Epson WF-2510 you are my last hope before I trash it

[velteyn]

Hello to all people of this fantastic community. This is my first and most desperate post in this forum.

First and foremost, a little presentation: I think of myself as an "experienced user" and normally I'm able to get out from most computer related problems and rarely I ask for help. I work for a respectable IT company here in Italy as a Java programmer/analyst and system integrator.

In this case I'm here because I want to try the last question before I trash definitively my Epson WF-2510.

I seriously think that the cause of this situation is my wrong doing with this very delicate piece of hardware. As you know, if you keep you inkject printer unused for months the heads hangs. So it's what initially happened. I did many times the head cleaning but the situation did not recover.. So I had a "fantastic" idea : use a cleaning liquid... Atfer try and try with this liquid nothing happened but the situation worsened.. I had first a paper jam error....

At the restart I have:

1) “PRINTER MODE” on display

2) If I press the menu button it ejects a blank paper and the heads moves left and right then returns to its start location

3) If I press any other buttons It does nothing

4) if I press menù when the paper is not loaded , it displays :”Paper load error” in that situation I can press the OK button and again it displays RINTER MODE”

5) windows recognizes it now as a EPSON PX-505F Series


What I tried so far:

1) Turn off and on

2) remove power cable , press power button and while pressing it reattach the power cable

3) TEAR DOWN the complete printer to search for a mysterious paper jammed on it (it was easiest than expected). Found nothing but after I removed the heads I noticed that all electronics above them were wet and also the wiring was VERY wet so I tried to clean everything as much as possible.
(I personally think that this caused all the problems)

4) Keep pressed some other buttons while turn it on…

5) I tried to keep the printer off and pressed the ON button for 10 minutes and restart it. After a BEEEP it returned in its "PRINTER MODE".

All above did not work… It remains in that zombie mode.

I tried also a bios recovery... But the update program says that cannot communicate with the printer..

Can I trash it ? is there any solution ?

Thank you

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I think there are two issues - the firmware runs in an abnormal state - and blocked nozzles.

It's not clear whether you used already the WICReset utility to restore an older firmware version, the utility offers as well a reset for the error status of the firmware if an update did not finish correctly , but this not for all models. You need to install and run the software and see which type of printer model is displayed and whether WICReset can connect to the printer at all.
A typical approach to clean blocked nozzles is shown here - specifically the second part using
a syringe with a small piece of tube and pulling/pushing the cleaner into the ink pick up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snp2whsKHLs

 

[velteyn]

WICReset utility ? No, I did not use that. Where can I find it ?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

A search engine would give you a link to a site like 2manuals or some sites directly linking to it.

 

[velteyn]

Ok I found it.. But I have
I/O service could not perform operation.
- An error occurred when application tried to write/read data into/from the printer.
- Restart the device each time you see this error before starting another operation.
- If possible try to replace USB cord/make sure that network connection is reliable.
- If Status Monitor Utility is supported by your OS and it`s active then disable it.
- Disable other applications that can use the printer and cancel all printing tasks.

This is the result after a read status. I think that the firmware update will fail as well...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

That's pretty irritating error messages, the firmware seems to be pretty much off, I'm afraid that you might not be able to fix that with consumer level tools and measures.
This same site you got WICReset from offers as well copies of the Epson service/maintenance utilities/software but only against a charge, this may help to restore a particular firmware version but I wouldn't depend on that because you would need a copy of a working firmware version in the first place, a copy made at the time the printer was still working. I must admit I don't see other options at this time.
But there is another question left in this case how did you get into that situation in the first place ? Did you abort a firmware update or ? I have seen several Epson printers with this or that problem but never a problem with the firmware itself.
Some of the advice by WICReset is quite generic - using a short USB cable on a reliable port, WLAN connections could be a problem as well, the Epson status monitor can interfere with WICReset and still pending print jobs.

 

[velteyn]

As you can see on my first post this situation occurred because of my
wetting everything with that damn liquid.. All flat connetctors were wet and according to me this shortcircuited the motherboard. Infact after a cleaning it gave me a false paper jam error, and after reboot a "PRINTER MODE" but this occurred suddenly after I wet everything.. This was confirmed also after I tear down the entere printer heads.. All circuitry were wet .... Cleaning that was useless.

I called EPSON Assistence this morning and they told me that a new motherboard will cost me 50 € + work hours.... More costly of the printer itlself...

So I hope that this post will help someone to AVOID all MY MISTAKES ..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

oooh - so you almost flooded the printer with cleaner ..

 

[velteyn]

It's enaugh to wet the electronics within the heads and the flat cable to obtain this situation... I used the liquid again and again because it did not print anything... My fault .... sure...