Specifications

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12. General Maintenance and Problem Solving
12.1 Decline in Print Quality
If the quality of your printed images declines, either with dots or lines missing, or you have an
unexpectedly light print, you may need to clean the print head to unclog the ink nozzles.
Letting any of the ink bottles run dry or leaving the printer sitting without use for a few days
may also dry out the ink nozzles. As the cleaning process uses a lot of ink, only clean the print
head if you are experiencing poor quality prints. Turning the printer on at least once each week
will allow it to proceed through its normal start-up head cleaning process.
Cleaning the Print Head is an easy process. All you need to do is hold down the INK button on
the Control Panel of the Printer for THREE SECONDS or go to the Epson 2100/2200 Printer
Driver on your computer and select the Maintenance tab. This will give you slightly more control
over the cleaning process.
Running the Head Cleaning Utilities
1. The printer should be turned ON but not printing. All the red ink lights must be off.
Select Head Cleaning by following the directions for your computer below:
o Windows:
Go to the bottom right corner of the Task Bar on your computer and Right-Click
the Printer Icon. Then select Head Cleaning. If there is no printer icon on the
Task Bar, go to the Start button on the bottom left of your computer, choose
Settings, then Printers & Faxes. Select the Epson 2100/2200 and then click on
the Utility tab.
o Macintosh OS 8.6 to 9.x:
Select File> Page Setup or Print. Click on Utility first, then click the Head
Cleaning button.
o Macintosh OS X:
Open Applications/Utilities. Select Printer Setup Utility or Print Centre. Click
and Highlight SP 2100 or Stylus Photo 2100. Click on the Utility button. Select
Head Cleaning.
2. Next, follow the on-screen instructions. It will take approximately 45 seconds to
complete the cleaning process and the printer will make a few strange noises. During
this process the green POWER light and the red INK lights will flash.
Please Note: Never turn off the printer while the power light is flashing as this may
damage the printer.
Please Note: It is possible to do a head cleaning at any time even when the printer is
printing. Printing will stop while it cleans the heads and resume where it
stopped when cleaning is finished.
Please Note: It is recommended that you do a head cleaning if you see any drops of ink
on the garments you are printing or if the Print Head comes in contact
with the garment – the cleaning process will also clean the bottom of the
Print Head.
3. Perform a Nozzle Check when both the POWER light and the INK lights stop flashing.