Still big Epson C82 printing problems

Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

Boy, do I hate to bug people, but I'm at my wits end with his dumb
printer.


FIRST: Blank paper coming out of printer: I pulled the color
cartrdiges and , depressing the sprung valve in each, I added a tiny
amount of pure ammonia and water, diluted about 20 percent ammonia.
Then I gently shook the cartridges.

I ran several print head cleanings, and printed the nozzle check
which showed broken lines in the reds and blues, despite the fact that
the pictures and text now were quite nice, the colors came out
beautifully, except the red was still a bit weak... but not as bright
red as the picture looked on my PC. Even the text sample of all the
colors showed the red to be a little weak..with the rest being nice
and bright.

Then I pulled the color cartridges and I gave them each a another
tiny drop or two of ammonia water, ran the head cleaning, ran and
nozzle check. The reds deinitely improved , but not still not perfect.
But the nozzle check still showed the broken lines on the red and the
blue.

All of the test photos I printed were 3" x 5" , or so. Today I
tried an 8 x 10 picture. To my surprize the reds were banding
terribly!! I went back to the 3 x 5 and guess what....also
banding..to the point where the pic was almost undistinguishable.!
I'll accept the weaker reds, but the banding now? What gives? I hope
it is simply the weakened ink cartridges, and that new cartridges
should fix everything. But I don't want to invest in new cartridges
unless I'm sure I can get the brighter reds.

Now...what precisely is the diagnosis. Anyone?