Printer sounds like it's printing but only blank pages come out - help!

lb20309

I just purchased $65 worth of ink for my Epson Stylus C84 and whenever I print a document it sounds like it's printing but all that comes out are blank pages. I've tried cleaning the printer heads which is the only suggestion on Epson's customer support page... Any other ideas?
1.5GHz 12 PowerBook G4; 1.6 GHz Power Mac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

ABKYH

Take out one of the cartridges and make sure you pulled off the tape covering the head and pin hole. I haven't dealt with Epson printers for a while but I remember buying cartridges for one of my printers that the tape always seemed to peel off leaving the hole plugged.
If this isn't the problem then it boils down to two things: bad cartridges or printer problems. Different printers are susceptible to two different problems; dried ink in the ink lines and air bubbles. You can try cleaning again and again, using the power cleaning mode if Epson offers that. This wastes ink but you have little choice if you want to resurrect the printer. If this doesn't work try returning the cartridges for a refund and see if that works.
Three simple rules tend to keep inkjet printer problems at bay: print something at least once a week. This will keep the ink from drying out. When the printer tells you ink has run out get a new cartridge. This will reduce the chances of getting an air bubble in the line. Buy ink only from reputable vendors and don't fill your own.
MacBook (black) / G5 Dual Desktop / Mac mini Core Solo Mac OS X (10.4.2) WinXP, RedHat Linux, Nano, 4G iPod, RAZR, Palm T/X

jiaxp

I just purchased $65 worth of ink for my Epson Stylus
C84 and whenever I print a document it sounds like
it's printing but all that comes out are blank pages.
I've tried cleaning the printer heads which is the
only suggestion on Epson's customer support page...
Any other ideas?
If you're trying to print pdf documents, I've had situations in which only blanks get printed. If this is your situation, as a quick fix, you can click the "advanced" button and then check "print as image". This will do the trick, but also refer to Adobe's printing help page at
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/330716.html
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