Printer stopping mid print

My friends printer, Epson Stylus Photo, keeps stopping mid print. We have cleaned the printer, changed the ink cartridges, updated the drivers but it still keeps doing it.

Any ideas as to what could be causing this as we are wasting lots of paper and ink. It doesn`t always happen just every five or so prints.

Jason.

Do you get a fault message when it stops?

Off the top of my head it could be either a dodgy paper sensor (the printer suddenly thinking there's no paper in it, or that the paper is jammed when it isn't), or the printer incorrectly reporting ink levels.

Bin it and get an Canon or HP, would be my advice.

sorry, but I advise replace.

I absolutely loathe Epson printers. Having had several in the past - all of which have died before I'd expect them to, I wouldn't buy another one in a fit.

Problem is the print head is part of the printer, not part of the cartridge. So unless you're prepared to start soaking the damn thing in isopropyl every few months, don't bother with Epson.

Oh... and a Which? report last year discovered that Epson ink cartridges still had as much as 38% of the ink remaining when the cartridge reported it empty! Yes, that's thirty eight percent!.

I'm guessing you're trying to print something intensive, like a large photo at med/high quality, or something?

Sorry, but these cheapo printers aren't really up to doing batch print runs. By batch, I mean anything > 1 or 2 copies. The weedy/cheap internals just dont seem able to cope, resulting in regular cockups like this.

I have a cheap Epson myself, and had a nightmare of the highest order trying to batch print some greetings cards. Never again.

It`s been a good printer so it`s probably a good time for a new one I guess. There is no error reported when it stops, it`s just like it has finished printing so I guess it could be the sensor as you suggest.

Jason.