Questions about number of pages printed & cheap ink/damage

[Defcon2k]

Btw: I've read here:

When a photograph is printed on plain paper the BCI-6PC (Photo Cyan) and the BCI-6PM (Photo Magenta) are never used. When printing on Photo Paper that has been selected in the properties then these two ink tanks are used.

So if you only print on PP, you basically have a 4-color-printer which text printing quality is not that good due to dye based ink, and which is slower at text printing than all-around printers like the iP4000 or iP4300. The photo ink just sits in the printer and is purged away with every cleaning cycle.

 

[Brazos]

Defcon. I did not know that by running mainly with plain paper - the PC & PM are not used. That explains why I don't use much of that ink - just waisted on the cleaning cycle. I used the I-560 before the I-960 that didn't have the PC & PM. I'm rethinking my printer setup - I may want to check my options with the IP4000/IP4300 or brother lazer printer & then use the I-960 as I get into photography. Now I got something to think about - I've got to hit the road this morning - burning daylight. Thanks for the info.

 

[Brazos]

Hey - I'm back - update on the printer. I had to clean my print head two times (like what was mentioned in this thread and other threads) and I changed to a better quality ink. It was working great but then I got a message the message "used ink tank is almost full". I went into the service mode to reset the counter but I still get the same "ink tank is full" - 8 flashing lights. I checked the EEPROM print out and it has cleared my count ALL=0000 PP=0000 etc. - but the D=95.09%. I guess my next step will be to follow the thread "How to reach ink waste tank? Dismantle i960". Is this my next step or did I miss something trying to reset?

By the way I purchased a cheap refurbished laser printer for my primary printer but I'm planning to keep running the i960 for any color pages needed.

Thanks for any help/recomendations.

 

[Defcon2k]

I would not dismantle the printer yet. First you need to reset the counter or all your work will be futile.

I don't understand why it did not work for you. You know how to make an EEPROM print, so you obviously know how to enter service mode.
And in service mode, the key combination for resetting the waste ink counter is 4x [resume] followed by [power] since a very long time. The i950 has it, and the modern Canon printers have it, too.
Only the very early printers (BJC series, S400, S450, S4500) had no EEPROM print, and so the waste ink counter reset was 3x resume.
Perhaps you accidentally pressed resume only 3x instead of 4x? I've read that this may reset all the other counters, which seems to have happened in your case.


btw, the blinking you see is 8x orange followed by 1x green (long), right? This means "waste ink warning" indeed.

Any other blinking is another error. For example: 7x orange, 1x green means "print head error".

 

[Brazos]

Defcon - Thank you for the response. I'm running behind today so it will probably be this weekend when I try again. Maybe I punched in the code wrong - I hope it was my error. I'll work on it tomorrow. Again thanks for getting back to me.

 

[Brazos]

Update - the i960 shut down when the ink waste tank filled up - got the 8 flashes. I tried to reset (see above post) and it reset page count but not the % ink. I took the big step last night using info from this site & Neil Slade/inkjetstuff. I went ahead and dismantled the printer to clean the pad. It was easier than I thought. After the pads was washed out & dried - I reasembled it. Then I tried reseting the code again. I got the same 8 flashing lights. On injetstuff they indicated on the 960 that you might have to pull the print head when you reset. I did this and it worked. I checked the EEPROM and now my D=000.39%. Thank you for all of your input. I also purchased a refurbished Brother Laser over the past few months for printing my B&W office pages and planning to save the 960 for color photo printing. Again thanks - I trilled to have my 960 running again.