Epson Stylus Color 900/900G

Product Controls

Cleaning Cycle Black and Color - Cleaning button

Printer's Self-Test - Load/Eject + Power-On

Installing an Ink Cartridge for the First Time - (Charging takes about two minutes)

1. Plug the power cord into a grounded outlet. CAUTION: (Don't use an outlet controlled by a wall switch or timer, or one that uses the same circuit as a large appliance. This may disrupt the power, which can erase the printer's memory or damage its power supply.)

2. Remove the ink cartridges from their foil packages. Then pull off only the yellow part of the tape seal on the top of each cartridge. It is okay if a bit of the yellow tape remains on the cartridge. Don't pull off the blue part. CAUTION: (You must remove the yellow tape seal from the top of the cartridge or you will permanently damage it. Do not remove the tape seal from the bottom. If ink gets on your hands, wash them thoroughly with soap and water. If ink gets in your eyes, flush them immediately with water.)

3. Lower the output tray and open the printer cover. CAUTION: (Be sure the tape securing the print head has been removed.)

4. Press the power button to turn on the printer. The power light flashes, the black and color ink out lights come on, and the black ink cartridge holder moves slightly left to the installation position. CAUTION: (Always use the power button to turn the printer on or off. Never use an external switch, such as on a power strip.)

5. Lift up the black ink cartridge clamp.

6. Place the black ink cartridge in its holder with the label facing up and toward the back of the printer. Then press down the clamp until it locks into place.

7. Press the cleaning button to move the color ink cartridge holder into the installation position. If the print head doesn't move to the color ink cartridge installation position, hold down the cleaning button for three seconds until the print head moves to the color ink cartridge installation position.

8. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to install the color ink cartridge.

9. Press the cleaning button to begin charging the ink delivery system and then close the printer cover. Charging takes about two minutes. The power light flashes, and the printer makes various sounds until it is finished. Don't turn off the printer or interrupt the charging process or it will start over and you'll use more ink than necessary. Charging is complete when the power light stops flashing and stays on. CAUTION: (Never turn off the printer when the power light is flashing, unless the printer hasn't moved or made any noise for more than five minutes.)

Replacing an Ink Cartridge - You can replace an cartridge when the black or color ink out light is either flashing or on. (If you perform these steps when both ink out lights are off, the printer cleans the print heads as described on page 10.) Follow these steps to replace ink cartridges:

The printed image has incorrect or missing colors

The Ink option in the printer driver may be set to Black instead of Color. If so, change the Ink setting to Color. Make sure the Media Type setting matches the paper or media you are using. Let the printer driver automatically select other settings for the best quality. Make sure the printable side of the paper is face up. The Halftoning and Color Adjustment Mode options may be set incorrectly for your document type. The color settings in your application software may need adjustment. Refer to your software documentation for help on adjusting colors. Check if either of the ink out lights are flashing (ink low). If an ink out light is flashing (ink low), change appropriate cartridge. If no ink out light are flashing (ink low) or on, try cleaning the print head, Incorrect or missing colors can be attributed to clogged nozzles in the print head. From the Utility section found in the EPSON printer driver, clean the print heads by performing a head cleaning followed by printing a nozzle check pattern. A head cleaning and nozzle check must be performed as a cycle. After printing a nozzle check, examine the printed dot pattern. Each staggered horizontal and straight vertical line should be complete, with no gaps in the dot pattern. If there are gaps in the dot pattern, continue with another cycle. Perform up to 6 cycles if necessary. If the nozzle check is printing completely but the situation persists, check your ICM (windows 95/98) sRGB (windows 98) or Color Sync (Macintosh) settings. Use the Automatic mode setting or different project type. See Customizing Color Settings or Using ColorSync on the Macintosh for more information. Also you may be able to adjust various color settings in your application software. See your software documentation for more information.

All lights are off

Make sure the printer is turned on. Turn off the power and plug in the power cord securely. Make sure the outlet is not controlled by a switch or timer and is operable. Try using another power outlet.

