Epson FX-880 Getting to Know Your Printer

Getting to Know Your Printer

Your new EPSON® 9-pin dot matrix printer provides high-quality printing and great performance in a compact design. Features include:

A variety of paper paths to suit your printing needs.

The ability to handle a wide range of paper types (including continuous paper, multi-part forms with one original plus up to five copies, labels, single sheets, and envelopes).

High-speed draft mode printing of up to 455 characters per second at 12 characters per inch.

Your printer also comes with printer driver software, the EPSON Status Monitor 2 utility for Microsoft® Windows® 95 that lets you check the status of your printer quickly and easily, and other software. In addition, several options are available to help suit your individual needs.

Getting to Know Your Printer 1

Contents

9-PinDot Matrix Printer User’s Guide Page Printer Parts Control Panel Buttons and Lights Contents Page Page Page Page Page Getting to Know Your Printer Features tear-off feature paper release lever micro adjust feature Available Paper Paths Printing on continuous paper Using the push tractor positions Using the pull tractor position Printing on single sheets 6Getting to Know Your Printer Options Ribbon Cartridges Important Safety Instructions If you plan to use the printer in Germany, observe the following: Note for German-speakingusers: Print Head Caution Symbol ENERGY STAR Compliance For United Kingdom Users Use of options Safety information Warning: If you have to fit a plug: How To Use Your Manuals Warnings, Cautions, and Notes This guide uses the following conventions: Warnings Cautions Notes Setting Up the Printer Unpacking the Printer c voltages, and it is not possible to adjust the printer for use with There are several models of the printer designed for different Choosing a Place for the Printer Follow the guidelines below when selecting a location for your printer qLeave adequate room around the printer for easy operation and maintenance Positioning the continuous paper supply Installing or Replacing the Ribbon Cartridge This section describes how to install or replace the ribbon Warning: Make sure the printer is turned off. The printer is off when the surface of the c Moving the print head while the printer is on may damage the printer Page Page Page Page Plugging in the Printer 2. Check the label on the back of the printer to make sure its voltage matches that of your electrical outlet. Also make sure the plug on your printer’s power cord matches your electrical outlet 4.Plug the power cord into a properly grounded electrical outlet Page 5. Plug the other end of the cable into the computer. (If the cable has a ground wire at the computer end, attach it to the ground connector at the back of the computer.) Installing the Printer Driver on Your PC For Windows 95 or NT Using Windows 95 plug-and-play 2. Turn off your printer and computer, if necessary Cancel 5.Click the Driver from disk provided by hardware manufacturer radio button Do not install a driver 6.Click OK. You see the Install From Disk screen Yes Finish For Windows 3.1 or NT Follow the steps below to install the printer driver for Windows 3.1 or NT 2.Insert Disk 1 of your printer driver software in a disk drive Page Optional printer drivers for DOS program users For FX-880: FX-870 FX-850 FX-800 FX-85 FX-80+ FX-80 For FX-1180: FX-1170 FX-1050 FX-1000 FX-105 FX-100+ FX-100 EPSON printer Standard printer Using the Printer Software About Your Printer Software Using the Printer Driver With Windows Accessing the printer driver from Windows applications Select Print Setup Print Make sure that your printer is selected and then click Printer Setup Properties Accessing the printer driver from the Start menu Paper menu Graphics menu Device Options menu Page See “Printer driver settings overview” on page 2-10for detailed information about the printer driver settings Accessing the printer driver from the Control Panel To access the printer driver from the Control Panel, follow the steps below 1.In the Main window, double-clickthe Control Panel icon Page Using the Printer Driver With Windows NT Page 1.Click the Start button, and then point to Settings 2.Click Printers Right-click Document Defaults Page Setup menu Advanced menu qDocument Options Double-click Halftone Color Adjustment Print Text as Graphics Metafile Spooling 1. Select Print Setup or Print from the File menu of your application software. The Print or Print Setup dialog box Print Manager Details Job Default Document Properties dialog box Advanced Document Properties dialog box Using the EPSON Remote! Utility Installing EPSON Remote Accessing EPSON Remote Printing on Continuous Paper Setting the Paper Release Lever The table below describes each paper release lever position 3-2 Printing on Continuous Paper