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Author Topic: Just acquired the Epson 900 series Plague  (Read 1664 times)

Peter Le

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Just acquired the Epson 900 series Plague
« on: July 24, 2013, 10:42:53 pm »

       I have a two and a half year old 7890 (7900 without the green and orange) that had a boat load of problems the first few months I owned it.  Epson sent some of the worst techs on the planet numerous times. After many tries they finally got it working right. Worked flawlessly for over two years. Today I ran a nozzle check and everything was fine ......proceeded to print 25 ft. Of Epson enhance matte.......everything seemed fine. Did another nozzle check as I always do at the end.......WTF......cyan and yellow almost completely dropped out ! Did a pairs clean on both.......another nozzle check now cyan and yellow completely dropped out !!
      I keep this printer climate controlled......humidity is always between 45 & 55%. This printer does not site idle......not over used but used a lot. This does not seem like a clogging issue.......seems more like this POS printer pulled air up into the head while it was printing........how is that possible. Can not see any air in the lines. Anyway I am going to let it sit for the night and see what I can do tomorrow.....Any ideas would be very much appreciated........I really do not want to burn this head up.......I really would not like to join the Epson Giant Paper Weight Club.
    Many thanks for any help Peter L.
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Paul2660

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Re: Just acquired the Epson 900 series Plague
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2013, 08:56:16 am »

A couple of thoughts. 

If the 7890 is like the 7900 it will have service mode.  I would try to do. CL3 or 4 cleaning of the effected colors.

Check your effected ink carts are they low?  Epson may send you replacement carts.

From what you are describing it sounds like a damper issue.  If the service mode cleanings don't get it you may need to see about having the dampers replaced.  On this printer it's not an easy task but can be done.  Read Eric's epic post on the 7900 as it covers the dampers.

Paul Caldwell
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Paul Caldwell
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Peter Le

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Re: Just acquired the Epson 900 series Plague
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2013, 12:09:01 pm »

       Thank you for your reply Paul.......but no......it did not seem like a clog issue .....seemed like it pulled air back into the head while printing. A school of thought is you can fry these heads with multiple heavy cleans when there is just air in the head and it is firing the pezo's .
        I pulled and cleaned the wiper blade (thank you Eric) and did a normal power clean which pulls a lot of ink through the head without firing it to purge air from the head.   It worked thankfully......minus about $25 of ink I am running again  ;D . I just don't understand how these printers can pull air back into the head when they are printing.....spitting out ink. I'm sure Epson knows.....but I'm also sure they will never tell us.
        But I'm printing again thank god......and that is all that really matters.....
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Paul2660

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Re: Just acquired the Epson 900 series Plague
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2013, 12:52:00 pm »

Glad to see you got back up.  However you may still have either a bad damper problem starting or old carts that are not sealing. 

Paul Caldwell


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TylerB

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Re: Just acquired the Epson 900 series Plague
« Reply #4 on: July 25, 2013, 12:59:19 pm »

the carts are lower then the heads. The pressure system overcomes gravity to keeps the heads and lines supposedly full of ink, and there is a sensor system to keep that pressure at some preferred level... There are valves along the way to prevent backflow when idle, those vales aren't always perfect, in fact in my 9900 they were replaced several times attempting to fix delivery problems.. the entire system has become complex, so more room for error. Any one of these things or a combination of all and more can create problems. A good seal at the cap prevents good cleaning too, lets back pressure in.. etc..
Tyler
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Garnick

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Re: Just acquired the Epson 900 series Plague
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2013, 09:39:29 pm »

Hello Peter,

I know this has been mentioned several times by Mark Segal, and it really does seem to have merit.  Between every cleaning cycle print an image with a good mix of colours.  That way you are using all of the nozzles.  Clean - print - wait a few minutes and clean again and run another nozzle check.  If necessary, continue that routine as needed, but always a print between clean cycles.  It does seem to work better than successive clean cycles and I believe it's probably easier on the print head as well.  Can't hurt to try, right?

