Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: Wayne Fox on April 01, 2012, 10:19:44 pm
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In a bit of a jam, large print due tomorrow morning and my printer has decided to move into another dimension. I've never seen an Epson do this before. Worked fine Thursday night. Yesterday I printed a nozzle check, and when it started printing, the head just goes back and forth across the entire printer. Forever. paper never moves, ink never comes out. Waited for a while, then aborted the job.
So I'm assuming this will take an Epson service call, but would really like to get this print out tonight. Wondering if this is some stupid anomaly that can be remedied with some simple procedure, or if indeed it's one of those "never seen that before" kind of thing. So far I've tried a printer reset, re-install of firmware. I also shut it down last night and removed the power cord over night. Just got back and no change. When ever any print job is sent to the printer, this is the result.
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When I had a printer do that once it was the encoder strip. See if has come loose or take a lint free rag and wipe it down. If it gets dirty it can cause the head to go back and forth without stopping. Doesn't it always happen when we have to get a job out!
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good thought. Encoder strip appears clean and normal.
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Wayne - let it run. It's recalibrating itself (even though it doesn't say so). Any time you stop it, it resets and has to start again. It should finish inside about 15-20 minutes, but honestly, let it run for up to 45 minutes and if it's still running at that point, then you may need to investigate further.
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Thank you Phil! Happily printing my print as we speak.
In all the years I've been using Epson printers, I've never seen one do this before. It seems some feedback on the panel would make sense.
Just curious as to what triggers the need for it to calibrate?
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From what I understand, it's self checking many things all the time, including carriage movement against expected time and actual measured distance etc and if it doesn't like a result, it can recalibrate itself. I've seen a few 900 series printers do this over the years. I don't have any real detail on the process, though.
I thought there was a firmware update that did give some sort of panel message but it wasn't particularly clear or useful, but I can't remember exactly. A very clear "calibrating - please wait 15 minutes" or similar would be handy!
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I even called Epson service first time the printer did that. They even told me the fancy name of that test however I forogot it. Anyway the printer does this test every X number of prints and it's nothing to worry about.
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Oh crap! I updated my much older 9800 to a 9900 in January and am still feeling my way around it. While I've not had any real problems I'm still walking on egg shells and read this this morning. Sorry this happened Wayne however glad you posted it and we now all know what to expect. I'm starting a 12-pint job later today and really don't need this.
At least now I won't have a heart attack if/when this happens. Just sit back and chill. Guess I need to buy a 6-pack for the studio.
Many thanks to Wayne for mentioning this and to Phil for the solution.
Don
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.... I'm starting a 12-pint job later today and really don't need this.
Don
I dunno about this, Don. I don't think you should be drinking and working at the same time... ;D
ken
p.s. Glad you got this resolved Wayne---and thanks for sharing. One more item of note to add to the 79/9900 binder!
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Yeah, that must be one really tough job Don ;D
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Leave it to Ken to spot that.... ;D
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No worries - bear in mind most people will never see this either because it never triggers or, when it does, they aren't watching the printer and so don't notice :-)
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I wanted to pull this back up, only because it caught off guard the other day. Same issue, working on a deadline and having done a matte to PK switch, I went to
print a nozzle check (on a 8.5 x 11 sheet) and the head was going back and forth all 44". On and off, same problem, then I after I calmed down and realized there was
not ink spraying I remembered this post. I didn't want to repost, but this is an issue that would be so easily fixed by a simple notice on the printer LCD "re-calibration in
process).
Anyway, after about 10 minutes all was well and off to the races again. Just one to tuck back in the back of your hat.
Paul
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Yes, I wish I had seen this a month or two ago! I had the same issue and it freaked me out! I have worked with this printer for two years and use it as professionally (I run a small custom print studio). Even using it on a quite regular basis, I never had this happen. I also kept canceling the job, but I really got worried when it would do the same thing for a nozzle check. I even completely reinstalled the driver and so on, but nothing worked. I finally contacted Epson support via chat (I am in Iceland, and US support does not really like to deal with us, but there is no Icelandic support), and they quickly resolved the issue. I completely agree, however, that there should be some indication on the printer as to what is going on. It definitely looks like an error, especially if you think you know the printer's behaviors in-and-out after using it for years...
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I have had a similar issue with my 9880 on occasion...just let it do its thing and after about ten minutes all was fine..other than my blood presure. :)