Raw & Post Processing, Printing > Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks
Epson 9900 - Wandering nozzles ?air leak ?bad dampers - Please help
Primus:
My 9900 is now six years old and has been used for less than 100 44X30 prints a year.
I used to get the occasional clog that would go away with one or two cleaning cycles, and an occasional power clean. I admit I sometimes did not print for two weeks or more. On this occasion it was probably a month since I printed anything.
Now I get banding which is subtle but definitely there especially in gradients like sunset/sunrise or if there is a single color that is predominant. Nozzle check shows variable number of nozzles that are dropped from 6 of the 10 channels. I ran multiple cleaning cycles in pairs and even through the maintenance mode, the nozzles are still dropped but they are never the same, sometimes it is only 4 or 5 missing sometimes it is as many as 20 in a single channel.
I figured it is not a clog. Cleaned the wiper, did the paper towel and ammonia trick, read all I could at Eric's site (myx900.com) and elsewhere. I thought it is air trapped in the channels so I did single color purge prints at maximum quality, 2880dpi for each channel. What is interesting is that on the purge prints, there is slight banding in the upper 1 inch (I did 36X5 inch prints) of the suspect channels, the rest of the print is absolutely fine. After doing several such purge prints, a nozzle check shows the same variably missing nozzles.
I ran the AID test in the Maintenance mode and it does give the NG error on the nozzles.
To me it seems that when a particular channel is called for, there is misfiring or leak or whatever initially and then it prints fine if forced to do so. In normal prints though, there is usually no sustained demand for a particular channel hence the banding continues to happen.
I've changed all the suspect carts, shaken them and replaced them but it's the same issue. I tried the paper clip thing to see if I can release trapped air, but nothing comes out, not even a drop of ink, don't know if that is normal.
In my limited knowledge, it is not the ink carts, probably (hopefully) not the head, but something in the ink supply somewhere.
I've read that the dampers/ink selector need to be changed every 2-3 yrs, mine are the same from 6 yrs ago. Does it seem like this may be the issue? If so, I can hopefully change the parts myself.
Thanks in advance
Pradeep
Garnick:
--- Quote from: Primus on June 28, 2015, 01:55:22 pm ---My 9900 is now six years old and has been used for less than 100 44X30 prints a year.
I used to get the occasional clog that would go away with one or two cleaning cycles, and an occasional power clean. I admit I sometimes did not print for two weeks or more. On this occasion it was probably a month since I printed anything.
Now I get banding which is subtle but definitely there especially in gradients like sunset/sunrise or if there is a single color that is predominant. Nozzle check shows variable number of nozzles that are dropped from 6 of the 10 channels. I ran multiple cleaning cycles in pairs and even through the maintenance mode, the nozzles are still dropped but they are never the same, sometimes it is only 4 or 5 missing sometimes it is as many as 20 in a single channel.
I figured it is not a clog. Cleaned the wiper, did the paper towel and ammonia trick, read all I could at Eric's site (myx900.com) and elsewhere. I thought it is air trapped in the channels so I did single color purge prints at maximum quality, 2880dpi for each channel. What is interesting is that on the purge prints, there is slight banding in the upper 1 inch (I did 36X5 inch prints) of the suspect channels, the rest of the print is absolutely fine. After doing several such purge prints, a nozzle check shows the same variably missing nozzles.
I ran the AID test in the Maintenance mode and it does give the NG error on the nozzles.
To me it seems that when a particular channel is called for, there is misfiring or leak or whatever initially and then it prints fine if forced to do so. In normal prints though, there is usually no sustained demand for a particular channel hence the banding continues to happen.
I've changed all the suspect carts, shaken them and replaced them but it's the same issue. I tried the paper clip thing to see if I can release trapped air, but nothing comes out, not even a drop of ink, don't know if that is normal.
In my limited knowledge, it is not the ink carts, probably (hopefully) not the head, but something in the ink supply somewhere.
I've read that the dampers/ink selector need to be changed every 2-3 yrs, mine are the same from 6 yrs ago. Does it seem like this may be the issue? If so, I can hopefully change the parts myself.
