Hi again everyone!
No changes on my end. No, I have not repaired my Epson 7900 yet. I am taking somewhat of a "wait and see" approach. All my communication with Epson (that I described earlier in this thread) resulted in NO favors or generosity from them, and I just can't justify spending $2400 or more to have this problem POSSIBLY fixed by Decision One - especially after reading some of your reviews about their service! And I do have a huge issue with their ridiculous hourly rate. And with the fact that they charge you for parts and labor BEFORE they even come over to properly diagnose the problem.
So part of me thinks of just buying a new machine - but I am still not sure whether to go with a new HP or Cannon - quite a bit research has to be done before I make that decision. And then, I start to remember how much effort it took to bring this Epson monster to my 2nd floor condo up our narrow staircase - and I want to bite the bullet, and just pay for repairs, and be done with it. But then, what if my Epson breaks again after being repaired? Eeeeesh....To make a long story short, I'm in limbo on this one.
My Epson is currently running fine, with the BIG exception of the same old LLK issue - and that channel is pretty much 100% gone. ....I did have a little scare yesterday - after being of town for a week and and returning home to make some prints, my Cyan and Light Magenta channels were FULLY gone on the test pattern - but a regular cleaning resolved that. (although, I almost rejoiced for a second because that additional failure would have made my "repair or new printer" decision easier. I still fantasize about throwing this monster off a cliff. )
For the time being, I create all of my darker prints, ones that do not use LLK ink, on the Epson 7900, and all of my light colored prints are done on my old HP DesignJet - which is smaller and much slower, but runs like a workhorse.
@chaddro, thanks for mentioning the damper. From doing lots of reading on this issue, I do think that ink starvation is a possible reason. Although, I wouldn't DARE to try to install that myself. I am not at ALL mechanically inclined. However, if someone wants to come over and attempt a new damper installation - or heck, a whole new Damper Assembly - on my printer, please be my guest. I would happily pay you a
reasonable rate for a successful "damper swap". ...And feed you dinner.
Speaking of exclusivity of Epson and Decision One: in my area - Chicago - there is ONE MORE service company that Epson mentioned to me when I initially, months ago, made a customer service call to them about my problem. This company is called
Computer Maintenance Inc, in Addision IL (
http://computermi.com/). They are NOT affiliated with Epson. They "only" charge $100 / hr, but their travel fee is $175, and their parts are a more expensive (than Decision One parts). For example, their print head price is $1300 and Decision One print head price is $1132. I called them initially, they immediately diagnosed my problem as a print head issue, and overall didn't sound too interested in repairing my printer. I thought that was odd, so have not considered using them. Perhaps though I should call them back and possibly get a more knowledgeable person on the phone.
Has anyone had any experience with
Computer Maintenance, Inc.?