Epson Stylus CX4800 - no ink

Magicalz

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Hello inkmasters of the world, I bought an Epson Stylus CX4800 one month ago (my old Epson stylus broke). I'm a student and I need to print notes frequently, when i bought the epson stylus 4800 one month ago my sister who is also in university and myslef printed alot because of our class notes. When the inks ran out I bought refill ink (JetTec 3 colour refill for Epson) and I refilled the colour and the black ink,the refill worked fine 2 times,but when I refilled it the third time no ink was printed on the paper. So due to loads of homework and assignments I just neglected printing my notes so my sister and I didn't print for like 2 weeks. Then I tried again and still no ink on paper when i printed. So i finally went to buy original Epson Magenta ink just to test. But even buying a new magenta ink no red was printed out. So im really confused now can someone please help? Also I've been reading about cleaning printheads due to clogging of Epson Durabrite ink,where is a printhead located on Epson cardridges, is it the little hole thing where the ink comes out? pictures would be very helpful. Thankyou.
 

ghwellsjr

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I was able to unclog a similar Epson printer that belonged to my neighbor. Unlike HP and Lexmark printers, these Epson printers do not have the printhead built into the cartridge. Instead, they are a non-removable part of the printer that the cartridges pop into. You can use Windex window wipes in shoe-shine fashion to clean the bottom of the printhead without removing it from the printer. But even then, the printer will probably not print and that is because there is a purge/prime mechanism that has to be able to suck in out of the bottom of the printhead to get it going. What I did was disconnect the little tube that is inline with the pads off to the right where the printhead parks and clean the tube and the outlet it plugs into. I used a syringe to force Windex in and out until it finally came clean. You can read about it on this post:

I was able to unclog a similar Epson printer that belonged to my neighbor. Unlike HP and Lexmark printers, these Epson printers do not have the printhead built into the cartridge. Instead, they are a non-removable part of the printer that the cartridges pop into. You can use Windex window wipes in shoe-shine fashion to clean the bottom of the printhead without removing it from the printer. But even then, the printer will probably not print and that is because there is a purge/prime mechanism that has to be able to suck in out of the bottom of the printhead to get it going. What I did was disconnect the little tube that is inline with the pads off to the right where the printhead parks and clean the tube and the outlet it plugs into. I used a syringe to force Windex in and out until it finally came clean. You can read about it on this post.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=8196#p8196

Let us know of any progress.
 

Magicalz

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Hellow ghwellsjr, thankyou for your kind reply! Much to my surprise,after frustration I reattempted (this would be my 20th attempt not exaggerating) refilling the black cardridge. However this time after looking at mikling's (i think ?) tutorial about refilling epson cartridge it gave me an idea about refilling my black ink. Usually when I attempted refilling the black ink i would just turn it over and refill it from the bottom as the JetTec instructions showed. However this time I refilled it while the cartridge is upside-down, then while still squirting ink in the cartridge ever so slowly, I tilted the cartridge 90 degrees to its side and continued filling in black ink. Then i shoved the plug thign back in the bottom, and i shook it really hard like 5 times back and forth up and down and tilted it sideways all around in circles. Finally I put the cartridge back in the printer and let it do the cleaning/priming cycle thing. Then i printed out quickly because I was in a rush (the reason I was frustrated and attempted this method was because I had a test that day (yesterday to be exact) and I typed up my review on the computer hoping that I could use my brother's printer to print but his Epson C88 was out of ink too!! so i desparately did the refill early in the morning) so anyway then i printed and IT WORKED! IT PRINTED BLACK INK AND THE THING IS THE INKING IS AS SHARP AND BRIGHT AS IF IT WAS NEW. incredible. AS a matter of fact the reason why I'm typing this reply right now is because just 5 minutes ago I printed my HCl titration graph for chemistry and the graph is just so sharp and beautiful.
However this is only black ink,I have not tested the other colours but I'm pretty sure the magenta is messed up because when i took out the magenta cartridge i saw a leak inside the compartment (where the cartridges are "clicked" into). I will try your method ghwellsjr of using windex to 'shoe-shine' the compartment thing and i will reply and update on what happens. However I can't guarantee much progress because it's during the school year but in summer time for sure I will experiment different techniques. Again thank-you ghwellsjr,

Magicalz
 

ghwellsjr

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