Strange I thought - these current colour and B & W cartridges don't seem to have lasted long in my Stylus Photo. I checked the date I last fed it and sure enough, only last month it flashed its lights at me demanding fresh ink.
The genuine articles cost quite a lot of money and I knew I hadn't been printing much so I simply removed both cartridges and put them back in again.
Hey presto, the printer now thinks they're full cartridges, the warning lights stop blinking at me and away I go. And I've been printing beautiful prints all evening on these "empty" tanks.
It makes me fume a bit because obviously I've been throwing away perfectly useable tanks these past 2.5 years. Has anyone else tried this little trick? It could seriously harm Epson's profits if the news leaks (ha!) out.
tom.
Tom
Not so much a trick, as a "safety feature" - at least, according to Epson. Apparently, there's always a small reserve of ink left in each cartridge even when the printer tells you it's empty, because (they say) it could be vary bad news if you actually run it completely dry.
Allegedly, the print head could be damaged by forcing it to print without any ink flow and as has been said before, replacement heads are very expensive on Epson printers.
Basically, as long as you keep an eye on how many prints you're doing on an "empty" cartridge and don't push your luck, you should be OK.
Whether this is a sensible safety feature, or simply sharp practice on Epson's part is up to you to judge, of course... though sharp practice seems to abound in computer peripherals biz! (eg. HP sell "double capacity" black cartridges for their printers which are no larger than the standard cartridge - so the standard cartridges must surely be only half-full? Or perhaps I'm oversimplifying...)
Hope this helps.
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Peter Millard
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peter@petermillard.com
I always remove the Colour cartridge when it shows up empty & fit it again, I printed an extra 20 High quality A4 Video inserts this way (I often get 15 A4 pages).
The catch is that Red usually runs out first so print in small batches (1 at a time after the first 10 in my experience), You will most certainly waste 1 sheet of paper due to a missing colour.
My black cartridge is usually empty when the Epson warns me. (Or it soon is after the cleaning operation when I refit it 
)
MX2 is my usual supplier, I'm always looking for cheaper prices 
I've had poor results with the Epson compatible cartridges & stick to the Epson brand.
John Price
http://www.johnpr98.com
[This message has been edited by johnpr98 (edited 30 September 2001).]
Be aware that the printer now believing it has full tanks has a small problem allowing you to change the tanks when they are empty.
On some Epson printers there is no overriding control to allow you to force the tanks into the change over position.
It is very fiddly to get them swapped , you have something like 30 secs to do so, though Epson’s site now has a set of instructions on how to do it.
On the Epson 400 the trick is to press the 'Load Eject' button for 3 seconds to place the cartridges in the change position (above the 'Cleaning' button which is used normally).
This ink extension technique highlighted by Tom is of course 'At Your Own Risk'.
John Price
http://www.johnpr98.com
[This message has been edited by johnpr98 (edited 30 September 2001).]
I agree with Sepulcre.
Anyone know the way to force the photo750 to allow you to replace a cartridge if you`ve reinserted part-full ones?
Alan
Beware of running ink jet printers fully dry. The ink nozzle works by boiling the ink in the nozzle and firing it out under steam pressure. If it runs out of ink, you can cause major damage to the nozzles.
My Epsom Stylus Photo (5 colours) is now coming up 3 years old so I though what the hell, I haven't got another colour cartridge, I've a few more prints to do, the printer has stopped (colour out) and I've nowhere to go.
So I did the same trick again, removing the colour inkwell and simply replacing it. It ran on for another 7 prints and then you could see that colours were completely missing.
So that's 2wice I've run it completely dry, yet a fresh ink cartridge in now has produced a most excellent print, so my heads have survived the ordeal OK.
tom.
I saw a load of Epson cartridges for sale cheap (Past sell by date) at Staples (Swansea), they weren't any good for me, all Epson 500
John Price
http://www.johnpr98.com
I've been doing this trick for about three years on two Photo 700s without ill effect. I do stop immediately mind if I do run out of ink.Changing the cartridge when it finally runs out is a pain though. I put the printer into clean nozzle mode and yank out the mains as the cartridge goes past!
The other problem is that changing the cartridge 'mid term' doesn't reset the fuel guage. The guage forever runs out of sync with the real level. Does anybody know how to reset it?
Later machines like the Photo 890 don't let you play this game.The cartrides seem to be involved in driving the fuel guage. We had one which showed empty when it clearly wasn't but there was nothing to be done.
[This message has been edited by Stephen Carter (edited 19 October 2001).]
Why are you using Epson originals anyway? Buy clones, they are often upto a quarter of the price. Try www.smco.co.uk or similar.
To answer my own earlier post, I have found that on the 750 during the cleaning cycle the cartridges are exposed for easy changing for about half a minute, ample time for a changeover if all is prepared.
And clone cartridges of course (despite Alan R`s misgivings)!
Try ToneZone (can`t find URL at moment - ask if you want it) 2xblack + 2xcolour £10.95 for Print-Rite carts.
Alan.
[This message has been edited by alan eades (edited 29 October 2001).]
I found this on the Epson Web site for changing Photo 740.
To change the cartridge prior to the ink end signal, hold the load eject button until the black print head has moved to the change position. To change the colour cartridge, press the cleaning button.
Press the load/eject button once the new cartridge has been installed
As the cartridge cannot be reused, please ensure cleaning cycles have been tried.
Good Luck - never tried it myself it was for my Dad's printer.