Setting the Paper Thickness Lever oWhen the temperature is 35°C (95°F) or more, set the paper thickness lever one position higher to improve print quality Loading Multi-PartForms Loading Continuous Paper With Labels Removing continuous paper with labels Using the Tractor in the Front Push Position Installing the tractor in the front push position Page Loading paper with the front push tractor Page Page Page Removing the printed document from the front push tractor To remove the printed document, follow the steps below Press the 2.Tear off the printed document using the tear-offedge of the printer cover Always tear off your printed document before you press the Removing the tractor from the front push position To remove the tractor from the front push position, follow the steps below 2.Remove any paper from the tractor as described in the previous section Using the Tractor in the Rear Push Position Installing the tractor in the rear push position Loading paper with the rear push tractor 3-16 Printing on Continuous Paper Page Removing the printed document from the rear push tractor 3-18 Printing on Continuous Paper Removing the tractor from the rear push position Using the Tractor in the Pull Position Installing the tractor in the pull position Page Page Loading paper with the pull tractor To load paper onto the pull tractor, follow the steps below 1. Make sure the printer is turned off, and the printer cover is 2. Set the paper release lever to the pull tractor position 3.Release the sprockets by pulling the sprocket lock levers forward Make sure your paper has a clean, straight edge. Then open the sprocket covers 3-24 Printing on Continuous Paper Page Page position.3 Send a print job to the printer. The printer starts printing from the Removing the paper from the pull tractor Removing the tractor from the pull tractor position Page Using two tractors in a push/pull combination To use two tractors at once, follow these steps: Turn on the printer. Press the Fit the holes of the paper over the pins on both sprockets of the pull tractor Page 3-32 Printing on Continuous Paper Switching Between Printing on Continuous Paper and Single Sheets 4. Set the paper release lever to the single-sheetposition 5. Load single sheets as described in Chapter Switching to printing on continuous paper If a single sheet remains in the printer, press the Your printer loads the continuous paper automatically when you begin printing Adjusting the Top-of-FormPosition Your The top margin setting made in some application software overrides the 1.Make sure the printer is turned on Page Advancing the Paper to the Tear-OffEdge If you are using the tractor in the front or rear push position you can use the tear-offfeature to advance your continuous paper to the printer’s tear-offedge when you finish printing You can then easily tear off the printed document. When you Advancing paper to the tear-offposition automatically Adjusting the tear-offposition Page 4.Tear off the printed pages 5.Press the Pause button to turn off micro adjust mode Printing on Single Sheets Available Paper Types Using the Paper Guide Installing the paper guide Loading paper in the paper guide Page Loading Envelopes Changing Printer Settings From the Printer’s Control Panel Selecting a Built-InFont Follow these steps to select a built-infont from the control panel: Make sure that the printer is not printing. If it is, press the Making Default Settings Understanding default settings Default-settingmode Skip over perforation Auto tear-off Auto line feed Print direction Software I/F (interface) mode Auto I/F (interface) wait time 0 slash High speed draft Input buffer Buzzer (beeper) Auto CR (carriage return) IBM character table Page length for front tractor Page length for rear tractor Character table International character set for Italic table To change settings in Paper Out When you finish making settings, press the Using EPSON Status Monitor About the EPSON Status Monitor 2 Utility Installing EPSON Status Monitor 1.Insert Disk 1 of the EPSON Status Monitor 2 software in a disk drive 2.Click the Start button on the task bar, and then click Run A:\Setup Accessing EPSON Status Monitor Toolbar and Status bar Installed Printers list Printer menu View menu Settings menu Help menu Current Status menu Printer Information menu Monitoring Preferences 3.Use the slider to adjust the monitoring interval, if necessary Monitor this printer Using the background monitoring icon Troubleshooting Using the Error Indicators 7-2 Troubleshooting Problems and Solutions Power supply problems Paper loading or feeding problems Wrong top-of-formposition Wrong tear-offposition Paper loading or feeding problems The printer does not load single-sheetpaper or does not feed it properly The printer does not fully eject a single sheet The paper does not feed