Apple Color StyleWriter 2400 General Maintenance

Routine care for the Apple Color StyleWriter 2400 and the Apple Color StyleWriter 2500, which share a chassis, cartridges, ink absorbers and most procedures. It is taken from Apple's Service Sources and user's guides for the two printers.^[1]^[2] Apple's procedures cover cleaning, consumables, waste ink and a few loose parts; the Service Sources have no lubrication procedure, and repairs beyond these are done by exchanging modules.

Cleaning

Turn the printer off and unplug it first.^[3]

Wipe the outside with a soft cloth dampened with water; a mild soap or detergent may be used. Keep liquid out of the power cord receptacle.^[3]
Open the front door and wipe the rollers and platen with a soft, dry cloth.^[1]
Do not use liquid cleaners inside the printer, and do not use ammonia-based or alcohol-based cleaners on or around it; they may react with the plastic.^[1]^[3]

The ink is water-soluble but contains dyes that stain hands and clothes.^[1]

Cartridges and ink tanks

Never touch or wipe the print nozzles on the bottom of a cartridge.^[1] An opened cartridge that is not in the printer must be kept in the storage case supplied with the printer, which stops the print head drying out; if there is only one cartridge, leave it in the printer.^[3]^[4]

Replacing a cartridge

Switch the printer on and open the front cover. The carriage moves to the centre.
Raise the bright blue lever on the carriage and lift the cartridge out.
Remove the bright orange cap from the new cartridge and peel the orange tape off the print heads.
Fit the cartridge, lower the blue lever and close the cover.^[1]

Replacing an ink tank

The four-colour cartridge holds a black tank and a cyan/magenta/yellow tank; replace only the empty one. Switch on, open the front cover, remove the old tank, take the plastic cap off the new tank and slide it in until it snaps into place, with the colour tank on the left and the black tank on the right.^[1]

**Consumables for both printers**^[1]^[2]
Item	Part number	Service Source figure
High-performance black cartridge	M3240G/A	About 900 pages of text
Four-colour cartridge	M3328G/A	About 1,800 pages per print head with tank replacements
Colour ink tank	M3329G/A	100 pages at 7.5 % coverage
Black ink tank	M3330G/A	100 pages at 7.5 % coverage
Color PhotoGrade cartridge (2500 only)	M5579G/A	Four tanks and print head in one unit

Apple gives a shelf life of six months for a cartridge installed in the printer and 18 months in its original package.^[1]

Saving ink

The printer cleans its print head each time the cover is shut, when it is plugged back in, and after more than three days of inactivity, and each cleaning uses ink. Apple's advice is to avoid opening the cover, unplugging the printer or printing the test page without need, and to clean the head only when necessary.^[3]^[4]

Nozzle check and test page

On the 2400: with the printer off and paper loaded, hold the power key until the power light starts to blink. The test page prints; missing horizontal lines at the bottom mean clogged nozzles.^[1]

On the 2500: switch on and hold the online key for at least six seconds. The page shows the ROM revision and the nozzle pattern; the black and four-colour cartridges have different test pages.^[2]

Print head cleaning

Install the printer software, select the printer and its port in the Chooser, print any document, click Utilities in the Print dialog and select "Clean the print head before printing". Use Clean for blurred characters, white streaks and missing dots, and Super Cleaning only after two or three normal cleanings have failed; Apple warns that it uses a great deal of ink.^[1]^[2]

Waste ink absorbers and the EEPROM

Ink purged during cleaning soaks into two absorbers, upper and lower, under the printer frame. The logic board's EEPROM keeps a count of the ink absorbed, and when the count is reached the driver reports "Waste ink absorbers full". Apple's cure is a new ink absorber kit (076-0470), which is reached after removing the front and rear covers, cut sheet feeder, power supply (2400) and printer frame.^[1]^[2]

The EEPROM must be reset after replacing the absorbers or the logic board. When a logic board is replaced, Apple says to replace the lower absorber always and the upper one if it has ink in it, unless the absorbers have been in use for two weeks or less or fewer than 50 pages have been printed.^[1]

EEPROM reset on the 2400

This works only with the high-performance black cartridge installed.^[1]

Disconnect the power cord from the printer, leaving it plugged into the wall, with the black cartridge installed.
Open the front door.
Hold the power button while connecting the power cord to the printer, then release it.
Press the power button again and close the front door.
A pattern page prints. A white last bar shows that the data has been reset. Switch off and disconnect the power cord.^[1]

EEPROM reset on the 2500

This works with either the black or the four-colour cartridge.^[2]

Disconnect the power cord from the printer with the cartridge installed and the cord plugged into the wall.
Open the front door.
Hold the power button while connecting the power cord, then release it, and close the front door.
A pattern page prints; a white last bar confirms the reset. Switch off and disconnect the power cord.^[2]

