Fault with printer

What is the flash pattern?

If the red paper light and the red ink light are blinking in an alternating pattern, then you may have a foreign object or piece of paper blocking the movement of the print head. Turn off the printer, open the printer and look for anything in the printhead path. Remove anything that doesn't belong. Some printers have a strip that the print head travels across that can sometimes come out of position. This can be repositioned by moving it up and down as well as forward and back to align in a guide on the back of the print head.

After clearing the obstruction, close the printer and turn it back on. If the error persists, then the unit needs service.

If the red paper light and the red ink light are blinking together and the green power light is off, then the printer has an internal error. Turn it off and then back on. If the error persists, the unit needs service.

One internal error could be the waste ink absorber is full. These pads are below the printhead and absorb ink during cleaning cycles. To reach them is messy and takes disassembling the printer from the top. This may include removing the print head. Pull the pads, blot the ink off them and the places where they fit in the printer. Run clean water over the pads until the water remains clear. Dry the pads (use a hair dryer to speed the process). Then reassemble the printer.

Next navigate to http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/InkPadsForm.jsp and fill in the model and serial number of the printer (as well as the other required information). You will get a link to download a reset utility for Windows. Run this tool to solve the error. Do not run this utility until the pads are replaced or cleaned; waste ink will get everywhere inside the printer and over your documents.

I hope this helps.

Cindy Wells

Epson printers are built with a print counter, the company has predefined a maximum print no. for each model, If your printer is an old one,this could be a possible reason. If both lights are flashing, it means the Waste Ink Pads in your printer are saturated with ink and the waste ink "protection" counter has exceeded its limit. The Waste Ink Pads should be replaced as soon as possible. You can restore your printer to a working condition immediately by using the SSC utility - download from

http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml

Status monitor just show approximately, not real level. It might be yellow and cyan ink is out actually.Others, yellow and cyan nozzle may be clog. Check nozzle, do head cleaning. Check nozzle again.

Hi.
It could be your ink tray has overflowed.
There is software http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml which might help.

Install this program, set your printer model and the driver (Epson Stylus Photo R1800) when it starts up. Close the program, and it will minimize to the
tray on the taskbar - right click on the icon and goto "Protection Counter". Choose
"Reset Protection Counter". Choose "Yes" to the question about the waste ink pads,
then switch the printer off for 1 minute. This should cure the problem.

It might be worth a try

If the light are flashing, it mean waste ink full. You must clean waste ink pad, and reset the counter. You can use SSC, find at indoreset.blogspot.com. But,.. you said the light are on. try to resinstall driver. after printer recognised by comp, check status monitor. Green light on is power on, and red on mean chip error/ink out error/cartridge error.

green & red light blinking cant print epson t10

SSC Service Utility allows you to do many things to your Epson printer, Work directly with CSIC in Epson Stylus printers cartridges, Freeze internal ink counters, Reset internal ink counters even with empty cartridges, Separate cleaning of color and black heads for all Epson inkjet printers, powerful cleaning mode, Hot swapping of cartridges supported, Resetting of protection counter (even then it is already full), More then 60 different Epson printers supported This allows many people with high printing demands to save money (program works with both black and color cartridges).

Hi there.
Under each printers there is a pad, a spunch that holds all the wasted ink. This pad is probably full. you should locate where the ink pad is and change it or clean it. By cleaning I mean getting rid of all the ink from the spunch. After cleaning or replacing the pad you shoul run a utility to reset the protection counter. I use to have a all in one epson printer and did the same. I use SSC Service utility. it helps to reset the counter. After that, if that is the problem, your printer should work again.
Good luck

The ink jet printers have ink absorbing pads to catch and accumulate ink used to clean the printheads. The counter on MB counts number of head cleanings and printer startups (at every start up the heads are cleaned) and at preset number of cleaning alerts the operator that "printer needs maintenance" and sets the red light. You probably need a change ink absorbing pads (or wash them and dry 'em up) and then make a reset the count using printer Service Utility (can be downloaded from the web). To get to the ink absorbing pads is not easy - you need to remove the printer case - I am not familiar with 1280, but I did that on Epson 3000 & 5000 printers. In many cases the pads are actually OK , but the MB reaches the count and flags the pads.

If both lights are flashing, it means the Waste Ink Pads in your printer are saturated with ink and the waste ink ("protection") counter has exceeded its limit. The Waste Ink Pads should be replaced as soon as possible. You can overcome this problem temporarily by using the SSC utility - download from

http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml

and reset the Protection Counter. This will stop the lights flashing and restore normal operation. However, remember that eventually ink will overflow from the waste ink area and make a dreadful mess, so you must change the waste ink pads before this happens. This requires the disassembly of the printer. A copy of the service manual is available from a number of sellers - just Google "Epson C43 Service Manual". You will often find them
for sale very cheaply on E-Bay. Note, however, if you can find or borrow any of the C40,42,44 etc service manuals, as far as ink pad replacement goes, they are the same.

If you decide to have a go at replacing the ink pads yourself, report back and I will provide further help.