SG7100DN Error 20222

[Cimbian]

Hi,

I recently bought a setup that included an SG7100DN with Sublijet cartridges (out of date and empty).

As the printer was unknown and well out of warranty I went with refillable cartridges for it (Amazon) and dye-sub inks.

The printer is communicating with both the MacBook and my laptop and I successfully flushed the lines with de-ionised water... so far, so good, but the system was telling me the waste ink tank was full, so I replaced it.

On installing the refillable cartridges the printer goes through the initialisation for a few minutes and then stops with SC20222, suggesting turning off and on again. I've repeated the process a few times but always the same. Ricoh didn't recognise the code but I found a service manual online and bought the download. the code points to Tank 2 not achieving negative pressure. What I then did was swap the cyan refillable for the empty Sublijet one... restarted and the error was gone. I swapped them again and the error returned... repeated with the Sublijetcartridge, error was gone.

Great! thought I.

I contacted the seller and they were very helpful and sent me another set of refillables as well as a bottle of cyan to replace that used.

Once it arrived I fitted the new cyan and... SC20222 was back. Just for good measure I put the Sublijet cartridge in and the error was gone.

I've tried a couple of Ricoh service companies but they both say they no longer support the printer.

I'm left with three options right now:

1. Buy a single Sublijet cyan (approx £35) and hope that the rest of the printer is okay
2. buy a new printer.
3. ask you nice people for advice/experiences.

I paid £50 for the printer and have spent about £85 on inks, cartridges and waste tank so I'm about £130 - £140 in on this machine.

Thoughts, anyone?

Steve.

[webtrekker]

Are you sure the cartridge vent plug has been left open?

[Cimbian]

Yes. One of the things I checked when I filled them as I wasn't sure if they were to be open or not (thank you YouTube. )

[InkExperts]

The SC20222 on the RICOH printers was listed as a 'Print head failure' in the old service manual / PDF list I had. Sadly I never found a definitive fix for the problem. There was a print head reset process that did fix the issue on one of our old SG3110DN but on 3-4 others it didn't work. I believe the failure occurs by the printing head overheating, usually from a blockage due to lack of use.

Annoyingly there is no definitive list of RICOH service error codes, descriptions or fixes online. Not that I have ever found.

Alex