Epson Stylus COLOR 850N Product Information Guide - Page 10

EPSON Stylus COLOR 850N Replacing an Outdated Ink Cartridge If an ink cartridge is more than six months old, you may need to replace it. How can you tell? You may notice that your printouts don't look as good as they used to. If print quality doesn't improve after cleaning and aligning the print heads, you can replace one or both cartridges. Follow these steps to replace an ink cartridge before the B black or A color ink out light is flashing or on: 1. Make sure the printer is turned on and not printing. 2. Lower the output tray and raise the printer cover. Then locate the Y black and X color cleaning buttons next to the control panel under the printer's cover. Caution: To avoid damaging the printer, never move the print heads by hand. 3. Press both the Y black and X color cleaning buttons and hold them down for a few seconds until the black print head moves to the left. t To replace the black ink cartridge, follow the instructions beginning with step 4 of "Removing an Empty Ink Cartridge" on page 9. t To replace the color ink cartridge, press the X color cleaning button and hold it down for a few seconds. After the color ink cartridge moves to the left, follow the instructions beginning with step 4 of "Removing an Empty Ink Cartridge" on page 9. Cleaning the Print Heads If your printed image is unexpectedly light or faint, or dots are missing from the image, you may need to clean the print heads. This unclogs the nozzles so they can deliver ink properly. Cleaning the print heads uses ink, so clean them only if print quality declines. You can clean the print heads in either of the following ways: t With the Head Cleaning utility in your printer software (when the printer is on a local port, not on a network) t Using the printer's control panel buttons Using the Head Cleaning Utility Follow these steps to run the utility from a Windows computer or a Macintosh: 1. Make sure the printer is turned on but not printing, and the B black and A color ink out lights are off. 2. Access the printer settings dialog box. 3. Click the Utility tab (Windows) or the Utility button (Macintosh). You see the Utility menu. 4. Click the Head Cleaning button. 5. Follow the instructions on the screen to clean one or both print heads. Cleaning each head takes about two minutes, during which the printer makes some noise and the Ppower light flashes. When the power light stops flashing, you need to run a nozzle check to test the print quality and reset the cleaning cycle. Caution: Never turn off the printer when the P power light is flashing, unless the printer hasn't moved or made any noise for more than 10 minutes. 6. Make sure paper is loaded in the printer and click Print nozzle check pattern (Windows) or Confirmation (Macintosh). Then click Next. See "Examining the Nozzle Check Pattern" on page 11 for instructions. If your print quality has not improved, repeat the steps above. If you don't notice any improvement after doing this two or three times, check the print quality solutions in the User's Guide. Using the Control Panel Follow these steps to clean the print heads: 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. Open the printer cover, then press the Y black or X color cleaning button and hold it for three seconds. Cleaning takes about two minutes, during which the printer makes some noise and the Ppower light flashes. 3. When the Ppower light stops flashing, repeat step 3 for the other print head if necessary. Caution: Never turn off the printer when the P power light is flashing, unless the printer hasn't moved or made any noise for more than 10 minutes. 4. After you're finished cleaning and the Ppower light stops flashing, you need to 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 5. If you're using DOS or a network interface card, open an application and print a document containing black and color data. Then go to step 7. 5. Access the printer settings dialog box. Then click the Utility tab (Windows) or the Utility button (Macintosh). You see the Utility menu. 10 - EPSON Stylus COLOR 850N 4/98