Epson R300 DVD Printing Disc Load Problem

[BassPig]

Ever since day one of using this otherwise excellent printer to make the disc artwork for printable disc media, I have experienced feed problems.

The standard workflow happens like this:

The print job is sent from the layout application.
The disc is already loaded in the carrier tray and the tray positioned with the arrows lined up per Epson instructions.
On the first print attempt, the R300 turns the feed rollers BACKWARDS, pushing the disc carrier out of the printer feed tray. This results in a "disc tray not set correctly" error.
Attempts to reset the tray and push the button to resume the job result in the same process repeating.
My workaround is to remove the tray and close the feeder, then press the reset button nest to the error LED, and when it finishes it's ink-wasting head cleaning process, it indicates that the disc needs to be loaded, so I load it then and usually, it prints correctly.

There are several problems with this process:

1. It's very slow, and if I have a lot of discs to print, well, let's say that I can burn them faster than this printer gets ready to print one.

2. The printer wastes 800% of the ink used to print the disc, in the cleaning cycle that it does when I reset it.


It seems that Epson has some annoying firmware issues, since I can see no other reason why the printer would turn the feed rollers THE WRONG DIRECTION when feeding the disc tray.

How many people reading this forum have this printer, or the R200 and are experiencing this frustrating behavior that mars and otherwise stellar printer?

[radar]

hi,i also have a r300 and it does the same thing.

[Video Dude]

With my R200, when the tray is loaded the rollers keep going, but the tray does not move. So when the rollers start I have to manually push the tray into the printer.

It worked fine for the first few months.

I also noticed that the printer can't print to the very edge of the left side of the disc anymore. I'm always left with a small border now. I know ink is getting to the spot because I see excess ink in the plastic border of the disc. It just skips the vey edge of the printable surface for some reason.

I once called Epson and they offered to send me a replacement printer for free if I mail my printer back to them. It was refurbished but it worked for a while. I might have to do that again.

[celtic_druid]

My Canon i865 is still working fine after years of use. I believe the newer models use chipped ink though. Also in the US CD/DVD printing is disabled. Still even if I lived in the US I don't think I would buy an Epson.

[iguana69347]

I also have the R300. I have printed hundreds of disks with it. It worked perfectly for the first few months and then started experiencing the same problems others are reporting. Most of the time I have to manually push the feed tray in because it will only go about half an inch and then stop if I don't help it along. Occasionally I experience the feed rollers pushing the tray back out at me. I just have to pull it out, wait for everything to get done cycling and the tray error to pop up. Then I push the maintenance button and all is well for the rest of the time. This only happens on occasion. I have learned how to babysit my printer so I still can get the job done with relatively few problems but it is an irritation that I should have to do it at all. I thought it was just my printer but as I read, it seems to be a common problem with the Epson printers. Otherwise, it's still an awesome printer. To Video Dude: I assume you are using the Epson Print CD software that came with the printer. There is an alignment adjustment that should correct your problem of not printing all the way to one edge of the disk. It's the green disk icon with two arrows that aligns print position. Have you tried that??

[BassPig]

I'm able to use my R300, but, all the hassles aside, I get about 20-25 discs out of a set of ink carts because of the cleaning cycle it does when I press the Maintenance button in order to clear the error. If I could find a way to get it to print without having to push Maintenance every disc, I could probably print many hundreds of discs on a set of carts. I rarely print more than three lines of black text on a CD, and one in 8 discs will have a full graphic on it. Otherwise, a lot of ink used for very little production.

[Video Dude]

I assume you are using the Epson Print CD software that came with the printer. There is an alignment adjustment that should correct your problem of not printing all the way to one edge of the disk. It's the green disk icon with two arrows that aligns print position. Have you tried that??
Yes. Ink is in fact going past the paper edge and onto the outer plastic rim. Its happening both in the inner left hub and outer left. It is only about a millimeter of white space, but just enough to be annoying. It only started happening once the tray began getting stuck and requiring a push.

I don't consider it a major problem. I usually just print text on the disc and leave the background white.


@BassPig
I get that tray load error sometimes too. But when the tray gets spit out, I cancel the print job and power the printer off. Usually when I turn it back on and try to print it works and I don't have to run maintenance.

[celtic_druid]

Can't you just press a resume button?

[BassPig]

Can't you just press a resume button?

No. The only procedure that has worked is to remove the disc tray, close the tray assembly, press Maintenance, wait a minute for it to do its head cleaning cycle, then when it complains that the tray is not loaded, open the tray assembly insert the tray and press the Maintenance button again. Then it pulls the tray in and starts to print, after about a minute of moving the tray in and out as it tries to figure out where the disc is.
Of course, in the process, I've just used up enough ink to print 10-20 discs. :(

[celtic_druid]

Interesting. On a Canon if it miss feeds the tray you just line it up and press resume and it prints.

[Rail-Runner]

Ever since day one of using this otherwise excellent printer to make the disc artwork for printable disc media, I have experienced feed problems.

The standard workflow happens like this:

The print job is sent from the layout application.
The disc is already loaded in the carrier tray and the tray positioned with the arrows lined up per Epson instructions.
On the first print attempt, the R300 turns the feed rollers BACKWARDS, pushing the disc carrier out of the printer feed tray. This results in a "disc tray not set correctly" error.
Attempts to reset the tray and push the button to resume the job result in the same process repeating.
My workaround is to remove the tray and close the feeder, then press the reset button nest to the error LED, and when it finishes it's ink-wasting head cleaning process, it indicates that the disc needs to be loaded, so I load it then and usually, it prints correctly.

There are several problems with this process:

1. It's very slow, and if I have a lot of discs to print, well, let's say that I can burn them faster than this printer gets ready to print one.

2. The printer wastes 800% of the ink used to print the disc, in the cleaning cycle that it does when I reset it.


It seems that Epson has some annoying firmware issues, since I can see no other reason why the printer would turn the feed rollers THE WRONG DIRECTION when feeding the disc tray.

How many people reading this forum have this printer, or the R200 and are experiencing this frustrating behavior that mars and otherwise stellar printer?
I have both R200 & R300 and have found if you don`t fully let either printer Fully start-up when powering them up with the carriage tray folded UP it will cause this problem of spitting out your disc, wait a couple minutes after powering them up before lowering the tray to accept discs.