properly with the optional cut-sheetfeeder The printer does not load continuous paper or does not feed it properly The printer does not feed continuous paper to the standby position Wrong top-of-formposition Your printing appears too high or low on the page Wrong tear-offposition Printing or printout quality problems The printer does not print when the computer sends data The printer makes noise, but nothing prints or printing stops abruptly The printout is faint Part of the printout is missing, or dots are missing in random positions Lines of dots are missing in the printout All the text is printed on the same line The printout has extra blank lines between lines of text Page Vertical printed lines are not aligned Clearing Paper Jams To clear a paper jam, follow these steps: 1 Press the Operate button to turn off the printer 2.Open the printer cover Aligning Vertical Lines in Your Printout Printing a Self Test To perform a self test, follow these steps: To run the test using the Draft font, hold down the To end the self test, press the Printing a Hex Dump To print a hex dump, follow the steps below To enter hex dump mode, hold down both the Page Enhancing Your Printer With Options Paper Handling Options A-2 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-3 Using the Optional Cut-SheetFeeders Installing an optional cut-sheetfeeder A-4 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-5 Loading paper in the single-bin cut-sheetfeeder A-6 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-7 A-8 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-9 Loading paper in the high-capacity cut-sheetfeeder A-10 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-11 A-12 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Assembling the double-bin cut-sheetfeeder Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-13 Selecting your paper path (bin 1 or bin 2) A-14 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Using an Optional Front Sheet or Front Paper Guide Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-15 Installing the front sheet or front paper guide A-16 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-17 Loading paper in the front sheet or front paper guide A-18 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-19 Using the Roll Paper Holder Assembling the roll paper holder A-20 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Installing the roll paper holder Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-21 Loading roll paper A-22 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-23 A-24 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Removing roll paper Installing an Interface Card Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-25 A-26 Enhancing Your Printer With Options Using a Serial Interface Card (C82305] or 82306]) A Selecting a baud rate Handshake timing Error handling Enhancing Your Printer With Options A-27 Cleaning and Transporting the Printer Cleaning the Printer B-2 Cleaning and Transporting the Printer Transporting the Printer Cleaning and Transporting the Printer B-3 Specifications Printer Specifications Mechanical C-2 Specifications Specifications C-3 Electrical C-4 Specifications Environmental Paper Specifications C-5 C-6 Specifications Specifications C-7 C-8 Specifications Printable area C-10 Specifications Safety approvals CE marking Specifications C-11 Command Lists EPSON ESC/P control codes C-12 Specifications Barcode commands Barcode data Specifications C-15 IBM 2380/2381 Plus emulation control codes C-16 Specifications Character Tables Specifications C-17 PC 437 (USA, Standard Europe) PC 850 (Multilingual) PC 860 (Portuguese) PC 863 (Canadian-French) PC 865 (Norwegian) PC 861 (Icelandic) BRASCII (Brazilian Portuguese) Abicomp (Brazilian Portuguese) ISO Latin Roman PC 437 Greek (Greek) PC 869 (Greek) ISO 8859-7(Latin/Greek) PC 857 (Turkish) PC 855 (Cyrillic) PC 852 (East Europe) MAZOWIA (Poland) Code MJK (CSFR) Bulgaria Estonia ISO 8859-2 PC 866 LAT. (Latvian) Italic International character sets for the Italic table Customer Support Information Contacting Customer Support For United States and Canada Users Electronic support services D-2 Customer Support Information Automated telephone services For United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland Users Enquiry Desk Customer Support D-4 Customer Support Information Faxon EPSON EPtec - Bulletin Board Service for latest drivers and utilities World Wide Web For Australian Users EPSON FAXBACK EPSON Bulletin Board System Internet URL http://www.epson.com.au Your dealer EPSON Helpdesk For Singapore Users For Hong Kong Users Internet home page Electronic Bulletin Board System Technical support hotline For Philippines Users D-8 Customer Support Information Glossary 2Glossary Page 4Glossary Index IN-1 IN-2 IN-3 IN-4 IN-5 IN-6