My printer is Printing is too slow

(NOTE: In order to fully utilize the SC900's print speed capabilities, the Parallel port of the PC will need to be set to ECP/DMA (See your computer documentation for details.) and the CPU will need to be 200 MHz or more.)

More suggestions for faster printing. Try Set Print Quality to Economy. Turn High Speed on. Choose Black ink and No Halftoning if color is not needed. See Basic Printing and Advanced Printing in your users guide for more information. Your system may not have enough resources. Clear space on your hard disk or run a defragmentation utility. Don't run too many applications at the same time. Turn off virtual memory. Increase your system's memory (RAM). If You're using background printing on a Macintosh. Choose GET INFO from the File menu when the application is active or EPSON Monitor3 is selected and increase the memory requirements. See Using Monitor3 in your users guide for more information. If that doesn't work, turn off background printing in the Chooser or in your printer software, see Setting Up Background Printing Options in your users guide for instructions. You won't be able to use Monitor3 after turning off background printing.

You see a memory error message (Macintosh)

Choose Get Info from the File menu when the application is active or EPSON Monitor3 is selected and increase the memory requirements. See Using Monitor3 for more information. If that doesn't work, turn off background printing in the Chooser or in your printer software; see Setting Up Background Printing Options for instructions. You won't be able to use Monitor3 after turning off background printing.

Vertical lines are not aligned or vertical banding appears. How can I correct this?

The print head nozzles may be clogged. From the Utility section found in the EPSON printer driver, clean the print heads by performing a head cleaning followed by printing a nozzle check pattern. A head cleaning and nozzle check must be performed as a cycle. After printing a nozzle check, examine the printed dot pattern. Each staggered horizontal and straight vertical line should be complete, with no gaps in the dot pattern. If there are gaps in the dot pattern, continue with another cycle. Perform up to 6 cycles if necessary. If the dot pattern is fine but you still encounter the same situation on your printout, check the printer driver to see if High Speed mode is selected. If High Speed is on, turn if off and try the print job again. If the situation persists, run the Print Head Alignment utility to align the print heads for precise vertical lines (as described the User's Guide). If you have already tried to align the print heads and did not have any success, try moving the printer to another computer. This will eliminate the possibility of a defective printer cable, parallel port, or software issue. If you continue to experience this situation, please contact the EPSON Connection for assistance.

The printed image has horizontal banding

Make sure the Media Type settings in the driver match the paper type you're using. Make sure that the paper is loaded with the printable side (whiter) face up. Check if either of the ink out lights are flashing (ink low). If an ink out light is flashing (ink low), change appropriate cartridge. If no ink out light are flashing (ink low) or on, try cleaning the print head, Check that the paper thick ness lever is set to the correct position for the type of paper you are using. See the Media Loading and Handling Guidelines section in your users guide for details.

I am getting banding in 360Dpi normal mode selection after about 50 or more pages

Change the resolution to 360 Fine instead of 360 Normal for next print. For banding while printer is printing perform a cleaning cycle as soon as you notice the banding. To run a cleaning cycle while the printer is printing just press the cleaning button and the printer will pause printing and run a cycle. printing will resume after cycle is finished

When I print from Appleworks 5.0.3 / 5.0.4 or Word 98 from my Macintosh (PowerMac / G3 / G4 / iMac / DV iMac) to my EPSON Stylus Color/Photo inkjet printer, some of the text is cut off on the right edge. What can I do to correct this?

Follow the steps below to correct the issue of characters clipping from Appleworks and Word 98.

• Appleworks:
  • Open document.
  • Click on Edit, then Preferences.
  • Topic should be set to Text.
  • Under the Options, enable "Fractional Character Widths".
  • Click OK and print the document.
  • When the file is saved, it will save the setting along with it.

• Word 98:
  • Open document.
  • Click on Tools, then Preferences.
  • Click on the Print tab.
  • Under the options for current document only, select "Fractional Widths".
  • Click OK and print the document.
  • When the file is saved, it will save the setting along with it.