Bypass startup cleaning on epson P9000

[larkis]

My P9000 wants to do a cleaning at startup and complaining that there is not enough ink for the cleaning. My ink will arrive next week but in the meantime I would like to print a test pattern to see if a cleaning is even necessary. Is there a way to bypass the message and have the pinter not do a cleaning ?

[DeanChriss]

My P9000 wants to do a cleaning at startup and complaining that there is not enough ink for the cleaning. My ink will arrive next week but in the meantime I would like to print a test pattern to see if a cleaning is even necessary. Is there a way to bypass the message and have the printer not do a cleaning ?

I have not run into your situation yet but it's only a matter of time. I have not found any way to bypass the nozzle check/cleaning that happens at every power on from a powered off state. Given your post I assume that, like the X900 printers, the PX000 printers will not do a cleaning when there is less than 1% ink remaining in a given cartridge. Taken together does this mean one cannot power on and use a PX000 printer when any ink cartridge has 1% or less ink remaining? It's impractical to swap cartridges around every time one powers on the printer, so if this is true it means all ink cartridges just got 1% smaller than they were on the X900 series.

Unless I've missed something, I've also noticed that all indications of ink level for the PX000 printers are graphical. Unlike the X900 printers, I have been unable to find any numerical indication of the amount of ink remaining in the printer control panel menus or in the driver software. Even the text based printed status sheet contains lines of asterisks to indicate ink levels. I guess they don't want us waiting until the last few percent to order new ink.

With that said I've yet to see a single clog on the new printer, so it seems Epson has done something right.

[datro]

I've had my new P9000 for about 3 weeks now and like you, I've looked and found that actual ink levels presented as a percentage (e.g. 1%) are not available anywhere in hardware or software.  The only thing we have is a somewhat compressed graphical bar for each color to indicate ink levels (on the panel) and the line of asterisks on the status sheet as you mention.  I suspect Epson decided the numerical indication was too inaccurate and just took it out of the firmware.  There are some other interesting differences in how the menus are setup on the P9000.  In general, I think it is an improvement over the x900 menus.

On a related note, I've found that in Serviceman Mode there does not appear to be any head cleaning of any kind on the P9000.  The CL1-CL4 levels of cleaning are completely gone.  In fact as far as I can tell, ALL head cleaning options are now available in the standard USER mode menu, including POWERFUL (which is under the "Administrator" branch of the user menu system).  It's clear that Epson has attempted to simplify the head cleaning options and also maybe protect some users from themselves who were using the Serviceman mode cleaning options inappropriately (or maybe too aggressively).

Dave

[Wayne Fox]

This was an issue with the 79/9900 printers when first introduced. It was later resolved with a firmware update.  I'm not sure why Epson keeps making the same mistakes.

Logic tells me that if I disable auto nozzle checking/auto cleaning in the menu, I'm aware of that fact and have decided to manage that process myself.  If I start up the printer and a nozzle check shows a few random missing nozzles, I will not perform a clean, as most likely after I print a couple of test prints those nozzles will be working fine.  Obviously some installs would rather just have the printer do it for various reasons, but once the choice is made to disable them, they should be completely disabled and the printer should never perform another nozzle check.

And of course the idea that the printer won't even run because it detects a few missing nozzles and there isn't enough ink to run a clean is ridiculous.

 I'm not sure why Epson reverted to this puzzling behavior.

[larkis]

I also don't know as of yet where to check ink usage after a print has been made (for cost guestimation). A 40x30 inked area is how much exactly on the P9000 (just ink) ? On the x800 series i remember seeing usage numbers on the nozze check page.

[Wayne Fox]

I just started up my p9000, which started to clean then notified me there wasn't enough ink to clean.  It ask if I wanted to continue.

I selected yes.

It then gave me a little different window, but again said their wasn't enough ink to clean.  This time I hit cancel.  It confirmed I wanted to cancel the job, which I did, and at that point the printer operated as normal.

so it is possible to bypass the initial clean if you get the error not enough ink to clean when starting up the printer.