Loose gears and rollers after a jam

Pulling a jammed sheet out by force can knock the small gears and springs out of the front door and the small rollers out of the platen assembly. Apple did not supply these as service parts, so keep any that fall out.^[1]

Gears: remove the front door, turn it so that the arm tabs face you, place each gear and spring in the cover, wrap one end of the spring round the tab, set the spring in its groove and repeat for the other end.
Rollers: lift the platen cover, slip the roller under the top of the platen and push it up until it snaps into the groove under the cover.^[1]

Moving the printer

Keep the original carton and packing for shipping; the user's guides describe repacking in an appendix.^[3] Do not place the printer on a slanted surface.^[4]

Related pages

References

↑ ^1.00 ^1.01 ^1.02 ^1.03 ^1.04 ^1.05 ^1.06 ^1.07 ^1.08 ^1.09 ^1.10 ^1.11 ^1.12 ^1.13 ^1.14 ^1.15 ^1.16 Apple Computer, Color StyleWriter 2400 (Service Source), 158 pp., hosted as Color StyleWriter 2400 Service Source (PDF). PDF pages: front door gears p. 36; logic board and ink absorbers pp. 60-62; power supply pp. 65-68; fuse pp. 69-70; ink absorbers pp. 110-112; printer cleaning pp. 121-123; cartridge replacement pp. 124-131; ink tank replacement pp. 132-136; nozzle check pp. 137-140; print head cleaning pp. 141-145; EEPROM reset pp. 146-150; small gear replacement pp. 151-154; small roller replacement pp. 155-156; exploded view p. 158.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 ^2.5 ^2.6 Apple Computer, Color StyleWriter 2500 (Service Source), 163 pp., hosted as Color StyleWriter 2500 Service Source (PDF). PDF pages: same cartridges as the 2400 p. 7; PhotoGrade pp. 10-13; test page pp. 14-15; logic board and absorbers p. 69; ink absorbers pp. 112-113; print head cleaning pp. 146-150; EEPROM reset pp. 151-155; small gears and rollers pp. 156-161; exploded view p. 163.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 ^3.4 ^3.5 Apple Computer, Color StyleWriter 2400 User's Guide, 1994, hosted as File:Apple Color StyleWriter 2400 Users Guide 1994.pdf. Page numbers are the guide's own: storage case p. 4; storing the cartridge p. 46; cleaning outside and inside p. 47; ink economy p. 66; Appendix C, packing and moving the printer, p. 85.
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 Apple Computer, Color StyleWriter 2500: Setting up, connecting, and using your printer, 1996, hosted as File:Apple Color StyleWriter 2500 Users Guide 1996.pdf. Page numbers are the guide's own: placement (no slanted surface) p. 4; storing the cartridge p. 62; cleaning p. 63; automatic head cleaning p. 73.

[ss2400-1] 1.00 ^1.01 ^1.02 ^1.03 ^1.04 ^1.05 ^1.06 ^1.07 ^1.08 ^1.09 ^1.10 ^1.11 ^1.12 ^1.13 ^1.14 ^1.15 ^1.16 Apple Computer, Color StyleWriter 2400 (Service Source), 158 pp., hosted as Color StyleWriter 2400 Service Source (PDF). PDF pages: front door gears p. 36; logic board and ink absorbers pp. 60-62; power supply pp. 65-68; fuse pp. 69-70; ink absorbers pp. 110-112; printer cleaning pp. 121-123; cartridge replacement pp. 124-131; ink tank replacement pp. 132-136; nozzle check pp. 137-140; print head cleaning pp. 141-145; EEPROM reset pp. 146-150; small gear replacement pp. 151-154; small roller replacement pp. 155-156; exploded view p. 158.

[ss2500-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 ^2.5 ^2.6 Apple Computer, Color StyleWriter 2500 (Service Source), 163 pp., hosted as Color StyleWriter 2500 Service Source (PDF). PDF pages: same cartridges as the 2400 p. 7; PhotoGrade pp. 10-13; test page pp. 14-15; logic board and absorbers p. 69; ink absorbers pp. 112-113; print head cleaning pp. 146-150; EEPROM reset pp. 151-155; small gears and rollers pp. 156-161; exploded view p. 163.

[ug2400-3] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 ^3.4 ^3.5 Apple Computer, Color StyleWriter 2400 User's Guide, 1994, hosted as File:Apple Color StyleWriter 2400 Users Guide 1994.pdf. Page numbers are the guide's own: storage case p. 4; storing the cartridge p. 46; cleaning outside and inside p. 47; ink economy p. 66; Appendix C, packing and moving the printer, p. 85.

[ug2500-4] 4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 Apple Computer, Color StyleWriter 2500: Setting up, connecting, and using your printer, 1996, hosted as File:Apple Color StyleWriter 2500 Users Guide 1996.pdf. Page numbers are the guide's own: placement (no slanted surface) p. 4; storing the cartridge p. 62; cleaning p. 63; automatic head cleaning p. 73.

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