My P400 is giving an “unrecoverable error” message (simultaneously blinking paper/cancel and ink lights.) The user manual says to turn the product off and restart, but the error comes right back when I do that. For lack of a better idea, I tried unplugging the unit from the wall, (not simply powering off) and letting it sit of a couple of hours before plugging back in and restarting, but got the same result.
The printer was running flawlessly the day before yesterday. This error came on with no warning at all.
I’m at a loss, so I thought I’d check here before calling Epson. Any thoughts/advice/suggestions are most welcome!
Thank you, John - I had missed that post in my search here. It sounds like the same combination of lights on the printer, but a different problem. When I spoke with Epson, the rep asked if a dialog box came up on my computer with an error code, which it did not. As soon as he heard that, he said the whole unit would be replaced. (As a side note, I got the exact same behavior from my printer with refillable IJM carts, OEM carts and no carts at all in the printer, so I think whatever is wrong, it is pretty early in the start-up self-check routine, before the printer even looked to see if carts were installed. Makes me wonder if it was a core system that failed…)
Anyway, I just sent the printer off today. With a little luck I should have the replacement on hand in a week and a half or so.
I had the same problem with my P400. The Epson monitor utility will report a 0x73 error. - and I traced mine down to the PW sensor underneath the print head. I had problems with my carts getting “blocked” and tried removing the plugs - and like you ink got dumped into the head and onto prints. The drops that landed into the paper were huge and I assume were struck by the head - and getting into the recessed sensors. I first did the piezoflush papertowel in the platen cleaning trick, which revived my printer - but only intermittently. I didn’t want to take the print head off so I modified a toothbrush by trimming the bristles very short and grinding down the brush head so that it could easily slide underneath the carriage assembly/print head and brushed the sensors clean (I assume so as I couldnt actually see what I was doing). So far so good…
I found pictures of the head in the service manual - you only want to brush the area near the sensors - which are on the left hand rear side of the carriage. You don’t want to brush the actual print head.
Avoid at all costs installing the carts without the plugs - you’re just asking for trouble. I bought a bunch of extra spare carts for when the air vents get plugged up. You just replace the chip with the corresponding one from the bad cart.
I did also salvage one cart by shoving a large needle in the air vent and “scraping” the foam to the side to create a sort of tunnel to the opening on the edge of the cart.