Thanks in advance
Pradeep
--- End quote ---
Seems to me you've made all of the right moves in trying to overcome this issue. All the right ones except perhaps the "ammonia trick". There have been several posts on this forum as well as the EpsonWideFormat forum warning against the ammonia treatment for nozzles gaps(clogs). The general consensus seems to be that ammonia can easily dry out the head, which is definitely not what you want. Usually, when trying the Windex/paper towel approach it is suggested that one should use the ammonia-free brand. In my opinion, your biggest problem is associated with the fact that the printer is not getting as much usage as it should. These printers are workhorses, and like all workhorses they want and need to be "worked". Of course I'm not suggesting that you run a bunch of unwanted prints everyday just to overcome this issue, but at least a couple of prints per day would be a good start I believe. If you're not following this procedure already, it's also a good idea to run a full colour print between cleaning cycles, which helps to keep all of the nozzles "exercised". Replacing the dampers is also something to consider, as well as making sure you have good humidity control. These printers seem to thrive on a RH of at least 40%, higher if possible. I run a humidifier at the business end of the printer all winter and well into spring, until the RH can be naturally sustained at around 50%. I also keep a full bucket of water just behind the printer at the right end to help keep the RH under control. One other possibility is perhaps an intermittent pressurizing system, thereby not supply the proper pressure to the carts at all times. My 9900 is now 5 1/2 years old and seems to be getting better with age. I say that knowing that since I am now at home the printer cannot hear me typing and hopefully is not telepathic to the point where it can read my thoughts. Otherwise, who knows what might be awaiting me when I get in to work in the morning and fire up Big Bertha. During the first two years of usage Epson replaced 2 print heads and numerous other parts, all under warranty of course. After my 3rd and final warranty year I was of course on my own, but things have been working well since then. And yes, Eric's research and his site have definitely been a huge help to all of us. I hope you will be able to solve your issue soon, good luck.
Gary
Primus:
Thanks Gary. I used the 'classic' Windex formula, but only after multiple attempts through the cleaning cycles. The fact that a purge print, apart from the slight banding in the upper 1 inch prints just fine suggests that the head is fine, but I am no expert. I will probably try replacing the dampers since that is not expensive except in terms of effort and time.
Pradeep
datro:
--- Quote from: Primus on June 28, 2015, 04:46:38 pm ---...The fact that a purge print, apart from the slight banding in the upper 1 inch prints just fine suggests that the head is fine, but I am no expert. I will probably try replacing the dampers since that is not expensive except in terms of effort and time.
Pradeep
--- End quote ---
The reason you see banding only in the upper 1 inch of a print when printing 100% density "purge" patterns (and some nozzles are not firing) is because of how the printer combines carriage movement (lateral direction) with paper movement (vertical direction) to lay down dots in that part of the image. If you pay attention to a typical print when it starts, the carriage will move back and forth with no paper movement initially, building up the image density with each pass, and then the paper will start to advance with each pass (or each two passes if you are printing uni-directionally) of the head. You may also see this behavior in the last 1 inch of a print.
In any case, you can't really judge the health of the head using 100% density color bar test prints. The Nozzle Test pattern is the only way to tell if nozzles are firing or not. And health of the head is determined by a combination of current pattern, recent past patterns (i.e. what has changed or not), and what type of cleaning attempts have been made in between.
In general:
If non-firing nozzles are moving around, you may have air in the system. This can actually be caused by too much cleaning without intervening normal printing or rest time.
If you have a large block of nozzles missing (typically in the middle of the pattern), and cleaning does not bring them back (or makes the block larger), you most likely have a bad head (electromechanical failure, not really a "clog"). You may also see deflected ink patterns on the left and right hand sides of the block where nozzles are missing.
If you have an entire channel missing that does not come back, it could be the damper.
Dave
Primus:
--- Quote from: datro on June 28, 2015, 06:33:23 pm ---The reason you see banding only in the upper 1 inch of a print when printing 100% density "purge" patterns (and some nozzles are not firing) is because of how the printer combines carriage movement (lateral direction) with paper movement (vertical direction) to lay down dots in that part of the image. If you pay attention to a typical print when it starts, the carriage will move back and forth with no paper movement initially, building up the image density with each pass, and then the paper will start to advance with each pass (or each two passes if you are printing uni-directionally) of the head. You may also see this behavior in the last 1 inch of a print.
In any case, you can't really judge the health of the head using 100% density color bar test prints. The Nozzle Test pattern is the only way to tell if nozzles are firing or not. And health of the head is determined by a combination of current pattern, recent past patterns (i.e. what has changed or not), and what type of cleaning attempts have been made in between.
In general:
If non-firing nozzles are moving around, you may have air in the system. This can actually be caused by too much cleaning without intervening normal printing or rest time.
If you have a large block of nozzles missing (typically in the middle of the pattern), and cleaning does not bring them back (or makes the block larger), you most likely have a bad head (electromechanical failure, not really a "clog"). You may also see deflected ink patterns on the left and right hand sides of the block where nozzles are missing.
If you have an entire channel missing that does not come back, it could be the damper.
Dave
--- End quote ---
Dave, thanks, that explains a lot.
The dropped nozzles are random and on some nozzle check printouts there may only be 3-4 in a channel and the next time it may be as many as 10 or more. The ones that go missing may come back the next time. Some channels have NO missing nozzles at all on any of the prints.
I have printed at least 10 feet of random images in the past few days to test this and on the ones that do not have a single dominant color or it's a busy image (lots of foliage etc), the banding is not obvious.
What is frustrating is that some channels are more affected than others. Green for example has at most two nozzles that drop out now and then, while VM and LK have lots.
There is NO single channel that is completely missing.
What I don't want to end up doing is changing the damper/ink selector and then finding out it's the head that's gone. But I don't know how to figure this out.
One thing that seems obvious (to me) is that this is not an issue of the usual clogged nozzles.
Pradeep
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