epson 3800 banding-like issue

[zobelaudio]

Hi Guys,

having been printing with my 3800 for years now, I am on my second printhead and now I have this...first file is actual file, second is scanned result from Matte paper.
now never mind the colours, this is about the "stripes" that are appearing in all colours best visible in the orange and blues and pink.
Any ideas where these come from ?
I have printed from other apps than LR, but the problem stays. Never had this before...
Any thoughts welcome
cheers
Stephan

[Mark D Segal]

This is often what printing with clogged nozzles looks like.

[Farmer]

Do a standard nozzle check print and see what's missing.

[zobelaudio]

After several cleanings, printing color patches with yellow, magenta and cyan, the printing of pictures and single colours is back to normal i.e. no "banding" anymore. the nozzlecheck testprint still shows cyan and magenta with the same gaps on some lines, no change there...
so are those nozzles used randomly, or why can it now print all sorts of colors cleanly, print C,M and Y pure color patches perfectly but some still show up clogged ?

I don't get it

cheers
Stephan

[Mark D Segal]

The nozzle check pattern is reliable. It means that you still have some interference with ink laydown through those nozzles, whether clogs or air drops. You cleaned enough to dissipate the banding pattern but not enough to bring the head completely back to normal. Do up to three repeated cycles of power clean-print-check and if no good repeat this cycle. If not cleared completely after three rounds, let the printer rest overnight, then repeat the next day. Carry this on for as many days as needed up to a week or so. If it never clears by then, call Epson.

How long did this printer sit unused before you noticed this problem? Does the printer sit in a very dry and/or dusty environment? Long periods of disuse, lots of dust, dry air are the usual causes of stubborn clogs. Are you using Epson inks? Are you using a paper that sheds a lot of particulates from the backing? These could be other factors.

[zobelaudio]

Thanks Mark,
will do some more cleaning, hope that gets me somewhere, as I am already on my second head. My environment shouldn't be problematic, middle of Europe, no dust, normal room, mostly matte papers. Printer was out of use for 3 weeks only, so no clue what happened there.
thinking of getting the Canon 1000, since it seems to have a standby mode to alleviate those issues

cheers and thanks, I'll let you know how it goes

Stephan

[Mark D Segal]

Hi Stephan,

Surprising, because the 3800 was the most clog-resistant pigment-ink printer that Epson ever produced. It could go for many weeks of disuse without problems. And if you are the second printhead perhaps it isn't so old. The matte paper could be a factor, especially if it is a cotton rag paper; I found for example that a couple of the Canson Rag papers shed particulates and caused chaos with the printhead.

The Canon Pro-1000 is a very good printer, gorgeous clean, sharp vibrant prints, but I'm finding its non-clog performance comes at the cost of considerable ink usage under the hood to keep the head clean. As well, it does not take rolls and it does not have a flat feed for very stiff media. If you need those features you would go for an Epson P800; otherwise the Canon is a good option.

[RHPS]

Do up to three repeated cycles of power clean-print-check and if no good repeat this cycle. If not cleared completely after three rounds, let the printer rest overnight, then repeat the next day. Carry this on for as many days as needed up to a week or so. If it never clears by then, call Epson. .

Did you really mean "power clean"? That would be a very expensive process.

[Mark D Segal]

Yes, I really meant power clean, because the much weaker regular cleanings have failed to produce the necessary results.  As far as I know, and you can check with Epson tech support, there is no other safe way of cleaning the nozzles through and through apart from pushing ink through them. Power clean does this.

[Farmer]

It's relatively expensive - I really wouldn't call it "very" expensive as a limited event in the overall cost of photography and printing.

And, yes, that's the only way to do it unless you want to syringe-pull ink through the lines (but that's not something you should be attempting unless you already knew about the process - you can easily destroy a head doing it).

[Mark D Segal]

...............................

And, yes, that's the only way to do it unless you want to syringe-pull ink through the lines (but that's not something you should be attempting unless you already knew about the process - you can easily destroy a head doing it).

And on top of the risk, syringe-pulling also consumes a fair bit of ink, if I'm not mistaken.

[Wayne Fox]

the nozzlecheck testprint still shows cyan and magenta with the same gaps on some lines, no change there...
so are those nozzles used randomly, or why can it now print all sorts of colors cleanly, print C,M and Y pure color patches perfectly but some still show up clogged ?

Some colors will print “cleanly” because the dither doesn’t require much ink from the troubled nozzles, so they aren’t really noticeable in the random act of dithering and printing the colors.

Regarding your comment “no change” ... if after several cleans and some power cleans the missing nozzles remains unchanged, this usually means the head electronics are faulty.  While a cleaning may not resolve the problem, the normal result is the missing nozzles “change”.  You should see some that were missing before now showing, and perhaps might see some that were showing before now missing.

If the majority are not changing at all, very likely the head electronics are the problem.

[Mark D Segal]

Some colors will print “cleanly” because the dither doesn’t require much ink from the troubled nozzles, so they aren’t really noticeable in the random act of dithering and printing the colors.

Regarding your comment “no change” ... if after several cleans and some power cleans the missing nozzles remains unchanged, this usually means the head electronics are faulty.  While a cleaning may not resolve the problem, the normal result is the missing nozzles “change”.  You should see some that were missing before now showing, and perhaps might see some that were showing before now missing.

If the majority are not changing at all, very likely the head electronics are the problem.

Hi Wayne, I was wondering about that possibility but the stated evidence that "Printer Manages Color" delivers good prints not demonstrating the issues the O/P is having with the application-based workflow led me to believe that most likely the problem is not mechanical. Not to say it's impossible, so the further checking and other work recommended here may finally indicate whether the problem is software-related or mechanical.

[Doug Gray]

Hi Wayne, I was wondering about that possibility but the stated evidence that "Printer Manages Color" delivers good prints not demonstrating the issues the O/P is having with the application-based workflow led me to believe that most likely the problem is not mechanical. Not to say it's impossible, so the further checking and other work recommended here may finally indicate whether the problem is software-related or mechanical.

This is my belief as well after looking closely at the images.

What strikes me as odd is:

1. Vertically, all the colors, except for the grays that occur where green is saturated, have the same tone vertically.

2. The gray area's tone, where there should be green, has a gradient from light to dark vertically.

I don't see any way this could be mechanical. It looks like a software bug or perhaps failing connection hardware. Since this doesn't show up when printer manages color, I suspect software.

I would clean install the programs on another machine and run the same tests.