Z3100 trailing ink - Help!

[KevinMcD]

My Z3100 is five years old.  Over the past couple months, off and on, it's been trailing ink at the ends of the print.
I'll included photos.  The paper is Canson Platine.  I don't know if it's a leak somewhere or maybe something (dried ink) on the bottom of the printhead carriage.  I've replaced the ink heads, thinking they might be old and leaking, but that didn't solve it.  Any thoughts?  I'm also including a printhead adjustment sheet that shows ink leaks all over it.  The actual prints don't show that much leakage.  It's mostly at the edge of the prints.  Thanks.

[Colorwave]

I'd say with a fairly high degree of certainty that it is ink being picked up from the lid of the capping station (called the service station by HP).  The lid is only exposed during printing.  To clean it, I suggest turning off the power switch in the back after telling it to print, while the carriage is somewhere over the print area.  You may also need to pull the printheads and try to wipe any excess ink off of the bottom of the carriage.  I have a little bent piece of metal that I wrap with a coffee filter to do that task.  I also have my print area cover "hot wired" with a bent paper clip in the lid sensor so I can open the printer while printing to wipe that lid during the printing operation, but that is certainly not something HP would suggest, or a technique that the faint of heart or slow of hand should attempt.  I did it just because I got tired or ruining prints with random drops of ink, so now I can keep up with it before that happens.

[Damir]

Yes this is the solution - you describe it correctly. I routinely clean my printer after few months of regular printing, or before big volume printing, especially when I use a lot of matt paper. Matt black is doing the most of the problem so I clean matt black head on regular basis. A lot of ink residue collects on it. It is really easy to do that.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Some days ago I had red drips on a print. It could have been the LM cartridge that was near empty or the head. I replaced both. Cleaned the heads and checked the head slots in the carriage. I doubt there was ink gathered there. Powered down, removed right side cartridges and took the right side cover off, I only need to remove 4 screws there as I did not place one back some years ago that is the most difficult to get at. With the cover removed and cartridges put in again and powered up you get much more view on the maintenance station. A head replacement order and the head carriage cover opened makes it easy to clean that black lid where ink is accumulated. With the wipers unit moving you can spray with a Windex bottle on the wipers and sponges, if needed a fast power down could halt the total movement. The wipers were quite clean. I noticed more red/magenta ink squirting on the black lid in the process and more of it on the wiper for that head, the printer probably cleaned that head more. Sponges were good but the MK one had more build up, not showing the sponge structure. Cleaned that one better and moistened it.

--
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
400+ inkjet paper white spectral plots, October 2012:
Extended: Ilford-Innova-Hahnemühle-Pictorico,
NEW added: Tetenal-Mitsubishi, NEW halfway: Kodak-Bonjet,
NEW to do: Permajet-FelixSchoeller-Sihl
Would like to get samples: InkPress-JonCone

[KevinMcD]

Well, thanks everyone.  I just dug in there and wiped up a lot of ink on the flat cap on the right hand side of the printer with the carriage stopped in the center.  Very messy.  I was trying not to get that gunk everywhere.   

[kaelaria]

If you want to see how disgusting it can get, skip near the end of my vid where I show cleaning the inks...http://bgpictures.com/2011/03/11/hp-z3100-drive-belt-replacement-how-to-video/