Epson 9890 Failed Cleaning - Retry?

[chaddro]

Is anyone having problems with their Epson 9890 (or similar) giving them an "Error Failed Cleaning - Retry?" message?

I had to turn off all the automatic cleaning otherwise it would constantly try to clean the head even when I had a clean
nozzle check. Very frustrating to watch it waste ink, yellow of all colors, for no reason.

[Paul2660]

I would turn off turn off ANC, as I feel it's one of the greatest ways to waste ink Epson ever designed and leave it off.

I always clean in Serviceman mode where you get much better control of the amount of ink being used in the cleaning, CL1-CL4 pairs cleaning.

ANC will do a cleaning even if only one strip is missing on one nozzle.  I don't believe that when ANC cleans, it does a pairs cleaning, but instead cleans the entire head.  This is also wasteful since you can print fine with a few bars missing and many times printing will clean out the few missing bars. 

Power up in Serviceman mode, run a Nozzle check from your computer, if you have a clog, clean it from the printer LCD CL-1 through CL4, I have yet to go past CL2 with my 9900.  You can print from Serviceman mode also, I tend to leave my machine in that mode.  Only difference I have found is you can't set the Platen gap or paper type from the printer's LCD, instead do it from the driver. 

Not a perfect solution, but one that works and will drastically cut down on the ink waste you get.

Paul Caldwell

[Wayne Fox]

ANC will do a cleaning even if only one strip is missing on one nozzle.  I don't believe that when ANC cleans, it does a pairs cleaning, but instead cleans the entire head. 

It will even do a clean if you have a deflected nozzle.  However, in auto mode it will utilize some logic and do channel cleans, depending on how many colors are clogged. No clue what that logic is, and you are right, doing cleans in service mode takes more time, but gives better control in how much ink is consumed.  Additional, one or two missing nozzles in some colors will be undetectable many times so may not even need to clean.

If you are printing a lot and consistently every day, ANC works well.  If you print less consistently then manual control is usually better.

[chaddro]

Paul,

Do you have a link to instructions on how to use Serviceman mode for the 9890?

Also, do you know a source for the 9890 Service Manual/Field Repair Manuals?
(no pay sites - they should be free from epson)

Appreciate the feed back. Yes, I turned off the auto cleaning. I haven't had a chance to call Epson about this.
My Yellow/Light Black is the nozzle pair that is always giving me problems... even when all other nozzles are
prefect, this pair will sometimes be completely dropped out.

I expected that behavior from my old 4000, and sometime from my 7800 when sitting too long. I was so impressed
with my 3800's nozzle performance I expected better from my 9890 - which I've had since August. This has been
frustrating.

I've actually use more Yellow/Light Black than any other color. YELLOW! Go figure.

I see that a firmware update is available (from mid-November). One of the issues dealt with is nozzle checks.

[Paul2660]

I sent you a PM on the service manual.

If you are getting total failure of a channel, like the Yellow not showing up at all, I would place a service call if this is happening a lot.  This could be a bad damper or pressure line for that channel, or it could be a bad ink cart. 

On all of my older Epsons I have always allowed the ink to run out and have the printer stop before I replace the cartridge.  You should have enough ink left in the damper to not have the channel dry up.  With the 9900, I have found that I need to pull the cart after it sits at 1% after a day or so, if I don't the printer will never send me a message to replace the cart and just go ahead and print with that particular channel dry.  This happened on my Cyan and Yellow, the printer stopped as I would have expected it to when Photo Black, LLB, and LB ran low.  So not sure what is going on with my unit, but now I just check the carts as they get low. 
If you dry up a damper, sometimes you can't get it re-primed and it has to be replaced.

On your machine if you yellow is causing the problems you describe I would contact Epson for a service call as they may need to replace the damper for that color.

Paul Caldwell

[chaddro]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the PM. Reply sent.

