MPS-803 Printer No Longer Prints

[Twylo]

Hi folks,

Alright, I know the MPS-803 is (putting it nicely) a terrible, terrible printer. But it's also nostalgic for me, because that's the printer I had with my C64 growing up.

That said, I have an MPS-803 that used to work fine until I moved houses. I've just set it up for the first time since moving, and it no longer prints. When I run it through its self test, I can hear the pin mechanism working, but it's very quiet compared to normal, and nothing is actually ending up on the paper. I know the ribbon is good, it's very inky. It's almost as if it's either out of alignment, or the pins are just "weak" somehow. As far as I can tell there's no way to actually adjust the print head.

Does anyone have any ideas what might be up, or have you experienced something similar?

Thanks,

-Twylo

 

[Chuck(G)]

It's not uncommon for printhead wires to get all gunked up. It used to happen when these things were de rigueur. Use a light solvent, such as kerosene, lamp oil or even paint thinner to soak into the head mech and flush out the goo.

 

[Twylo]

It's not uncommon for printhead wires to get all gunked up. It used to happen when these things were de rigueur. Use a light solvent, such as kerosene, lamp oil or even paint thinner to soak into the head mech and flush out the goo.

Hi Chuck,

I think your diagnosis is right on. I figured out how to remove the print head and gave it a light cleaning with Simple Green. Two of the pins are printing freely now, so I'm going to let the whole pin mechanism soak face-down in a very small amount of Simple Green for a few hours to see if that loosens things up even more.

Thanks very much for the tip!

-Twylo