Printing. Epson LQ-510
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Printing
Problem
The printer does not print.
The ON LINE
light is on
but nothing is printed.
The ON LINE light is off.
The is on.
PAPER OUT light
Solution
The software may not be installed properly for your printer. Check the printer settings and make the necessary changes.
The interface cable may be loose. Check both ends of the cable between the printer and the computer. Secure the connector using the wire retaining clips.
You may not be using the correct interface cable. Make sure your interface cable meets the printer and the computer specifications.
The printer may be off line and cannot receive data. Press the ON LINE button.
The ON LINE light should go on. See
Chapter 3.
The paper may be set too far to the right, so that the paper detector cannot sense it.
Move the paper a little to the left. The
PAPER OUT light should go off.
The printer may be out of paper. Load more paper into the printer. See Chapter 2.
Troubleshooting 7-5
Problem
The printer does not print (continued).
The printer sounds like it is printing, but nothing is printed.
The printer makes a strange noise, the buzzer sounds several times, and the printer stops abruptly.
The ON LINE light is flickering but the printer does not print, or it stops printing abruptly.
The print is faint or uneven.
Printed characters have parts missing at the bottom as shown here.
A B C D
Solution
The ribbon cartridge may not be installed properly. Turn off the printer, reinstall the ribbon cartridge, and take up any slack in the ribbon.
The ribbon may be worn. Replace the ribbon cartridge. See Chapter 6.
This indicates an error in printer operation. Turn off the printer, check for paper jams or other problems, then turn the printer back on. If the printer still does not print correctly, contact your Epson dealer.
The print head is overheated. Wait a few minutes; the printer resumes printing automatically when the print head cools.
The ribbon cartridge may not be installed properly. Remove the ribbon cartridge and reinstall it. Make sure the cartridge hooks are inserted securely into the printer. See Chapter 1.
7-6 Troubleshooting
Printing
Problem
The print is faint or uneven (continued).
The printout is faint.
Solution
The ribbon may be worn out. A worn ribbon can damage the print head and should be replaced. Install a new ribbon cartridge. See Chapter 6.
The paper thickness lever may not be set correctly for the paper you are using. Set the paper thickness lever to match the thickness of your paper. See Chapter 2.
Dots are missing in the printed characters or graphics.
A line
of
printout.
dots is missing in the
A B C D
Dots are missing in random positions.
A B C D
The print head is damaged. Stop printing and contact your Epson dealer to have the printer repaired.
There is either too much slack in the ribbon or the ribbon has come loose and gotten caught on something. Stop printing, turn off the printer, and reinstall the ribbon cartridge. See Chapter 6.
Troubleshooting
7 - 7
Printing
Problem
Printed characters are not what you expected.
The typestyle or characters that are set by the software cannot be printed.
The Roman, Sans Serif, or Draft font is selected in your software, but the characters are printed in a different
font.
Italic characters are printed instead
of
the selected graphic “line” characters.
Solution
The software may
not
be correctly installed for your printer. Use the program’s setup (or install) procedure to check the printer settings, and reset as needed.
The wrong font is selected. If your program accepts control codes, set the codes to the values below to select the built-in fonts:
Roman:
Sans Serif:
Draft:
See Chapter 3.
ESC k
ESC k
ESC x
1
0
0
The wrong character table is selected. If your application program is capable of sending control codes, specify the Epson
Extended Graphics character table using
ESC t l.
You can also select the graphics character table by changing a DIP switch setting. To do this, turn off the power, set DIP switch
1-7 to on, then turn on the printer. See
Chapter 3.
7-8 Troubleshooting
Printing
Problem
Printed characters are not what you expected
(continued).
Graphic characters or lines are being printed instead
of
the selected italic characters.
The wrong international characters are being printed.
Solution
The wrong character table is selected. If your application program is capable of sending control codes, specify the italic character table using ESC t 0.
You can also select the italic character table by changing a DIP switch setting. To do this, turn off the power, set DIP switch
1-7 to off; then turn on the power. See
Chapter 3.
The wrong international character set is selected. If your application program is capable of sending control codes, specify the desired international character set using ESC R n. See the description of
ESC R in Chapter 9.
You can also select the international character table by changing DIP switch settings. To do this, turn off the power and set DIP switches 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3 to the correct positions for the character set you want. See Chapter 3.
Troubleshooting 7-9
Printing
Problem
Printed characters are not what you expected
(continued).
The characters expected.
printed
are smaller than
The typestyle selected by SelecType is not printed.
Characters cannot be defined using ESC & and ESC :
Solution
The condensed mode may be set. Check to see if the CONDENSED light on the control panel is on. If it is lit, press the
CONDENSED button to cancel the mode.
Also, if your application program is capable of sending control codes, you can cancel the condensed mode by sending the DC2 code to the printer. See
Chapter 9.
The software may not be properly installed for your printer. Use the program’s setup (or install) procedure to check the printer settings and reset as needed.
Your software may be overriding your
SelecType setting. If your program allows you to change the printing style, software control will override the SelecType settings. For these application programs use the program, not SelecType, to change typestyles.
User-defined character mode may not be selected. When defining characters, make sure that DIP switch 2-5 is set to off.
7-10 Troubleshooting
Printing
Problem
The print position is not what you expected.
Printing starts too high or too low on the page.
One line
of
printing has taken up two lines.
Solution
The loading position may be incorrect.
Use micro-adjustment to adjust the loading position. See Chapter 3. If the problem persists, check the top margin set by your application software and adjust it.
Auto line feed may be on. Turn off DIP switch 2-4.
The margin setting may not be correct.
Use your application program to change the margin.
In BASIC, enter either of the following statements:
WIDTH LPRINT 255
WIDTH “LPT1” 255
If the printer still does not print properly, set the right margin to the maximum setting using ESC Q. See Chapter 9.
Troubleshooting 7-11
Printing
Problem
The print position is not what you expected
(continued).
Page length does not match the length paper.
of
the
Solution
Regular gaps occur in the printout.
Skip over perforation is set, but the perforation does not fall in the center
of
the skip.
Check the page length set by your application software and adjust it if necessary.
If you are using the cut sheet feeder, the self test function prints the number of printable lines that can fit on a single sheet. Use this feature to determine the correct page length setting. See Chapter 3.
One-inch skip over perforation may be set. Set DIP switch 2-3 to off.
The loading position of the paper may be too high or too low. Use the microadjustment feature to reset the loading position so that the perforation is centered within the skip area.
Your application program may be setting the top and bottom margins. If this is the case, turn off skip over perforation by setting DIP switch 2-3 to off.
7-12 Troubleshooting
Printing
Problem
The print position is not what you expected
(continued).
Vertical printed lines do not align or gaps appear in lines or graphics.
Solution
The printer is usually set for bidirectional printing. This can cause a slight misalignment of graphics characters.
When precise printing of vertical lines is necessary, contact your service center to have them perform the bidirectional print alignment adjustment or select the unidirectional print mode by sending
ESC U or ESC < to the printer. You can also select unidirectional printing by setting DIP switch 2-6 to off.
Unidirectional printing is slightly slower.
See Chapter 9.
Note: Use the data dump mode to check data being sent from the computer. In the data dump mode, data is printed in hexadecimal format and in ASCII characters. See Data Dump
Mode in Chapter 3.
If the printer still does not print, try the self test described in
Chapter 1. If the self test works properly, the printer is all right, and the problem probably lies in the computer, the software, or the cable. If the self test does not work, contact your Epson dealer.
Troubleshooting 7-13
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