Today we're going to solve a problem for Epson EcoTank. The scanner error E-02, and there's a small number underneath, 100016. You'll find your printer starts okay, and at random times, suddenly, you've got this error. You also turn off the printer, turn it back on, and the error doesn't go away. Now, this problem may be caused by a couple of things. When you start a printer and the printer, it will try to move the scanner unit to the left and scan a small patch of white to signal that everything works okay. The printer doesn't have eyes, so it doesn't know what's going on. It depends on a couple of sensors.

Firstly, something may physically make the scanner unit unable to move to the left, including a dirty cable and no power to the scanner. Or, you may have something physically obstruct the pathway of the scanner or something mechanical.

The next thing is the lamp might be burnt out. If you don't see a white light, that means the lamp burnt out, so it cannot scan the little patch, so the sensor will not be able to recognize you moving to the left.

Thirdly, you might have a bad motherboard or-- No, it's politically correct—the mainboard. For a printer this new and this clean, I don't suspect any physical obstruction for the scanner's motion path. I'll take it out, and I'll clean the cable first.

I hope you can find out it's just a dirty cable or a misplaced cable. However, if everything doesn't work out, you can always find spare parts by going to bchtechnologies.com, and then go to the printer parts. Go to Epson and see if we have spare parts for you. ET-2720 is easy to take apart by removing the two screws in front. Now, you can lift the whole scanner unit. There are three cables, and they're in different sizes, so don't worry about mixing them up. Pull them out and clean them.

I'll take a dry cloth, start cleaning. If you use sandpaper, use a super, superfine, like a 2,000 grit sandpaper. Most times, the dry cloth will work. You don't need to go to the sandpaper. Another thing you can try is to use the rubber eraser. When installing the cable, it's easier to take the side panel off. Get a screwdriver or something to push the tab in, and then use your hand. Just jiggle it, and you can take the whole cover off.

Now, pay attention to which direction the cable goes in. You can see the contact points from the smallest cable are on the top, but the medium cable contact points on the bottom. The shiny side should be on the top for the smallest cable, and the blue side should be on the bottom. The blue side should be on the top for the medium cable, and the shiny side should be on the bottom. Now, we put the bigger cable just like the two other cables on the side. There's a sticky double-sided tape that helps us to stabilize the cables.

Please don't put the side cover back yet because we're going to plug in power to see it works. If it doesn't have power because your bigger cable is not installed correctly, try to reinstall it. Now, you can see it can move. The problem solved. Otherwise, you may have to take the scanner unit apart, see all the sensors, and check for mechanical issues.

Try to use or color copy a page before you put the side panel back. Now we know the scanner is working. The only problem is it seems the nozzles are clogged. Now we can put the side panel back and then insert the two screws in the front, and the unit is ready for some nozzle cleaning. After that, it's ready to go.