Cleaning the Print Head
If your printouts are unexpectedly light or faint, or dots or
lines are missing from the image, you may need to clean the
print head. This unclogs the nozzles so they can deliver ink
properly. Print head cleaning uses ink, so clean it only if
quality declines.
You can clean the print head either from the printer's control
panel or using your printer software. To clean using the
printer software, the printer must be connected directly to
your computer (not over a network); see your on-screen
Reference Guide for details.
When you don't turn on your printer for a long time, the
print quality can decline, so turn it on at least once a
month to maintain good print quality.
Follow these steps to clean the print head from the printer's
control panel:
1. Make sure the printer is turned on but not printing, and the
red b error light is off.
If the red light is flashing or on, you may need to replace the
ink cartridge; see page 9 for details.
2. Press the
button to highlight
.
OK
3. Use the
or
button to highlight
then press
.
OK
4. To begin cleaning, press
While cleaning, the printer makes noise and you see a
progress bar on the control panel display. Cleaning takes
about 30 seconds.
Do not turn off the printer or interrupt the cleaning
process.
5. When the cleaning is done, run a nozzle check to confirm
the print head nozzles are clean.
Make sure letter-size plain paper is loaded in the printer,
then press
. The nozzle check pattern prints (see the
Stop
next section for details).
6. If the pattern has gaps or missing dots, press
the print head again.
If the nozzle check pattern looks correct, press
, then press
More Options
Head Cleaning
.
OK
to clean
Stop
to finish.
OK
If you don't see any improvement after cleaning three or
four times, check the solutions in your User's Guide. You
can also turn the printer off and wait overnight—this allows
any dried ink to soften—and then try cleaning the print
head again.
Examining the Nozzle Check Pattern
Examine the nozzle check pattern you printed. Each staggered
horizontal and straight vertical line should be complete, with
no gaps in the dot pattern, as shown below:
❏ If your printout looks okay, you're done.
❏ If any dots are missing (as shown below), clean the print
head again.
Aligning the Print Head
If your printouts contain misaligned vertical lines or
horizontal banding, you may need to align the print head.
You can align the print head either from the printer's control
panel or using your printer software. To align the print head
from the printer software, the printer must be connected
directly to your computer (not over a network); see your on-
screen Reference Guide for details.
For the best results, load letter-size EPSON Photo Quality
,
Ink Jet Paper in the printer whenever you check the print
head alignment.
Follow these steps to align the print head using the control
panel:
1. Make sure the printer is turned on but not printing, and
letter-size paper is loaded.
2. Press the
.
OK
3. Press the
highlighted, then press
4. Press
to print the alignment pattern.
OK
10/03
EPSON Stylus Photo R300 Series
button to highlight
More Options
or
button until
Print Head Alignment
.
OK
EPSON Stylus Photo R300 Series
, then press
is
- 11
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