Gary   
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Gary N.
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davidh202

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Re: Just acquired the Epson 900 series Plague
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2013, 11:36:23 pm »

dropouts are not clogs. they are a lack of ink to the nozzles!
fault...
low pressure to carts - bad cart seal - cart levels very low- ink draw back due to too many cleaning cycles in succession
it only takes one bad seal in one cart to de-pressurize the system and likely a pair dropout  or cart with very low ink will be the first to suffer. Happens some times after a PK to MK switch.
fix...
do not freak out and do power cleans or even regular cleans in succession,it will only make things go downhill fast!!!
Turn printer off, wait a short time (or overnight ) let the printer rest, turn printer on which re-pressurizes the system and carts
print a nozzle check only, if still having same dropout, repeat on off to re-pressurize again. If a cart or carts are at 1% put new carts in and forget the old one (not worth a few $ in ink to blow a head) and repeat the on off and nozzle check only cycle -do not print yet until you get a good nozzle check.

printing more without ink will surely damage the head!!!
BTW the printer does not differentiate a clog from a dropout when it indicates "needs cleaning" a couple of gaps in a test pattern is a clog anything more is usually a dropout due to lack of ink in the nozzle color channel. These printers will automatically  initiate correct action to remedy a so called "clog" as long as allowing auto "cleaning" is not switched off. They are very self aware with the sensors that are built in to the system!
« Last Edit: July 25, 2013, 11:49:12 pm by davidh202 »
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Garnick

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Re: Just acquired the Epson 900 series Plague
« Reply #7 on: July 26, 2013, 09:14:33 am »

dropouts are not clogs. they are a lack of ink to the nozzles!
fault...
low pressure to carts - bad cart seal - cart levels very low- ink draw back due to too many cleaning cycles in succession
it only takes one bad seal in one cart to de-pressurize the system and likely a pair dropout  or cart with very low ink will be the first to suffer. Happens some times after a PK to MK switch.
fix...
do not freak out and do power cleans or even regular cleans in succession,it will only make things go downhill fast!!!
Turn printer off, wait a short time (or overnight ) let the printer rest, turn printer on which re-pressurizes the system and carts
print a nozzle check only, if still having same dropout, repeat on off to re-pressurize again. If a cart or carts are at 1% put new carts in and forget the old one (not worth a few $ in ink to blow a head) and repeat the on off and nozzle check only cycle -do not print yet until you get a good nozzle check.

printing more without ink will surely damage the head!!!
BTW the printer does not differentiate a clog from a dropout when it indicates "needs cleaning" a couple of gaps in a test pattern is a clog anything more is usually a dropout due to lack of ink in the nozzle color channel. These printers will automatically  initiate correct action to remedy a so called "clog" as long as allowing auto "cleaning" is not switched off. They are very self aware with the sensors that are built in to the system!

I agree with much of your analysis.  As a matter of fact I follow much the same routine myself, although I have the "auto clean" turned off with the 9900.  The part I find confusing is your definition of a clog as opposed to a dropout.  Indeed, the cause of a dropout is no ink getting to the nozzle or past the nozzle.  There's a very fine distinction there, since a clog can also be the reason that no ink is getting to or past the nozzle.  I suppose it's really a matter of semantics.  A couple of days ago I was running a fairly large quantity of prints and it suddenly became apparent that I had completely lost the Y nozzle.  When I say "suddenly" I mean the previous print was fine, no problem.  I can rationalize calling that a dropout(your definition), since it happened so suddenly.  I did a regular pairs cleaning and then ran a full colour print to activate all of the nozzles.  No pattern in the nozzle check.  Wait a few minutes and then another regular pairs clean and a print.  The next nozzle check showed signs of life, but mostly blank space.  Again, I waited, ran a print, power clean and nozzle check.  At that point I had a full nozzle pattern and it has be good since.  If this sort of thing happens late in the day I will usually shut sown the printer and leave it overnight.  The next morning seldom shows any difference, but it seems to need less work(cleaning cycles etc) to bring it back to life.  

I suppose my only issue with what you have written is your statement that "dropouts are not clogs. they are a lack of ink to the nozzles!".  However, my opinion is that the lack of ink to the nozzles can definitely be caused by clogs(sort of a chicken and egg scenario).  Also, as an aside, I have found that printing with a few gaps often has absolutely no negative effect on the finished product.  Without a densitometric measurement one would never see a difference in most cases, so it isn't always necessary to run cleaning cycles simply due to a couple of nozzle gaps.  Give it a try and if you do see a problem attack that, but I think you will notice that it may not be an issue.  Of course one would want to keep an eye on the situation and not let the gap(s) become any larger, since they will certainly cause a problem at some point.  

Gary
« Last Edit: July 26, 2013, 09:17:00 am by Garnick »
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Gary N.
"My memory isn't what it used to be. As a matter of fact it never was." (gan)
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