Stylus 600 cleaning cycle at power-up

JR: There is an electrical circuit built into/onto the "mainboard assembly" that is actually a timer circuit. Basically it monitors when a printer has been unplugged from wall voltage, how long a printer has been turned off, or how long its been since the last "printhead cleaning cycle" was ran. It uses that data and automatically runs a cleaning cycle when it thinks its do. Theres no adjustment for it or any way that I know of to disable it...You should be able to replace the battery and not normally have any problems. The printers factory settings are preset in ROM [read only memory] and can't be easily changed or erased...Good Luck! Denny Conway

Thanks you Denny for your prompt answer, I appreciate the great help you provide to everybody in this forum.
By the way, I opened the printer bottom to check the battery voltage, that equals 3,08Volts : seems to be OK. Therefore, I think there's no reason to replace it.
Anyway, I have a concern with this systematic printhead cleaning cyle that starts in any condition of powering-up (except maybe if I wait only a few seconds between OFF and ON).
To give you more details :
- being the printer plugged to main, if I switch it ON after 1 day,1 hour or quarter hour eing OFF, it gives the same : it starts a printhead cleaning cycle again.
- same thing if the printer is unplugged during the same durations, and I power it up again.
- only if I let if OFF a minute (maybe 3), and put it ON again, the head will move back & forth from one side to the other and stay back in its parking position and keep quite, without starting cleaning cycle (On led will not flash).
As you may notice, Denny, my big concern is that it seems that I will spend a lot (but a lot!) of ink with that behaviour. Please take note that I do not use my printer everyday, therefore I switch it OFF systematically when I've finished with it.
Do you think there is a reset to perform (with keypad combination Paper/Ink/ON as usually seen through the forum), or maybe disconnecting for an hour and replacing back the lithium battery) ?
Thank you for your help.
JR

Thanks you Denny for your prompt answer, I appreciate the great help you provide to everybody in this forum.
I opened the printer bottom to check the battery voltage, that equals 3,08Volts : seems to be OK. Therefore, I think there's no reason to replace it.
Anyway, I have a concern with this systematic printhead cleaning cyle that starts in any condition of powering-up (except maybe if I wait only a few seconds between OFF and ON).
To give you more details :
- being the printer plugged to main, if I switch it ON after 1 day,1 hour or quarter hour eing OFF, it gives the same : it starts a printhead cleaning cycle again.
- same thing if the printer is unplugged during the same durations, and I power it up again.
- only if I let if OFF a minute (maybe 3), and put it ON again, the head will move back & forth from one side to the other and stay back in its parking position and keep quite, without starting cleaning cycle (On led will not flash).
As you may notice, Denny, my big concern is that it seems that I will spend a lot (but a lot!) of ink with that behaviour. Please take note that I do not use my printer everyday, therefore I switch it OFF systematically when I've finished with it.
Do you think there is a reset to perform (with keypad combination Paper/Ink/ON as usually seen through the forum), or maybe disconnecting for an hour and replacing back the lithium battery) ?
Thank you for your help.
JR

JR: I do not know of anything that you can do to change the preset factory settings on your printer. As they are burned into a ROM CHIP on the "Main Board Assembly", they cannot be easily or economically changed. You can try doing a search on this printer repair site and see if you can locate the MASTER RESET procedure for your Epson Printer. That reset would set your printer back to factory defaults, but may not change whats happening to your printer. I have never needed to replace a battery, but I have read of people replacing them, to try and correct problems they were having in their printer. I'm sorry, I can't really help you and I have no real answers for you that may actually make a difference on your printer. You can try the Master Reset if you can find it, or try replacing the battery and see if that makes any difference. Other than that you would have to replace the main board assembly and it would normally cost more than a new printer. Even then it may not make a difference in whats happening with the cleaning cycles...Again, Good Luck! Denny Conway

Try to reset your printer using sscserve.exe
Axel B

Many thanks Denny for your suggestions.
I first tried a Master Reset, but didn't see any change in the cleaning cycle behaviour.
Additionaly I don't think that dismounting/remounting the battery will do anything (voltage is OK 3V).
By chance, I have a spare board from another Stylus 600 (dead printhead) borrowed by a friend, I replaced it this morning; I powered the printer this morning (cleaning cycle started due to the current timing of the spare board, surely), and will wait tonight or tomorrow and check another power-up, to see if behaviour changes.
I suppose that the last solution, if nothing improves, is to let the printer ALWAYS powered ON. Right ?
JR.

JR: Yes you can always leave your printer powered on if you want to, lots of people do. Older technology has its limitations I'm afraid and only so much you can actually do with it...Denny Conway

Denny : I powered it ON with the spare board, and as expected, the printer reacted correctly : no cleaning cycle started after a 12 hours elapsed time being the printer OFF.
Don't ask me why, I don't know, and don't understand what is the difference between the old and the new board : I suppose that something has been alterated in the old one (setting, electrical failure ?). Anyway, at least I ended with a serie of problems (never ending story since 4 months) : poor ergonomy with XP driver, replaced by W2000 driver for Stylus 660 model (works fine !, except ink levels); crooked nozzle on black head doing like a paintbrush randomly : fixed with letting some water in the cap assy for hours. Great ! And all that thanks to your forum. Again Denny, thanks a lot for your help ! Regards, JR