Epson 740 printer seems totally dead, all lights are blinking.

Apr 28, 2009

- Okay, so I found a solution to this online today. I was about to toss this formerly trusty Epson 740 printer in the trash. From what I learned online (link below), this model has an automatic shutoff after a certain amount of printing. (To necessitate a trip to an Epson-approved repairman for maintenance, or the purchase of a new printer, I guess). All lights start blinking and there's no communication etc. possible through the printer utility. Printer seems totally fried. Turns out there's a kind of code that will reset this counter without any real repair, and then the printer will come back to life. Here's what worked for me:
1) Turn off your printer, ensuring that the print head is at it’s home location and locked in place as normal; 2) Power off the printer at the wall or by removing the power cable, for at least 20 seconds; 3) When you restore power to the printer at the wall socket or by reinserting the cable, if the lights come back on straight away, the printer’s power switch was ‘on’ - switch it off and return to step 1; 4) Hold down the paper-feed button and the button with the ink-drops next to it, and then turn on the printer, still holding the buttons down; 5) When the paper-out LED flashes, release the buttons; 6) Press and hold the Cleaning button, until several lights flash - this will take a few seconds (i.e. then release the button); 7) The printer will now attempt to reset, including resetting the EEPROM memory and running a short (about 10 seconds) cleaning cycle.
To my great surprise, that actually worked for me. I had tried everything and I had written to Epson support, which was worthless. I'm mad at Epson Support, so I went through the trouble of posting this. I had some trouble between steps 5 and 6, by the way. Timing is key there, I think it only worked when I released both buttons and then immediately (like as fast as possible) hit the "Cleaning" (i.e. Ink) button. And I may have held that button down longer than directed above. Really hope that helps others. I was really frustrated. Here's the link the site where I found the solution — huge hat tip to 2Manuals.com , wherever you are. Thanks!
http://www.2manuals.com/reset_wip.php

Apr 28, 2009

- Hope comment above helps.

Apr 28, 2009

- Thanks a lot, me.