Fix Epson Error Code 0xEA: Blocked Printhead Carriage 0xEA

Many people have asked me about getting the error code “0xEA” on their Epson printers. Today, we’re going to cover one of the things that could be causing this and how to fix it.

The symptom we’re going to look at is when you notice the printhead slowly moving to the right before smashing against the far left. This action will often cause you to get a 0xEA error message. Let’s look a little closer at the symptoms.

Firstly, you’ll see that it will slowly move to the right when you start your printer. It does this because the printhead is trying and failing to find its starting point. It will set the starting point to point zero (the far right).

Once it reaches this point zero, it will move to the left. It’ll start slowly, and everything may seem okay to begin with. It might seem a little stuck or stutter at first. Then out of nowhere, it'll go very quickly to the left and smash against the far left side. This is what will send the error code.

Possible Cause 1: The Belt

Epson uses an optical encoder type of timing belt to determine how far it wants the print head to travel. This belt has vertical lines, alternating between dark and light shades for the printhead to read.

The printhead is usually supposed to start from point zero and travel to the left. The printhead will have to travel and read a lot of these marks—let’s say around two thousand marks. It makes this slamming motion because it thinks it’s really far to the printer's right.

You may have a spot of dirt or dust on the belt that’s covering, for example, 100 marks. This obstruction would cause the printhead to read that entire section as one really long dark mark, rather than 100 alternating light and dark marks.

Because of this, the printhead will think it needs to travel 99 extra marks, causing it to try and go more distance than the tapes will allow before the printhead inevitably slams into the left side of the printer. You can fix this by carefully cleaning the problem section of that strip.

Possible Cause 2: The Printhead Papers

There’s also a chance that you have something obstructing a piece of the papers on the printhead, restricting it from going all the way to the right. Even if you have a clean belt for it to read, it will reset to the wrong place, causing it to run out of tape before it’s done. This often doesn’t stop the printhead from thinking it’s starting from zero and attempting to move the two thousand marks, when it has fewer marks available to travel because it didn’t start at the beginning.

Less Common Causes

If you look at these two things and find that you have a clean belt and there are no issues with the papers, then that means there’s something else messing with the printhead’s movement.

One easy-to-fix thing that may be causing it is if the printhead carriage’s cover is not closed correctly or securely. This can cause it to get caught up on things if that piece of plastic is sticking out or raised too high, resulting in auto-syncing. When it struggles to move, it will stop at something else.

If you believe this is the issue, you can take a second to listen closely when the printhead carriage stops. You’ll hear a slight clicking noise that will indicate that it’s hitting something. To take a closer look at what it’s getting caught up on, we’re going to have to take the scanner off, followed by carefully taking the cover off. If you need instructions on how to take the scanner off, you can watch my short video on that.

Look carefully up and down the track that the printhead carriage is supposed to be traveling and see if you can quickly identify what might be causing it to get stuck. For example, a small broken piece in the track might hit the motor. If you have a broken carriage frame, you can order a new one here. Make sure you order the one that comes with the PW sensor because installing one yourself is a pain.

How to Change the Carriage Frame

First, you’ll have to use your fingernail to carefully pry up the little tab on the sides of the old carriage frame. You’ll see a white cable that connects to the PW sensor. You can use a long needle or something similar to remove it gently.

Using that same needle, press on the small spot on either side of the printhead. For more detailed instructions on doing this, you can view a video I posted about it on my YouTube channel by clicking here.

If you take a closer look at the components, you’ll notice two wider cables on either side of the printhead and one long, smaller cable connecting to the CSSA board. Then you’ll have a shorter cable that you’ve just removed from the PW sensor.

Removing the Printhead Carriage

Going back to that clear reader belt we mentioned earlier, we will have to remove it. Using a number two Phillips head screwdriver, you’re going to have to remove three screws. From the side panel. Pull a little bit, and you should be able to remove the timing belt. You can very carefully pull it out of where it goes through the printhead carriage.

Now that that’s out of the way, you should be able to remove the brown drive belt. On the left, you’ll have to work with it a bit to slide it through the opening, making it come out. Then we’ll need to remove the waste tank unit.

There are going to be two screws you need to locate. The first one will be between the right edge of the scanner and the white piece of the waste tank unit immediately to the left. For the second screw, you’ll need to slide this to the right, where you’ll see it hidden. After removing both screws, pull off the black rubbery tube and very carefully remove the waste tank unit from the scanner. For instructions on reinstalling this after changing the printhead, click here.

Near the printhead’s track, you'll see a small white piece of plastic that stops the printhead from moving too far to the right. To disable it, unscrew the screw on the back of it. On the front, there’s a small white tab. Don’t remove it, but push it to the right and inward. Now, slide the way to the right and push that in a little. The only thing stopping the printhead now should be the motor.

You don’t have to remove the motor altogether. Just unscrew the two screws attaching it and push it back a little. The printhead should then be able to pass. After this, we will need to remove the cables for the printhead carriage to get out. Remove the smaller cable first. Then the larger cables can slide out easily.

Now you can remove the printhead carriage from the rail. Printhead carriages move at high speed when printing, using 42 volts of energy.

Installing the New Printhead Carriage

Make sure that the toothed side is facing outward. It’s not easy to put this on the first time, but you have to be patient. It will fit into the track, and then you’ll feel it stop. You’ll have to push it a little bit to get it to go further in. Working backward, put everything you’ve just removed, loosened, and unscrewed back in its original place.

Do not push or pull the belt too much when replacing it. Pull it just a little bit to fit over the motor wheel and the circle on the other side, enabling movement. After the drive belt is back on, push the tabs back into place and screw their screws back in to hold them.

Now carefully place the timing belt through the optical reader, careful not to get it dirty. If it gets dirty during this process, you’ll have the same problem as you started with, with the reader thinking that it’s got more lines left to read than it does.

Put the end of the timing belt on the side panel. And screw that back into place. Put the cables back and remember that there should be four cables total, one short little cable, one short wide cable, a long wide cable, and a long narrow cable.

The short little cable is for the PW sensor, so you’ll have to push it through the hoop and connect it to the PW sensor. The other short cable is going to go to the right, and the wide long one is going to go to the left. Make sure you attach them with the blue side facing you and the metal side facing the bottom.

Now you should only have the little long cable left. This cable is for the CSSI board. The board has little arms sticking out of it that should be facing the bottom right and top left. There are more details on this in the video linked earlier. Now your printer should run properly.

You can find the video form of this article here: https://youtu.be/oRRFFXcKSX8.