Epson Stylus Photo R300

My daughter purchased an Epson Stylus Photo R300 and did not do her homework prior to the purchase.

Because of her lack of investigation, she has now discovered that when any cartridge (not the black) goes MT the printer presents an error report, "Ink Cartridge Replacement", blah, blah, replace cartridge and press OK, and you cannot even print grayscale.

I contacted Epson support and was told:

[Incident: 110601-001500] The printer is out of two colors of ink and will not allow us to default it to g‏
6/01/11
From: Epson Support (Epson@custhelp.com)
Sent: Wed 6/01/11 2:17 PM
To: bdelapp@live.com

Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support center. Below is a summary of your request and our response.

If this issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may reopen it within the next 7 days.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.


Subject
The printer is out of two colors of ink and will not allow us to default it to black only

Discussion Thread
Response (Rones Jacob A) 06/01/2011 01:17 PM
Dear Bruce,

Thank you for contacting Epson. I'm sorry to know that you are having difficulty printing with your Epson Stylus Photo R300 due to an expended ink cartridge.

However, the printer will not operate if any cartridge is expended or removed. It is best to always have extra cartridges on hand.

Epson printers contain a permanent print head that needs to be charged with all colors to work. Even when users are printing black text only, a small amount of color ink is used to keep the print head charged. Air bubbles can damage the print head. The print head needs to be kept charged to prevent air bubbles from entering.

Therefore, once one of the cartridges are expended, the printer signals you to replace the cartridge in order for printing to continue.

Should you require further assistance with this issue, please reply without history (when possible), as our email system contains all previous correspondence. If you have a different technical support issue, please submit another email request via our website (http://www.epson.com/support), and we will respond in a timely manner.

Thank you again for contacting Epson.

Jacob A.

To our question, my daughter uses this printer mostly for her school work and needs a default black as not to waste expensive ink.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to a way to circumvent the Epson process to run "black only".

The "printing preferences" in the Win Vista OS/the printer do not offer the 'black only' option, only gray scale. And now that 1 cartridge reports as MT it will not allow it to print.

What about installing 6 black cartridges?

I would hope someone has found a way around this situation.

Thanks

 

Thanks everyone... I got the answer... later

 

Not sure what answer you got; however this one is worth investigating:

Epson ink cartridges (like many other brands/models) have an embedded microchip that signals end-of-life based on page count; not the actual amount of ink remaining. For many Epson models, chip resetting units are now available. Simply hold the resetting uint against the ink cartridge and voila!: the out of ink message disappears!

I haven't tested one yet; however the user reviews on eBay seem to indicate they work. Here's a search link to Epson resetters on eBay - just be sure the resetting unit matches the type (model #s) of ink cartridges your printer uses.

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_from=R..._nkw=epson+resetter&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Hope this helps and saves you some money.

 

Try unplugging the printer from the wall for 10 minutes are so. Then see if the error goes away.

 

Hi Bdelapp,

Gman is correct. I used to reload my Epson cartridges. Found a universal Chip reseter on EBay for less than $10.00 with shipping. Worked great. That was an older C42AUX. Don't really know about your model. Search for CHIP RESETTER and you should come up with lots of help.

 

I was finally able, after taking the machine apart and cleaning up the ink to exorcise the 'general error'.
It appeared a small drunken Irishman (I'm Irish BTW lol) had attempted to decorate the underside with multiple splatters and chunks of ink.
Upon restrart, the 'general error' disappeared and now it is back to change the 'light magenta' cartridge.
I installed the SSC Service Utility and reset all counters to no avail.
I wish, as the individual cartridges are quite expensive that I could set it to black only ( I have already set it to greyscale), but black only is not listed as an option on the R300.
I've NEVER had any problems like this on my Lexmark or HP printers.

 

Ink cartridges from here;

http://cgi.ebay.com/60PK-Non-OEM-In.../230396287416?pt=BI_Toner&hash=item35a4b059b8

aren't very expensive at all.

 

Black ink only is available on my Epson R220, but you have to go to Print, Properties, Advanced, and I find a button for "Black Ink Only". This, of course will not help if one or more of your cartridges are empty.

 

Thanks... but sadly on this r300 there is no black only option.... only grayscale...