How to : Fix Your Inkjet Printer (Epson 1400 Shown)

Being able to create quality prints from your digital photographs - directly from your home or office is a huge benefit to photographers. It actually get's addictive. BUT --- photo printers can be a bit temperamental at times - and nothing is more frustrating than having a problem partway through a photo.

If your printer ever acts up and the nozzle check patterns don't work properly, or the colours aren't firing, or something like that - then this could fix your printer.

I do it on an Epson 1400, but the principle should apply to most inkjet printers. It is somewhat dangerous if you don't have a steady hand - so if your printer is still under warranty, don't do this. The first time I did it, I was ready to toss the thing and buy a replacement, but after I learned this trick from Epson Tech Support the first time - I started doing it whenever I had a problem - now, five years after purchase, this Epson Stylus Photo 1400 is still going strong. This kind of routine maintenance is probably a large part of the reason.

Watch the video. Do the steps it outlines, then run a nozzle check pattern, it should be better than one from the day before, but if it is still not perfect - repeat from step 1 and try again tomorrow. In this case (the one i video'd) I ended up having to do it about 6 or 7 times to finally get a nearly perfect result. When you're nozzle check patterns are coming close, then start running a printer cleaning cycle after it sits overnight.

My black ink cartridge gave me the most trouble in this case, so after all the other colours were pretty good, I just tried to print a couple text documents I needed in all-black (greyscale setting) and that cleared it out the rest of the way.

Enjoy the video.. Good Luck. and be careful!

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