Troubleshoot a Kodak ESP3
The Kodak ESP 3 printer is well-respected by consumers for its ability to print color photos and black-and-white text quickly, at a cost-efficient price. New printers come with a warranty for repairs. But when experiencing technical difficulties with the ESP 3, troubleshooting the problem is a good way to determine whether the problem is simple or something that needs to be repaired by the manufacturer.
Instructions
Slow Printing
1. Check the placement of the printer; it should not be in direct sunlight or in environment with excessive heat that is higher than 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Close any unnecessary software programs on your computer that are running.
3. Make sure your computer meets the minimum system requirements for the Kodak ESP 3. The minimum requirements for a Windows PC are 512 megabytes of memory, 200 megabytes of available disk space and a speed of at least 1.2 gigahertz. The minimum requirements for Macintosh processors is 512 megabytes of memory, 200 megabytes of available disk space and a speed of at least 800 megahertz.
Poor Print Quality
4. Load the printer with letter-sized paper.
5. Press and hold the "Scan" and "Cancel" buttons simultaneously until the lights on the "Power" button begin to flash. The printer will begin to calibrate itself and print a test page with a pattern of colored blocks.
6. Look at the print out of the test sheet to see if any of the colored blocks are faded or missing.
7. Load the printer with more paper and clean the print head by pressing the "Copy" and "Cancel" buttons simultaneously. The printer will print another test sheet.
8. Compare the test sheets to determine, by looking at the color of the blocks, whether the second one has a better print quality than the first.
9. Clean the print head and compare the new printout to the old ones the same way as before; continue doing this until there is no improvement in the quality of the new printout and the shade of the colored blocks begins to print out the same.
10. Contact Kodak technical support about replacing the print head if the quality of the printouts does not improve.
Unable to Print Pictures
11. Go back to the source --- the camera or saved file --- of the selected picture and review it to make sure that the file is not corrupt and that there are no restrictions placed on the file by the administrator to keep it from printing.
12. Check to see which format the picture is saved --- the picture should be saved in JPEG format. The Kodak ESP 3 can only print pictures that are in JPEG format.
13. Access the menu of the program to see if the picture can be converted to JPEG format if it is not already a JPEG. Do this by going to the "file" option in the menu and selecting "Save As"; then go to the drop-down box next to file type and select "JPEG." If the program does not allow you to change the file to a JPEG, the Kodak ESP 3 will not be able to print the picture.
Tags: colored blocks, JPEG format, print head, available disk, available disk space, buttons simultaneously