[DeanChriss]

Thanks for that information, Wayne.

[tonyrom]

I've had my new P9000 for about 3 weeks now and like you, I've looked and found that actual ink levels presented as a percentage (e.g. 1%) are not available anywhere in hardware or software.  The only thing we have is a somewhat compressed graphical bar for each color to indicate ink levels (on the panel) and the line of asterisks on the status sheet as you mention.  I suspect Epson decided the numerical indication was too inaccurate and just took it out of the firmware.  There are some other interesting differences in how the menus are setup on the P9000.  In general, I think it is an improvement over the x900 menus.

On a related note, I've found that in Serviceman Mode there does not appear to be any head cleaning of any kind on the P9000.  The CL1-CL4 levels of cleaning are completely gone.  In fact as far as I can tell, ALL head cleaning options are now available in the standard USER mode menu, including POWERFUL (which is under the "Administrator" branch of the user menu system).  It's clear that Epson has attempted to simplify the head cleaning options and also maybe protect some users from themselves who were using the Serviceman mode cleaning options inappropriately (or maybe too aggressively).

Dave

Hi Dave, you can get the percentage of ink left (Mac OS for sure).  Just go to preferences, select your printer. Select Options & Supplies.  When you look at the supplies tab, hover your mouse pointer of the text that labels the color bar.  You should see a tool tip that will have the percentage.

HTH,
-tony

[datro]

... Just go to preferences, select your printer. Select Options & Supplies.  When you look at the supplies tab, hover your mouse pointer of the text that labels the color bar.  You should see a tool tip that will have the percentage.

"Select Options and Supplies" doesn't exist on the Windows version of the P9000 driver.

[Landscapes]

This may be completely unrelated since my experience is with a Canon 6400, but I found a way to bypass a clean cycle so perhaps this might provide an idea for the Epson.

After the printer has been idle for about 3 days, I notice that it does an auto clean cycle whenever you eventually want to do a print.  I have the auto nozzle check set to off, but if I don't use the printer every 2 days, it still wants to do this clean cycle first.  Sometimes I forgot to print every 2 days, and it managed to not go through it after 3 days, but this is the upper boundary.  Given the fact that a clean cycle wastes 12ml of ink, it is better to print something that uses only 1-2ml of ink every 2 days rather than to waste the 12ml of ink.

After being away for a week and having the printer off, I booted up in Service Mode and did a Service Mode nozzle check.  (For non Canon folk, this is a different type of nozzle check which shows every single nozzle, even the ones that have been mapped to other nozzles).  It didn't look good, which is to be expected, and some colors had easily a few dozen blocked nozzles.  I immediately did another one, and it looked about 75% better.

The reason why I went through the Service Mode is because, as a result of going through other issues, I've noticed that lots of regular checks are turned off in Service Mode.  It lets you do stuff that might otherwise not be possible.  You of course can't print in Service Mode, but even if your printer refuses to do anything in regular mode, the Service Mode would allow you to print a nozzle check or other testing type things.

Anyway, so now my thinking was that even though the printer was turned off for a week, the service mode nozzle check actually moved some ink through it, and because it wasn't the regular mode, it wasn't inclined to run an auto clean which it would do after noticing that it had not been used for a few days.  The critical thing is that now, the printer technically had just done a print, the nozzle check, so perhaps this would trick the printer into thinking that it really hadn't been 7 days since doing a print job.

I then booted up in regular mode, ran another nozzle check, and this one was perfect.  I then proceeded to do my print, which it did, without having to do a clean cycle!  I am back to printing every 2 days now, and if I ever miss this window, I will be sure to follow my steps again in the service mode.  I will be going away again soon, so will have the printer off for another week, and hopefully I can get it up and running again without a clean cycle, which will also prove that this wasn't just a fluke.

Once again, I'm not sure how this might help with the Epson, but I see that even Wayne found a loophole when the cart was almost empty, so perhaps there would be a way through some service menu.