Epson CX3800 only prints blank pages ?

[jlw808]

i bought my epson cx3800 printer in 2005, but i have rarely used it much at all since owning it, but whenever i did use it, it worked perfectly.

recently i bought all new ink cartridges for it, it takes 4 cartridges, one for each color (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), i bought the black cartridge at office depot which was epson for $22, but then i found out theres a store called Cartridge World that sells ink cartridges cheaper for $11 each, so i bought the rest of the three from them, and i installed all of them, and i got the most updated driver, and it only prints blank pages out ???

i have windows xp sp3, on dell dimension 2400 desktop

i tried using different USB cord, tried taking USB out of USB splitter/extension i had and plugging it directly into the USB slot on the computer, i tried unplugging power cord, waiting 5 mins and plugging it back in, and tried uninstall and reinstalling the driver, but nothing works ???

is it possible that if i did'nt use it regularly, that something could of clogged or dried up inside that is causing it to not be able to print ?

also, i heard it won't print unless you are using genuine epson ink cartridges, i called the guy at cartridge world and asked and he said they are epson, but remanufactured, but could they be different and not genuine enough to cause it to not print maybe ???

any help on how i can get it to work would be appreciated, thanks in advance

 

[micheal.kinney]

Unless the printer had been sitting for a while, I'm doubting that the issue would be a clog but my main concern is the ink you purchased. If it's re-manufactured there are a few problems you can run into: 1. is that the chips on the cartridges are faulty or just wrong (this can mess up your printer or just not work), 2. the cartridges you got for cheap could be old and not work properly (hense why they were cheap?), 3. did they snap in well and puncture the holes on the bottom and/or do they sit right?. 4. Have you tried using genuine/new inks to see if the problem goes away?

It doesn't sound like anything had changed but another problem you can have is that you need to replace/update your driver. Depending on what you are printing, if the printers driver does not understand the encoding of the file it can either print out gibberish or blank pages (this pretty much applies to all printers).

FYI, re-manufactured inks are not genuine. I'm not knocking using non-oem inks but re-manufactured cartridges are 50/50.. depends on where you get them. The problem is the chip, not the ink itself. The dude is running a store and probably needs to see 45% markup for the item.. you're better off buying them online for like half the price. Use super media store dot com, I've never had a problem.

My suggestion on using a different direction for Saving a Buck!!
I use a similar system on all my Epson printers called a CISS (continuous ink supply system), it's a type of refill system and in my opinion it is the best (not the mess of refills or the headache of locating good re-manufactured inks). I used to use the non-oem cartridges all the time and I even tried refills but CISS is a million times better if used right. CISS works much better but a word of warning: if you set one up you need to follow the directions exactly, put the "reservoirs" at the same level as the print head (otherwise gravity will cause you problems), and print at least a few times a week. The worst thing you can do with a printer is not use it. You can even set a scheduled task in Windows to print a test print/calibration page every so often. I'd put a number on them and check so often to see if it's printing well. Btw, I've never had issues with a CISS itself, just either the people using it or the printer itself. CISS ink is not re-manufactured, they are new and your printer will think they are genuine. They come with custom chips instead of re-manufactured ones and work incredibly well and have a reset button on them to reset the ink levels. One cartridge worth of ink equivalent runs me about 26 cents.

Hope this helps and good luck.

-Micheal

 

[micheal.kinney]

This one would work just fine:

ebay dot com /itm/120667837382

 

[jlw808]

sorry taking long to reply, i missed the email saying there was a new reply to my post,

but since i made this post, i ended up taking the printer into the kitchen put it on a table over some garbage bags, and followed steps i saw on couple sites, to clean the nozzles / print head, before doing that, i noticed the yellow cartridge that was a new remanufactured one, did'nt look like the tiny hole on the bottom was open? like the other ones?, and when poking at it with a little needle, it was like a piece of plastic or something was over the hole?, i soaked it in hot water and then poked around and eventually picked that film of dried ink out and freed up the tiny hole where i could see it finally, i was thinking might have something to do with not working since it needs all of them to work?, and i made sure that when you press in the little thing around the hole, that you see some ink come out, and i did on all of them,

then i did the steps and cleaned the foam pads and capstand thing on the right side that the printhead goes over when it clicks to the right, i put a thin towel under the printhead that was soaked in alcohol and i moved it across it several times, and i used a small turkey baster squirting thing i had to squirt really hot water into the ink nozzle holes on the to of the print head that the ink from the cartridges go into to get into the print head, and did a couple times, and later did it with alcohol, making sure to cover under with towels so printer did'nt get all wet when it drained through,

after i saw a difference cause the tiny holes on top of the nozzle things did'nt have color blocking in the little holes, and were open, except the yellow one still had some yellow in the little holes, but some were open, then i let it dry with a fan and used a sponge and little chamoise cloth also to dry it. and when i did each of the above things, i waited a couple hours between cleaning and soaking etc . . .,

so later i put the cartridges back in, and went to try to use it and curious to see if what i did helped anything, and it turned on and did'nt have any problems, and i tried a nozzle check / test print, and i was surprised, instead of just printing blank pages, it actually printed something out ?, it had the same pattern the test supposed to show, not exactly, but close and was printing something.

then i also tried doing the print head clean process by pressing the ink button for 5 seconds and holding down and letting it clean it, about 3 times, even know i heard it wastes ink doing it, then i tried a test print and it printed a bunch of blue horizontal lines across and down the length of whole page, but not sure thats what the test print supposed to look like or not?, but at least it printed something?

but i tried to print something else, and had an error saying "check to see if something stuck or blocking printer" ?, and turn back on?, i turned it off and looked in and did'nt see anything, turned back on and then i started to print something else and printed a little but had error again, and have to turn off and back on and wait, not sure bit could have something to do with the print head not clicking all the way over towards the right? over that capstand thing, that clicks it in place underneath it?, it did'nt look like i broke any parts on it, but looked a little out of line and i just click the piece underneath it with my thumb towards the right and then seat the print head over it, and then it seemed to start printing again, but its still ends up doing same thing and eventually has error saying check something stuck in printer, and turn off and on etc . . ., hopefully i did'nt break anything?, but i'm not going to go too deep with troubleshooting this printer, but i hate that i got so close and just a little problem is preventing it from continuing to print?, i can look at it again to try adjusting that part that clicks it to the right to make sure it looks good or not,

so seeing it actually print stuff now i know its not the cartridges and it was just clogged and dried from not being used enough, and cleaning helped but now get that error,

you have any ideas or anything i can check you know of? thanks