I fell into the printer rabbit hole in August 2024 as i wanted to prototype a boardgame. I found a Epson XP-960 that... wasn't working. And that drove me crazy. Want to ear more about it ? Let's go !
So the printer was actually working but Only on plain standard paper from cassette 2 and standard/draft quality. Any change of those settings will result into a phantom "paper jam" error. I scratched my head for 4 MONTHS. I bought a XP-760 and a XP-860 to serve as donor, i bought a used logicboard to replace the 960's logic board, i teared apart the 960, destroyed the 860, found the service manual, found a Service tool for a 960 that was triggering window's defender like numb_linkin_park.mp3 back in limewire's days... I've downgraded the firmware changed region, resetting all the counters i could. NONE OF IT WORKED... at least the waste sponge counter was at 0 eh.
Long story short : the paper width sensor below the printhead was full of ink. i swapped it from the 860's and BAM, the printer was alive ! ARC reset cartridges loaded, UK's Premium INKS reffiled (not great) and this beast was PRINTING !
Actually, i've done everything on the 760 in the meantime. I bought it for 20€ in a pristine state and A4 was fine. 960 was 50€ but refunded because wasn't working, the 860 for 30€, it ended up in the trash. In the end, i swapped the 960's head by the 760 because i thought the 960 was damaged and dumped the 760 and 860.
... But it was too late. Printers got me. I Bought a Pro 10 with like 50 prints for 50 bucks (and 25€ of gas.) ! great deal. Except it wasn't working well... revived it, cleaned it, then sold it. I Just sold the 960 and i was a printer hobo until yesterday, i bought a Epson XP-8700 for cheap and... maybe... a canon pro-10s is on the way.
I Actually did'nt made any money over those printers because spare parts, refillable cartriges, resetters, empty cartridges, ink, costed around what i got back xD
The plan for the 8700 (if alive. Was unused since August or so) is to use Epson 107 Bottles to refill resettable chips because i don't like Arcs. The plan for the Pro-10s is roughly the same but i have to source good ink from somewhere as the one i used for the Pro10 wasn't great and i sold the bottles with the printer to a friend. Hopefully she'll let me use her redsetter ^^
If you have any question or if i should share tools i've gathered into that monstruous journey, please tell me to do so.
Printers with built in automatic 24/7 cleaning cycles?