Epson stylus C88 makes black horizontal lines on the print
This "banding" is caused by uneven ink flow through the print nozzles.
Have you tried a cleaning cycle? If not, try one (right click the little printer icon in the bottom right corner of the screen and select head clean). Now run a nozzle check (right click the little printer icon in the bottom right corner of the screen and select nozzle check). Is there any sign of ink on the paper. Try up to three
cleaning cycles. If ink is now flowing, but not yet perfectly, don't carry out any more cleaning cycles. Just leave the printer for 24 hours (to allow any air in the print head to disperse). Then repeat the cleaning cycle/wait process. It may take a while to restore a perfect nozzle check print.
If you have already done lots of head cleans with no perfect results, are you sure you have good ink cartridges properly installed? The printer determines the amount of ink left in the cartridge by counting the number of ink "shots" when printing, head cleaning etc. This information is stored in the "chip" on the cartridge. Thus, it is not an actual measurement of the ink left, but an estimate calculated by subtracting the total shots from the original full ink quantity. This estimate can sometimes be grossly in error, usually due to a cartridge replacement not being carried out correctly. To eliminate this possibility, buy a new set of compatibles on E-Bay - they're very cheap. You can always re-use the old ones later if it turns out they DO have ink in them.
If none of the above works, then you may have blocked print head nozzles. You can try soaking the print heads for 24 hours (or more), as follows. Turn the printer on, and as soon as the print head moves out of its parking position, pull the power cord out of the back, or turn the printer off at the mains. You may now carefully move the print head by hand over to the left hand side out of the way. Look inside the print head parking area on the right and you will see a small rubber cup that comes up to cover the print nozzles when the head is parked (to stop it drying out). Use a syringe or dropper to fill this cup with head cleaning fluid or distilled water. DO NOT USE TAP WATER. Carefully push the print head by hand fully into its parking position so that the cup full of fluid
comes up over the print head. Do not turn the printer on at any stage in this process. Leave this for at least 24 hours, then turn the printer on and try a head clean/nozzle check again. If you get any black ink on the nozzle check, then there is hope! Repeat the process until you get a full black nozzle check. If nothing, repeat the process once more.
If still nothing, post a new comment detailing what you have done and the results.
