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Author Topic: Epson 4900 messes up large print halfway through  (Read 2965 times)

Jan Morales

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Epson 4900 messes up large print halfway through
« on: October 31, 2011, 09:50:54 pm »

I have a relatively new Epson Stylus Pro 4900. I have so far made several dozen prints, maybe a hundred, on various papers and in various sizes with no issues. Then last night I made one print at 17"x29" on roll paper that came out fine. Right after that I made another 17"x29" and about half way through the print got all messed up (if you'll excuse my technical jargon). It looked as though a large number of the ink jets stopped working for some reason. It's hard to describe, so here's a scan of the transition from good to bad, going from right to left:



I was worried that something was wrong with the printer, so I tried another print, this time an 8.5"x11" print on paper from the paper cassette. It seemed like the printer spent more time cleaning and adjusting itself before starting to print than it usually does, but I can't swear to it. But when that last print was done it looked perfectly normal.

I have to admit that I haven't gone through any of the options for how often the printer cleans or adjusts itself. The settings are all stock as the printer came out of the box.

Has anyone seen this before and an idea of what it is?

Thanks,
Jan
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Farmer

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Re: Epson 4900 messes up large print halfway through
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2011, 10:42:50 pm »

Do a nozzle check.  Anytime you think there's an issue of that sort (blocked nozzles), do a nozzle check pattern and have a look.

The printer should shown on the display if it's cleaning, so if it didn't say that it probably wasn't, but it may have been doing an AID check to see if there were any blockages.

But, the only way to really know is do the nozzle check.
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Phil Brown

Jan Morales

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Re: Epson 4900 messes up large print halfway through
« Reply #2 on: November 01, 2011, 10:36:31 pm »

Thanks, Phil. The thing is that the very next print came out just fine. It did do a cleaning before it made that next print. My question is whether the printer ocassionally doing this (clogging this way, if that's what happened) is a "normal" thing or is it possible that there is something wrong with my print head or printer? With a properly functioning 4900, should I be able to expect that it will make print after print without problems, or will it from time to time ruin a print and that's just the way it is?
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Farmer

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Re: Epson 4900 messes up large print halfway through
« Reply #3 on: November 01, 2011, 10:48:05 pm »

It's very unusual in my experience - the printer would normally detect such a blockage and alert you and depending on how you've set it up, either clean or just display a warning.  Without seeing the physical print or doing a nozzle check immediately it's difficult to know for sure what happened.

If it happens again, try a nozzle check pattern immediately and then consider talking to Epson, because it's definitely not how they normally function.  It may have been a weird, one off issue, but if it happens again it would bear some further investigation.
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Phil Brown

Paul2660

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Re: Epson 4900 messes up large print halfway through
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2011, 10:46:52 am »

Looks like a classic case of one cartridge, in this case one of the blacks, stopping totally.  Even though
you have plenty of left.

I have never had it happen while in the middle of a print, but my 9880's did it mostly with cyan, or yellow. 
You make one print fine, then next one is obviously wrong i.e. missing a color and when you do a NZ check,
one color is totally missing. 

(3) different 9880's did this and finally the last one I received last year was OK.   

When my 9880 did this you had to turn it off and then, pull the cart that was missing, and then most time
do 1 reg. clean.  Since yours made the next print OK, then somehow it corrected it self.  Do you have ANC
on?  It sure should have caught the problem and run a cleaning cycle before the next print.

Paul Caldwell


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Paul Caldwell
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Wayne Fox

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Re: Epson 4900 messes up large print halfway through
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2011, 05:19:37 pm »

Thanks, Phil. The thing is that the very next print came out just fine. It did do a cleaning before it made that next print. My question is whether the printer ocassionally doing this (clogging this way, if that's what happened) is a "normal" thing or is it possible that there is something wrong with my print head or printer? With a properly functioning 4900, should I be able to expect that it will make print after print without problems, or will it from time to time ruin a print and that's just the way it is?
I agree with others, looks like you probably lost the entire LK channel, and the printer's auto clean resolved it before the next print. 

How much have you printed on the 4900?  It isn't normal but certainly can happen, and seems to me more likely when the printer is newer. I don't know much about the actual mechanics for he printer, but I've suspected air bubbles that don't purge properly at the head might cause this.

If it happens again, you may want to call support because it is possible to get a defect causing an entire channel to drop suddenly and do so repeatedly.  I had a 7900 which lost the entire green channel several times, which required a head replacement.
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Jan Morales

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Re: Epson 4900 messes up large print halfway through
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2011, 10:21:29 pm »

How much have you printed on the 4900?  It isn't normal but certainly can happen, and seems to me more likely when the printer is newer. I don't know much about the actual mechanics for he printer, but I've suspected air bubbles that don't purge properly at the head might cause this.

I've had the printer about a month and I've made perhaps a hundred prints of various sizes on it so far. This problem has happened only once and so far the couple of prints I've made after it have been fine.

Thanks for all the input. I'll keep an eye on it and if it happens again I'll call support.

Cheers,
Jan
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Jan Morales

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Re: Epson 4900 messes up large print halfway through
« Reply #7 on: November 20, 2011, 03:07:46 pm »

After reading the thread about the Museo Silver Rag curl, I'm wondering if the problem I'm having is with the Ilford roll paper? I have printed on several kinds of paper and through all the feeds, but I use only Ilford GFS in the roll feed and that's the only paper I see the problem with. It's happened one more time since I last posted in this thread. Could the paper curl be causing the occasional head strike/nozzle clog that gets cleared up before the next print?
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Farmer

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Re: Epson 4900 messes up large print halfway through
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2011, 05:29:47 pm »

That could certainly be happening.  Do you notice it is more likely toward the end of a roll, for example?
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Phil Brown

Jan Morales

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Re: Epson 4900 messes up large print halfway through
« Reply #9 on: November 21, 2011, 08:01:28 am »

That could certainly be happening.  Do you notice it is more likely toward the end of a roll, for example?

Well, it's only my first roll and so far I've printed about six prints from the roll about 25"-29" long each. So it looks like it's happening toward the beginning of the roll. But it's a 3" core and the curl doesn't look that much tighter toward the inside than it does toward the outside. I wonder if that's the issue. I have made dozens of prints, well over a hundred I'm sure, on cut sheets and not one has had this problem.
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