Artisan 1430 cartridge errors

[Dualbunny]

I'm attempting to resuscitate a 1430 that I suspect may have never printed successfully. Everything inside it was pristine, including the ink waste lines, and when I first plugged it in, it would slam the carriage into the left side and stop.

I fixed that problem when I found the ribbon cable for the Sensor FFC (CN14) was disconnected at the Main Board. Since then I've been fighting to get it to recognize a set of OEM cartridges or a CISS, neither successfully so far.

I have replaced the print head, and using my CISS, I was able to prime the head, so that I know ink has filled the air spaces and moved through it. But I cannot get it to recognize all the cartridge slots at the same time.

If I leave one cartridge out, doesn't matter which one, it will appear to recognize the other five, or at least not show error LEDs. If I place all six or a CISS in, none are recognized. I've seen a number of reports of this problem online, but no solutions.

I'm wondering if anyone has a suggestion for additional parts that might be worth replacing? I've seen the discussion about putting a L1800 board in as a replacement to bypass the chip issue, but I'm also curious if anyone has reason to believe it might be the ribbon cables, even though they look fine, clean, I've cleaned contacts and checked the connections many times at this point.

I even swapped the CSIC Board from my working 1430 into this one to see if that was the issue, but it didn't change anything. I haven't updated firmware successfully because of the cartridge errors, and so have no reason to think it's running anything recent. My other 1430 is running the latest firmware with no issues.

I'm considering new ribbon cables or a new main board, but I'd love to know if this sounds familiar to anyone--thanks!

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

If I leave one cartridge out, doesn't matter which one, it will appear to recognize the other five, or at least not show error LEDs.

I'm reluctant to assume that such effects can be caused by a problem with the flat cables, it very much looks like a misbehaviour of the firmware. You may run the status report of the WICReset utility which tells you the firmware version and possible other major problems by error code and a short description.

 

[Dualbunny]

Below is the WIC report. It is running the oldest firmware, the one suggested for downgrading, though I suppose there's no way to know if it's corrupted itself in some way. I'm unclear on why each cartridge is listed twice, and haven't been able to find an explanation of those descriptions yet. It also supports my idea that it was barely used from the start. The last four error codes were due to the unplugged cable, but the first code is a little troubling. My best guess based on googling is that it was related to a temperature error signalling either a print head or main board failure. But that wasn't a fatal error I had to deal with. It does make me wonder if the board may still have an issue.

As I mentioned, I replaced the print head, but prior to that, I was getting a similar situation with it. It would allow me to insert all 6 cartridges, but it would never accept all 6. One was always showing the error LED. Then eventually it wouldn't allow me to have all of them inserted, which is the same issue I'm having with the new head in place.

According to WIC, it's still not accepting the cartridges when one is missing, as they are still unidentified, the error LEDs just aren't lit. Having them all in must trigger an additional check that lights them all up.

I'm skeptical about purchasing a key to downgrade to the firmware it claims to already be running, when the cost for that is a good chunk of what a replacement board would run. But I admit, I'm still on the early part of the learning curve when it comes to servicing these.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm skeptical about purchasing a key to downgrade to the firmware it claims to already be running,

Yes, I would not get a key either in this situation.

Did you try a different cartridge set - with different chips already ?

 

[Dualbunny]

First off--thank you for checking my questions out.

I have two OEM sets of all six cartridges, neither was brand new at the time of getting this printer, but both sets were barely used. I get the same results regardless of which ones I put in. I've also tried a CISS that works fine in my other 1430 with no luck. And when the original print head was giving me the same kind of trouble, after each manual cleaning and swapping in and out of cartridges, it would pick a different color to leave the error LED light on for.

I thought it might in fact be the print head causing the issue, which is why I replaced it. I also didn't trust how long it had sat with just a bit of ink in it or that my attempts to manually soak that out hadn't caused it to fail. But the issue doesn't seem to have changed with the replacement.

 

[The Hat]

I have two OEM sets of all six cartridges, neither was brand new at the time of getting this printer,

I don’t know very much about Epson printers but could it be that the printer wants a new set of OEM carts to initialise...

 

[Dualbunny]

could it be that the printer wants a new set of OEM carts to initialise...

I can't say for sure, seeing as I'm not Epson.....but from what I've seen of people online describing either similar or the exact same problem, replacing the cartridges with new ones has been a frustrating failure, given the cost. It must have done its original ink priming at some point, because the head it came with, that would have been responsible for the 12 pages it thinks it printed at some point, did have ink in it, and once the priming has happened, the flag regarding that gets removed from the EEPROM, so that shouldn't be a factor as far as I can tell.

If new cartridges did solve my issue at this point, I would expect it to continue to be incredibly finicky and unpredictable, which frankly hasn't been my experience with my first 1430 (it's finicky in other ways, lol, but not about taking cartridges or CISS systems).

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

The WICReset utility lists the Artisan 1430 as having an option for firmware recovery - getting it out of some locked state - did you try that ?

 

[Dualbunny]

The WICReset utility lists the Artisan 1430 as having an option for firmware recovery - getting it out of some locked state - did you try that ?

I haven't, no. Looking into it, it seems to relate only to the printer being stuck in Recovery mode. Mine isn't giving any indication of that. That may be why the Recovery solution isn't shown as an option on my WIC (even with the setting for it enabled). All I have as an option is to change the firmware.

 

[Dualbunny]

Just now, while the printer was on and showing error lights for all six cartridges, I happened to pull down the CD/DVD printing tray. The carriage slid back and forth and then adjusted up, and all but the yellow light turned off. Basically the same behavior its been showing, but without me touching the cartridges or removing them. I checked the WIC, and it said they were still all unavailable--same as it's been showing. When I closed the tray, it adjusted the carriage down, and all the lights came back on. I tried opening and closing the tray a few more times, but the carriage never slide to the side again, just adjusted up and down and the lights didn't change.

Am I wrong in thinking this supports a mechanical issue? I'm wondering if maybe the ribbon was damaged when the carriage was hitting the sides during the fatal error it had when I got it. It was tangled slightly at one point. Maybe enough to disrupt the continuity? Seeing the lights change when all that changed was having the carriage move makes me think of the ribbon, the only thing that moves significantly along with the carriage.