Has your Epson R2400 just died?

[Nick De Marco]

Mine did. Last night. Just after I bought replacement inks for EVERY ink.
The dreaded simultaneous red flashing lights. A "fatal error", I'm told.
Tried everything, including the extra technical answer to such things (turn off power and leave then turn on again). But it is dead.

The people at Epson were unhelpful and burly "it's dead, there's nothing we can advise, you can have it serviced for £150 but it will probably break again. They can only do so many prints. Or you can upgrade to a R2880 at our special price (and we take the old one away)" - which was about £100 more than it is available at Calumet, and I get to keep my junk.

Funnily enough I got an email from a guy last night saying his had just died too. Maybe it is Epson 2400 Doomsday.

You don't have these problems in a darkroom do you?

I guess I shall have to buy the R2880 and give Evil Epson more of my money

 

[Arjay]

I heard that some of these printers simply have a counter that is set to a fixed number of print cycles. On reaching the preset cycle number, the electronics block the unit's function.

The explanation for designing in such a behavior is that the head cleaning sump contains a sponge to take up the liquid that was diespensed in the cleaning cycle. And that sponge can only take up the liquid fron so many cleaning cycles ...

Maybe you can find another dead R2400 and do an electronics transplant as well as exchanging the sponge in the sump.

Another approach might be trickier: hacking the printer controller's EEPROM and resetting the counter value to zero.

 

[Keith]

Those damned head cleaning cycles are a pain in the butt ... it's depressing to see your ink levels visibly drop each time. As good as these high end printers are they're a rip off ... ink cartriges for my 2400 are about $23.00 each in Oz.

 

[Arjay]

Out of curiosity, I did a Google search for 'Epson R2400 counter' and got a number of interesting search results.

Take a look at this.

.. and some more background info.

 

[Bob Michaels]

The flashing lights are probably the waste ink counter which can be reset. Arjay gave you the link to where you can download the software for free. Bob Zeiss who owns MIS Associates (excellent 3rd party ink supplier) once told me that they routinely reset the waste ink counter 3 or 4 times before they do the actual pad replacement for the units they use in house.

BTW, refurbished 2880's are $519 from Epson USA with free shipping. Same warranty as new. I consider the Epson refurbished units to be better than new. I have bought 8 Epson refurbished products over the years.

My 2400's have been rock solid for years with one exception. One developed an intermittent internal electronic problem that I could not resolve. I just threw it away and bought a replacement. Never a clog, never a problem otherwise.

I have owned 7 Epson printers over the last 10 years. Using 2 of them now. The one I use for text printing is almost 10 years old. Next printer I will buy will be refurbished Epson.

Keith: I keep my Epson's from wasting ink with the major clean cycle by never turning them off. They only do that ink wasting major clean cycle when I replace an ink cartridge.

 

[Keith]

The flashing lights are probably the waste ink counter which can be reset. Arjay gave you the link to where you can download the software for free. Bob Zeiss who owns MIS Associates (excellent 3rd party ink supplier) once told me that they routinely reset the waste ink counter 3 or 4 times before they do the actual pad replacement for the units they use in house.

BTW, refurbished 2880's are $519 from Epson USA with free shipping. Same warranty as new. I consider the Epson refurbished units to be better than new. I have bought 8 Epson refurbished products over the years.

My 2400's have been rock solid for years with one exception. One developed an intermittent internal electronic problem that I could not resolve. I just threw it away and bought a replacement. Never a clog, never a problem otherwise.

I have owned 7 Epson printers over the last 10 years. Using 2 of them now. The one I use for text printing is almost 10 years old. Next printer I will buy will be refurbished Epson.

Keith: I keep my Epson's from wasting ink with the major clean cycle by never turning them off. They only do that ink wasting major clean cycle when I replace an ink cartridge.

I have heard of that option Bob but often I don't use my printer for weeks and while it's probably quite safe in stand by mode I prefer not to take the chance.

Maybe I can encase it in a fireproof box?

 

[Bob Michaels]

I have heard of that option Bob but often I don't use my printer for weeks and while it's probably quite safe in stand by mode I prefer not to take the chance.

Maybe I can encase it in a fireproof box?

Keith: I turn off electric lights when I am out of the room, but my printers have not been turned off for 10 years. And my computer just stays in the standby mode all the time. But to each it's own.

Sometime we will have to start a thread about who does / who does not turn off their cameras when not in use. I have never turned off a camera. Just could never see a reason to turn them off.

 

[Nick De Marco]

Thanks for the tips.
I decided the best, and most cost effective, thing to do was junk the elephant and get the 2880. Just installed it now, and have been lucky to get good black & white and colour photos already. I hope it lasts!