z3100 lots of head cleaning

[Charles Gast]

I have been printing various sizes on matte paper the past two weeks then today I started printing some 13x19 on luster paper. The printer is spending 90% of the time cleaning the heads on the left or right sides of the printer. There are different types of cleaning stations to left and right ends of the platform. It cleans and cleans then does a couple of printing swipes then cleans and cleans and cleans.
It takes 25 minutes to print the 12x18 using the best quality mode with the driver set to no extra passes and 600 dpi.
I tried printing at 1200 dpi with extra passes and it took over an hour to print a 12x18.  

If anyone knows whats up please let me know.

Also I tried turning the printer off and back on to reboot it and it still did the same thing. Also the file I am printing is a 600 dpi file.

[Ernst Dinkla]

I have been printing various sizes on matte paper the past two weeks then today I started printing some 13x19 on luster paper. The printer is spending 90% of the time cleaning the heads on the left or right sides of the printer. There are different types of cleaning stations to left and right ends of the platform. It cleans and cleans then does a couple of printing swipes then cleans and cleans and cleans.
It takes 25 minutes to print the 12x18 using the best quality mode with the driver set to no extra passes and 600 dpi.
I tried printing at 1200 dpi with extra passes and it took over an hour to print a 12x18. 

If anyone knows whats up please let me know.

Also I tried turning the printer off and back on to reboot it and it still did the same thing. Also the file I am printing is a 600 dpi file.
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There's no indication in the Status page that the head condition is low or alike ?

You can take out a head and clean it, see the manual how to do it. Some matte papers set off coating particles on printer parts including the head nozzle surface and block or deflect the droplet formation. Check whether there's a wiper that is filthy too when you see that there's filth on the head. If it is one matte paper that causes this try to find an alternative.

Coating dust and paper lint gathering in the print area of the printer should be vacuum cleaned from time to time to avoid this kind of trouble. It hasn't been different with Epson machines and art papers.

Ernst Dinkla

www.pigment-print.com

[Charles Gast]

Also worth mentioning; It did the same thing on the first couple of prints I made on it when it was new. It printed the profiling targets ok but the first photo I printed was an 8x10 and it took an hour!  I then ran a head cleaning operation and the next print I did was slow but not quite as slow.  It started printing faster after that so I had put it aside as a new printhead needing to be fully primed.  I am assuming that the printheads may require a sort of power clean but thought I'd see if anyone else has seen this.  I am still on the starter carts and they all indicate over half full.

[Charles Gast]

There's no indication in the Status page that the head condition is low or alike ?

You can take out a head and clean it, see the manual how to do it. Some matte papers set off coating particles on printer parts including the head nozzle surface and block or deflect the droplet formation. Check whether there's a wiper that is filthy too when you see that there's filth on the head. If it is one matte paper that causes this try to find an alternative.

Coating dust and paper lint gathering in the print area of the printer should be vacuum cleaned from time to time to avoid this kind of trouble. It hasn't been different with Epson machines and art papers.

Ernst Dinkla

www.pigment-print.com
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Thanks Ernst,

There are no indications of a problem in the status page. Everything looks clean inside the printer as far as dust. I would need an indication of which printhead to clean first.  Maybe one of the printheads is newly defective but I have not seen a status to tell me if or which printhead would be the trouble.
I'll try another matte print later today to see how it prints on that. I have noticed it prints very continuously when on matte paper and has always had more of a tendency to stop for a cleaning when printing on luster.  Maybe the PK head is the culprit.

[marcsitkin]

Charles-

You might want to check the dry-time settings for that media. Some of the papers seem to put a pause at the end of each pass into the printing cycle that can really slow down printing. It may be needed for certain media and image combinations, but it can be changed in the "Change Printing Properties" button under Manage papers in Color Center. We turned the drying time to none in a couple of our Custom, and printing spead up considerably with no ill effects.

Marc Sitkin

[mcbroomf]

When I started using the z3100 it exhibited symptoms exactly like you describe, but it was a communication problem, not a cleaning issue, even though the head seemed to be shuffling around at one side or the other.  I eventually switched some settings in the driver and eliminated the problem.

Is it possible that something changed in your driver (even if you didn't modify a setting)?  Have you gone back and tried printing an image on satin paper to see if the  problem stays or goes back to your normal printing behavior?

Mike

[dkeyes]

I also think it could be a communication problem. Are you using ethernet or usb? I've read about some problems with usb.

- Doug

[mcbroomf]

The problem I had was with USB.  This was demonstrated to HP when they came to check my printer when I was having zebra strike issues with HM FA Pearl.  We found a combination that worked (completely eliminated the pauses) but printing that way directly from CS2 tied up CS2 the whole time.  I switched to Qimage for all of my printing to eliminate that issue and have left the USB connection rather then moving to ethernet, although I do have the cables now.

Mike

Edit : The HP documentation says don't use long USB cables.....well mine is 26' so of course I thought that was it initially.  To check out if this was a problem I transferred a file to my laptop and printed from CS2 and got the same issue.  I'm still using my 26' long USB cable and have updated the firmware and installed paper profiles with no issues.

[Charles Gast]

Thanks for the replies  
I am using ethernet and at least to my  knowledge I have not changed anything.
I may not get a chance to test it on matte paper until tomorrow.

[ustein]

>The printer is spending 90% of the time cleaning the heads on the left or right sides of the printer.


I once had the same problem. Did a manual head cleaning cycle and it was solved.

Uwe