Hi all,
I've been trying to work up the nerve to post for a while---although I know printers fairly well, forums are rather new to me and this one seems to have an impressive representation of MENSA shoo-ins. So I apologize for lurking --but I thank you for any advice you can offer and I hope I'll be able to offer help in the future too
So...I have a 9900 that's turning 3 in August. It's had major problems since day 1 which have resulted in it basically being a Frankensteined machine; the case is about the only thing original on it. Since it was under warranty, it was handled by D1/Epson. I have had excellent experience with Epson machines in the past and, thinking it must have been a fluke, I let my warranty expire after 2 years.
Bad plan.
It started acting up. Long story short: several weeks ago, Light Cyan and Yellow went missing almost completely with some other minor gaps in various color blocks. (This machine is used several times every day so the problem is not neglect.)
Since our warranty is expired and a service call is not in the budget, I obtained a service manual about 6 months ago and have been memorizing it. Yesterday I replaced the Damper Assembly, the Wiper Blade, and removed and cleaned the flushing box, wiper blade cleaner and capping station.
And now the LC is partially back but there are lots of other gaps and some color blocks are entirely missing. And when I look at the ink lines and shine a flashlight through them, there are air bubbles galore and some appear to have almost no ink in them.
I did several cleanings including power cleans yesterday and today to try and suction out the air. I also did two 43x43" prints of color blocks to see if I could print through it. The print quality improved over the prints in the areas where the color wasn't completely missing (i.e Light cyan got progressively better but yellow and green were still completely MIA). Unless I print on 2880 w/ high speed off, there is very serious banding. The nozzle checks are all over the place. Orange, LC, LK, and VLM are always partially represented although the gaps move around.
I've just done an initial fill to try and eliminate the bubbles. Ouch. And while I'm now seeing colors that were entirely missing (still no Y), all of them have very serious gaps.
If anyone has ideas as to how air is entering the lines, please let me know. I'll be eternally grateful if I can revive this poor machine. Also it'd be great for my mental health b/c I've gotten obsessed with fixing it...
Thank you,
Lis