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Epson Stylus CX5400 Printing Problems

December 2, 2005 by debbie T | Printers

The other night I was having a major problem with my Epson Stylus
CX5400 Printer. The print was very faint (almost invisible) and smudgy, even after several attempts to clean the nozzles.

After searching on Google.com, I learned this was a fairly common problem with certain Epson printers. It appears the ink purge tube becomes disconnected from the cap assembly.

Here are the web sites that I found helpful:

* http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/printer/28050 – discussions of others having the same problem.
* http://inkjetprinterhelp.us/duraink.html – details on how to re-connect the hose.
* http://inkjetprinterhelp.us/cx52003.html – instructions on disassembly of the printer.

Notes:

* Be warned, dis-assembly (and re-assembly) of the printer is not easy. The instructions are good, but a little confusing sometimes. The photos are a little fuzzy and it can be hard to decipher what’s what.
* You should be mechanically inclined if you are attempting this. There are lots of screws and little parts that you have to put back correctly. I don’t know how my husband remembered where every part went, but he impressed me!
* It does get messy. Ink will get on your fingers. They suggest to use gloves, but my husband couldn’t work with gloves.
* You need two needle-nose pliers to re-attach the hose, because you are working in a very small (hard to reach) area. It also helps if someone else can hold open the spring-loaded part and hold a flashlight. (That was my job!)
* Just take your time, work slowly, and it is possible to fix this printer without a service call. Well, unless your printer is still covered under warranty, in which case, have a service tech fix it.
* Fixing the first time might not do the trick. The tube fell off soon afterward, when 2 pages were printed. My husband then had to dis-assemble the printer again. It was quicker the 2nd time around. He removed the little hose clamp from where the hose was attached in the front, and attached it to the part that kept falling off. Then he added a wire tie to the front hose attachment. I don’t understand why the back hose attachment didn’t have some sort of clamp to begin with!
* Printer alignment might need to be adjusted after the repair is completed.

UPDATE (01-28-06): I kept forgetting to update the printer situation. Unfortunately, my alignment is off, and no matter how many times I run the tests to fix the alignment, it is still off. It appears to be just the black print that is off; scanned copies print fine, and color seems to be alright as well.

I am very disappointed, because I really like this printer, and I don’t want to be forced to purchase a new one.

There are 8 comments

  1. your links to inkjetprinter.us are dead

    Comment by Rich on February 25th, 2006

  2. Oh no, it looks like the whole site is down. But I will leave the links as is, just in case they fix the problem.

    It is too bad, it was a great site. Now I wish I printed a pdf of their web pages for future use. I guess it just goes to show, nothing on the web is permanent.

    Thanks for the heads up, Rich!

    Comment by debbieT on February 25th, 2006

  3. Looks like all links are active now!

    Comment by debbieT on April 15th, 2006

  4. We were moving the site to a new host. What should have taken a a few minutes for the hosting company to set up took over a week. We ended up hosting most of the site on a make shift server. We are back up and we have bigger and clearer photos and a lot more space for new content. Thanks to all for your support.

    Comment by inkjetprinterhelp.us on April 26th, 2006

  5. i need help i have an EPSON STYLUS CX5400, and i dont know how to take the ink out. I guess i’m having troubles and i need some information….also when i print the color blue only shoes up and all the other inks are not used but they are full…whats the problem????

    Comment by Nour on September 9th, 2006

  6. You might want to check the manual or try the Epson.com web site for any help with how the printer works.
    Good luck!

    Comment by debbieT on September 9th, 2006

  7. I have a EpsonCX4600 printer When I bought it I was really impressed by the machine,until I had to replace my ink cartriges they are really costly and because of the cost I only printed when I needed to, big mistake because the last time I went to print a document it would not print the ink pluged up the print head because I was not using the machine enough,I was told by our local repair shops that it would be cheaper to buy a new printer than repair the one I have.I tryed using the recomended flushing fluid to no avail,so I disassembled the machine and found the hoses were pluged solid I cleaned them out put it back togeather (not easy) and it works fine now, to avoid this happening again I run a test print every day

    Comment by Garry Pressner on July 6th, 2007

  8. Hello,
    I’m having problems after fitting new cartridges to my C82 printer. It still does not work.
    Does anyone have the instructions on how to remove the casing on an Epson C82 printer please?
    I’d like to check out the tube under the cartridge station. Thanks for any help.

    Comment by AndyS on May 9th, 2009