Epson Stylus R230 Light Magenta Not working

First you could do a printer test. The printer will print a small pattern with all colours making it possible to check if and if so, what nozzle are blocked. Sometimes the cleaning cycle will help, but sometimes there is just some dirt under the head. Please don't try to remove it with tools if there is something. Just use a thick piece or printing paper to solve that problem. Please check the manual for details. Perhaps the epson site can help you with that:
http://www.epson.com.sg/sites/epson_singapore/support/support.page

Hi i'm a printer Technician
The problem of your printer could be that the surface of the printhead is dirty, and the Cleaning pad/tab doesn't work so good..

Here's a guide i wrote that I done multiple times on my customers printers:

1. Power on the printer, and when the carriage moves from the right to the left side instantly disconnect the power cord.

2. Move the Printer carriage (where the cartridges are installed) on the EXTREME LEFT side, please do it very slowly!

3. Take a syringe of hot water but not boiling, MAX. 70-75 °C

4. Expect the extreme right side of the printhead.. You could be able to see a little squared pad, dirty of ink, and on the left side of that PAD you could see a little rubber strip.

5. Take a tissue of paper and dab the furface of the Cleaner Pad (The squared pad you seen)

6. Take a new tissue of paper and place on it some hot water

7. Without burning your hands try to clean as soon as possible the rubber strip on the right part of the Pad.
It would be completely without ink on it

8. Take the hot water syringe and place some hot water on the Cleaner Pad (the amount of water is proportionate to the printer, you have to place water until you see that the surface of the pad is COMPLETELY full of water.

9. Gently move the carriage VERY SLOWLY on the extreme right side of the printer (where there's the Cleaning Pad)

10. Leave the printer like so for 3-5 hours, then restart the printer and do 2-3 cleaning cycles, better with a brand new black cartridge

11. Do a test print (Nozzle Check) and see if there are some changes!

Hope the Best!!
ADCSFXworks Printing Center

Assuming that you have ink for any color, the problem can either be clogged print-head or an electronic (board) failure no longer controlling a color/colors.

The linked procedure may help:

Epsons are notorious for this sort of problem, especially in used infrequently as ink residue dries on the print head; try using a cleaning cartridge, or swab around relevant print head with cotton bud and ethanol/isopropyl alcohol. Here are examples of cleaning carts, there are others http://www.internet-ink.co.uk/epson-cleaning-cartridges/ http://www.icompinkcartridges.co.uk/epson-r200-r300-r220-r320-r340-cleaning-kit.html

1. open a document. 2. control-P - shortcut for print. then click properties, click maintenance, then click head cleaning. after this print check pattern. continue doing this until your light magenta and yellow ink gets clearer. if it didn't work replace your light magenta and yellow cartridge.

try cleaning your print heads

You can see the reference on the cartridge itself.
Take it with you when you buy new ones.

Hi there. The reason for your problem is that the colour cartridge contains cyan, magenta and yellow ink, plus a black cartridge of course. All the other myriad colours are produced by mixing these four basic colours. So, if you print red, it requires ink from both the magenta and yellow cartridges. Thus if your red produces a yellow print, it means your magenta is not printing. This can be due to a number of reasons, mainly an empty or faulty magenta cartridge or blocked magenta print nozzles.

If you wish me to help you with sorting out the lack of magenta, please post a new comment to this effect.

Sounds crazy, but have you got the LM (light magenta) and M (magenta) tanks or inks mixed up?

Also - check the profiles, if you've got a colour profile set up, you may have applied it twice, which would make a magenta cast...

I would recommend cleaning the contacts (brass colored connections) with an eraser if might resolve the issue. It that does not resolve the issue it might be one of two other things. Either the printhead is cloged or the cable to the printerhead is damaged.
Good luck