EPSON Stylus COLOR 1160
10 -
 
EPSON Stylus COLOR 1160
9/99
Make sure paper is loaded in the printer and click 
Print 
nozzle check pattern
. Then click Next. The nozzle check 
pattern prints (see page 10 for details).
7. If the nozzle check pattern has no gaps in its dots, click 
Finish.
If the pattern is missing dots, click 
Clean to clean the print 
head again. If you don’t see any improvement after cleaning 
three or four times, check the solutions in the Printer Basics 
book. You can also turn the printer off and wait 
overnight—this allows any dried ink to soften—and then 
try cleaning the print head again.
Using the Control Panel to Clean the Print 
Head
Follow these steps to clean the print head:
1. Make sure the printer is turned on but not printing, and 
both the 
 
B black and 
 
A color ink out lights are off. (If an 
ink out light is flashing, replace the ink cartridge before 
continuing.)
2. Press the 
 
R cleaning button and hold it down for three 
seconds. Cleaning takes about 30 seconds, during which the 
printer makes some noise and the 
 
Ppower light flashes. 
Never turn off the printer while the 
 
P
power light is 
flashing, unless the printer hasn’t moved or made noise 
for more than 5 minutes.
3. After the 
 
Ppower light stops flashing, print a page to test 
the print quality and reset the cleaning cycle.
If your printer is connected directly to the computer, go 
to step 4 to run a nozzle check. 
If you’re printing over a network, open an application and 
print a short document containing black and color data. 
Then go to step 8.
4. If you have an application running, access the printer 
settings dialog box.
Or, with Windows, click 
Start, point to Settings, then 
select 
Printers. Right-click your EPSON Stylus COLOR 
1160
 printer icon in the Printers windows. Then select 
Properties (Document Defaults in Windows NT).
5. Windows: Click the 
Utility tab. 
Macintosh: Click the  Utility button.
6. Make sure paper is loaded in the printer, click the 
Nozzle 
Check
 button, and click Next. The nozzle check pattern 
prints (see the next section for details).
7. If the nozzle check pattern has no gaps in its dots, click 
Finish. 
If the pattern is missing dots, click 
Clean to clean the print 
head again.
8. If you don’t see any improvement after cleaning three or 
four times, check the solutions in the Printer Basics book. 
You can also turn the printer off and wait overnight—this 
allows any dried ink to soften—and then try cleaning the 
print head again.
Examining the Nozzle Check Pattern
Examine the nozzle check pattern you print. It should look 
something like this:
Each staggered horizontal and straight vertical line should be 
complete, with no gaps in the dot pattern. If your printout 
looks okay, you’re done. If any dots are missing, as shown 
below, clean the print head again; see page 9 for instructions.
Aligning the Print Head
If your printouts contain misaligned vertical lines, you may 
need to align the print head. Your printer must be connected 
to a local port, not on a network, to use the Print Head 
Alignment utility. 
Follow these steps:
1. Make sure the printer is turned on, but not printing, and 
letter-size paper is loaded.
Load paper that’s at least 8.27 inches (210 mm) wide to 
prevent ink from spraying inside the printer and 
smudging your printouts.
For the best results, load EPSON ink jet paper in the 
printer whenever you check the print head alignment.
2. If you have an application running, access the printer 
settings dialog box.
missing dots
missing dots
missing dots