Epson sc 740: how to select black ink in dos

[pierre]

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

Hi,
I have an old program running only in dos (no way to make it working in any
m$ windows os) and it has to print many pages
of text. Last month the printer stop working complaining about missing ink...
but it was the colored tank that was empty while I was printing in black...
or at least I thought it was the black cartrigde! I don't know if I can detect
what tank is being used...
My main question is: is there any driver configuration
utility in dos to force the espson sc 740 to print using the black cartrigde?
TIA! My pc has a dual boot with win95 and the printer is working fine
with that!
bye,
PiErre

 

[Guest]

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

I can't answer that specifically, but Epson printers need to have the
head filled with something (usually ink) to keep them from drying out,
unless they have been fully flushed of all ink.

If you were to clean the head fully and flush it, you could run a
totally empty cartridge in the color and then print with the black.

You may not have been printing with the color inks, all inkjets use up
some ink each time they are turned on (all the inks).

If you wish to use the color heads later, you don't want to leave them
without a cartridge unless they are cleared of all ink.

Art

PiErre wrote:

> Hi,
> I have an old program running only in dos (no way to make it working in any
> m$ windows os) and it has to print many pages
> of text. Last month the printer stop working complaining about missing ink...
> but it was the colored tank that was empty while I was printing in black...
> or at least I thought it was the black cartrigde! I don't know if I can detect
> what tank is being used...
> My main question is: is there any driver configuration
> utility in dos to force the espson sc 740 to print using the black cartrigde?
> TIA! My pc has a dual boot with win95 and the printer is working fine
> with that!
> bye,
> PiErre

 

[Guest]

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

Arthur Entlich wrote:
> I can't answer that specifically, but Epson printers need to have the

> head filled with something (usually ink) to keep them from drying
out,
> unless they have been fully flushed of all ink.
>
> If you were to clean the head fully and flush it, you could run a
> totally empty cartridge in the color and then print with the black.
>
> You may not have been printing with the color inks, all inkjets use
up
> some ink each time they are turned on (all the inks).
you're right!

[CUT]

Thanks for your help! What if newsservice doen't exist?
(Epson support did not reply to my e-mail!)
bye,
PiErre

 

[Guest]

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

siggy2@supereva.it wrote:

> Arthur Entlich wrote:
>
>>I can't answer that specifically, but Epson printers need to have the
>
>
>>head filled with something (usually ink) to keep them from drying
>
> out,
>
>>unless they have been fully flushed of all ink.
>>
>>If you were to clean the head fully and flush it, you could run a
>>totally empty cartridge in the color and then print with the black.
>>
>>You may not have been printing with the color inks, all inkjets use
>
> up
>
>>some ink each time they are turned on (all the inks).
>
> you're right!
>
> [CUT]
>
> Thanks for your help! What if newsservice doen't exist?
> (Epson support did not reply to my e-mail!)


If, say the black print heads failed on the 740, could one fill a color
cartridge with black, and, after a time where the remainder of the color
ink flowed out, have a decent black and white printer (mostly for drafts.)?

--
John McWilliams

 

[Guest]

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

I suppose what you could do if you wanted to use the printer for
printing something from a word processor, is fill a color cartridge with
black ink in all three chambers (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow). Then, when
you finish your document in the word processor, change the text color to
one of those three colors (a fully saturated Cyan, Magenta or Yellow
(which would be hard to read on the screen!)) and randomly use one color
on each document. That way, all the heads would get exercised, and be
kept from clogging.

However, as I recall, the black head on the 740 had about twice or 3
times the number of nozzles that the color heads had each, so the
printing process would probably be slower when printing from the color
heads, as I imagine more passes are required to form and fill out the
lettering.

Art

John McWilliams wrote:

> siggy2@supereva.it wrote:
>
>> Arthur Entlich wrote:
>>
>>> I can't answer that specifically, but Epson printers need to have the
>>
>>
>>
>>> head filled with something (usually ink) to keep them from drying
>>
>>
>> out,
>>
>>> unless they have been fully flushed of all ink.
>>>
>>> If you were to clean the head fully and flush it, you could run a
>>> totally empty cartridge in the color and then print with the black.
>>>
>>> You may not have been printing with the color inks, all inkjets use
>>
>>
>> up
>>
>>> some ink each time they are turned on (all the inks).
>>
>>
>> you're right!
>>
>> [CUT]
>>
>> Thanks for your help! What if newsservice doen't exist?
>> (Epson support did not reply to my e-mail!)
>
>
>
> If, say the black print heads failed on the 740, could one fill a color
> cartridge with black, and, after a time where the remainder of the color
> ink flowed out, have a decent black and white printer (mostly for drafts.)?
>
> --
> John McWilliams

 

[Guest]

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

Arthur Entlich wrote:
> I suppose what you could do if you wanted to use the printer for
> printing something from a word processor, is fill a color cartridge with
> black ink in all three chambers (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow). Then, when
> you finish your document in the word processor, change the text color to
> one of those three colors (a fully saturated Cyan, Magenta or Yellow
> (which would be hard to read on the screen!)) and randomly use one color
> on each document. That way, all the heads would get exercised, and be
> kept from clogging.
>
> However, as I recall, the black head on the 740 had about twice or 3
> times the number of nozzles that the color heads had each, so the
> printing process would probably be slower when printing from the color
> heads, as I imagine more passes are required to form and fill out the
> lettering.

Ah, makes sense. I guess that relegates my sometimes-maybe plan of
action into if-I-get-really-bored-and-want-to-muck-around status.
Thanks. You saved me some future grief.

--
John McWilliams

 

[iso8879]

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

Hi,
I have an old program running only in dos (no way to make it working in any
m$ windows os) and it has to print many pages
of text. Last month the printer stop working complaining about missing ink...
but it was the colored tank that was empty while I was printing in black...
or at least I thought it was the black cartrigde! I don't know if I can detect
what tank is being used...
My main question is: is there any driver configuration
utility in dos to force the espson sc 740 to print using the black cartrigde?
TIA! My pc has a dual boot with win95 and the printer is working fine
with that!
bye,
PiErre

PiErre,

You can get the Epson Stylus Color 740 to print using only black in two ways.

The first way is to use a DOS printer driver that supports the Epson "ESC/P 2" printer language. If you can download and install a DOS printer driver for any of these printers it should work: LQ-150, LQ-570+, LQ-1070+, Stylus 300, Stylus 400, Stylus 800, Stylus 800+, or Stylus 1000+.

The second way is to somehow write to the printer the five characters:

Esc @ Esc r 0

in a row, without the spaces. That last character is the digit 0, not the letter O.

You might create a five-byte file with those characters (let's call the file "black740.bin") and then copy the file to the printer, assuming your printer is on LPT1, with a command like "copy /b black740.bin lpt1" or you could write a very short program that will print those characters. For reference, those five character, in decimal are:

27 64 27 114 48

and in hex they are:

1B 40 1B 72 30

Immediately after writing the five bytes to the printer, either by running a small program or copying a file, print your output. It will print using only the black ink.