Also. The heads-up on the 1% issue. Wow. That's definitely something to be concerned about. Having owned a 4000 and 7800, I'd never have expected this. Like you, I'd print until the mandatory replace cartridge warning - even in mid print - and never worried about it or had a quality issue. Makes me wonder if there was a fix for that in the recent firmware update from mid-november.

Actually, along with all this mess, I had replaced my Light Black "early" ... it was at 1% (maybe 2%). Probably good that I did. The machine was "acting stupid" and would not let me print my custom sized "test strip"... say I have a 16x20... I'll pick a 2" high area and print that with a custom paper size so I could check color and shadows. I've done this innumerable times. The 9890 would go to print... pause... eject about 9" of paper and cut it off!!!

Dampers. Forgot about those. Easy to replace on the 4000 and 7800. Wouldn't have even considered having a bad one out the gate. But these machines aren't assembled in Japan anymore (a real shame that) so who knows.

I'm definitely going to give Epson a call.

Thank you again for the help!

Chadd

[Wayne Fox]

Also. The heads-up on the 1% issue. Wow. That's definitely something to be concerned about.

His experience is definitely atypical. I have operated a 7900 and 9900 for quite some time, and have sold many to others.  I know all of them wait until the printer stops and asks for a new cartridge, and I have never seen this be a problem.  I think there are many on this forum who also wait to change inks, and this is the first case I've ever heard of where it was a problem.  Definitely an anomaly.

At 1% there is a high likelihood you still have 10% of the ink left in the cartridge.  That's a lot of ink to throw away.

[Paul2660]

Actually both times it happened, I opened the cart to see for myself as I also have never had it happen before on any other Epson I have owned.  Each time the cart was basically empty with only a very small amount of ink showing inside the plastic.  Definitely not 10% and hard to say if it was 1% or less since only ink was on the liner more or less as a light coating.   

Only seems to happen on the left side carts. 

Paul Caldwell

[chaddro]

Got a chance to call Epson today.

Was on the phone about an hour (I babble on too much!). Tech is going to send me a Yellow cartridge. He did not seemed too concerned that the Yellow would drop out unlike the other colors since a paired cleaning would pull it back. He thought that perhaps I had a cartridge issue. Free ink? Not going to argue that, although I don't see how the cartridge would cause a drop out at the head. If there is an air leak at the cartridge, I'd think would cause air in the lines. I don't see that.

Concerning the "Failed Cleaning - Retry?"
This was apparently addressed in a recent firmware update (not sure which one), along with some issues with new cartridges not being recognized. Tech had me turn on the Automatic Nozzle Check - Every Job and sent a print to the printer. I forgot to do a nozzle check before hand, so I don't know if I had a clean nozzle check. I had just printed the last night... The printer started the ANC, then went into cleaning mode. Cleaning completed (this was a first) and went to printing. This was good, but ....

I was a bit lazy. I had put an 8x10 image on a custom paper 24x8. The print had "drops" on it! Tiny little specks where the carriage had stopped to return for another pass to the left of the image! One drop about every 1/4" vertically. Yikes! Additionally, there were a couple speck on the image itself. Ran the same print through another time, and this time it was okay. No specks this time. I suspect that there was some ink on the underside of the head that was dripping.

So I think ANC still needs to be off.

I appreciate the help. There does seem to still be issues in the Mac version of the driver that work fine in the PC (namely, centering on custom paper sizes), but that a topic for another thread. Need to do more testing!

BTW,
Happy New Year!

[Farmer]

I'll go out on a limb and say that unless you're using a chip resetter or playing around in service mode with things that you shouldn't be touching, (or doing something really odd like pulling cartidges out and switching the printer off before it can write back to the chips etc), then there's no way to run a cartridge actually dry and that it's quite normal in the current series to show 1% for quite some time.

If you are playing around with service mode and doing other odd things that are not prescribed as normal user operation, then it's possible that you're causing some fault that is leading to the experience noted.