Epson Stylus COLOR 740 Special Edition Product Information Guide - Page 14

EPSON Stylus COLOR 740 Cleaning the Print Head If your printed image is unexpectedly light or faint, or dots are missing from the image, you may need to clean the print head. This unclogs the nozzles so they can deliver ink properly. Cleaning the print head uses ink, so clean it only if print quality declines. You can clean the print head in either of the following ways: t With the Head Cleaning utility in your printer software (when connected to a local port, not over a network) t Using the printer's control panel buttons Using the Head Cleaning Utility Follow these steps to run the Head Cleaning utility: 1. Make sure the printer is turned on but not printing, and the B black and A color ink out lights are off. 2. Start an application and open a document. 3. Access the printer settings dialog box as described in the Printer Basics book. 4. Click the Utility tab (Windows) or the Utility icon (Macintosh). You see the Utility menu. 5. Click the Head Cleaning icon. 6. Follow the instructions on the screen to clean the print head. Cleaning takes a couple minutes, during which the printer makes some noise and the P power light flashes. When the P power light stops flashing, run a nozzle check to test the results and reset the cleaning cycle. Caution: Never turn off the printer while the P power light is flashing, unless the printer hasn't moved or made any noise for more than 5 minutes. 7. Make sure paper is loaded in the printer and click Print nozzle check pattern (Windows) or Confirmation (Macintosh). Then click Next. The nozzle check pattern prints on your printer; see "Examining the Nozzle Check Pattern" below for details. 8. If the nozzle check pattern is complete, click Finish. If the pattern is missing dots, click Clean to run another cleaning cycle. If you don't see any improvement after cleaning two or three times, check the print quality solutions in the Printer Basics book. Using the Control Panel Follow these steps to clean the print head: 1. Make sure the printer is turned on and not printing, and that the B black and A color ink out lights are off. 2. Press the R cleaning button and hold it down for three seconds. Cleaning takes a couple minutes, during which the printer makes some noise and the P power light flashes. Caution: Never turn off the printer while the P power light is flashing, unless the printer hasn't moved or made any noise for more than 5 minutes. 3. After the P power light stops flashing, print a page to test the print quality and reset the cleaning cycle. If you're connected directly to the printer, run a nozzle check. Go to step 4. If you're using DOS or printing over a network, open an application and print a document containing black and color data. Then go to step 8. 4. Start an application, open a document, and access the printer settings dialog box. 5. Click the Utility tab (Windows) or the Utility icon (Macintosh). You see the Utility menu. 6. Make sure paper is loaded in the printer and click the Nozzle Check icon, then click Next. The nozzle check pattern prints on your printer; see "Examining the Nozzle Check Pattern" below for details. 7. If the nozzle check pattern is complete, click Finish. 8. If the pattern is missing dots, click Clean to run another cleaning cycle. 9. If you don't see any improvement after cleaning two or three times, check the print quality solutions in the Printer Basics book. Examining the Nozzle Check Pattern Examine the nozzle check pattern you print. It should look something like this, with the lower pattern colored magenta, cyan, and yellow: 14 - EPSON Stylus COLOR 740 7/98