheers

Drew