Epson 9900 dots and banding

[stvbrn]

I have a problem which I have seen for the past few days.. Can anyone diagnosis this for me? It appears only in cyan. And I have cleaned the heads, but every time I print solid cyan banding occurs and also these dots.

[pfigen]

That looks like it could be a platen gap issue.

[Chris233]

Can you post a pic of the nozzle check?

The banding looks like clogged nozzles. The streaking could be platen gap as mentioned. But I would look at nozzle check first and make sure all are firing properly.

[deanwork]

Whenever I had this occur on older Epson printers it meant the head was bad. What I would see is a nozzle check that had wavy jagged lines out of register in conjunction with this. It can happen when the head is damaged, or just worn out. At least that was my experience. If your nozzle check looks straight, then it probably isn't the head causing this.

john

[Wayne Fox]

Banding could be from nozzle clog, wrong paper preset, paper advance not quite right, or platen gap.  Dark spots .. not sure.  Could be head strikes.  What settings are you printing at?

[chaddro]

Those little drops look like drips.

I've noticed this when I've had to do several head cleanings in a row to clear a bad channel.
I had the same types of marks as you do.

You may want to try cleaning off the wiper blade.

[Chris233]

They are drips, it's common. Have to clean carriage assy and print head platen. Deflected nozzle onto the plate causes the drip as it builds up along each pass. At this point, the wiper is just smearing the goo to the edge of platen. I was hoping OP could post a nozzle check which would confirm.

[datro]

Chances are you have one or more blocked or deflected nozzles in Cyan which are dropping ink as the head continues its movement past the solid Cyan area. If you look at those dots closely under magnification I'll bet they are Cyan dots.  Do a nozzle check to verify if you are missing nozzles in Cyan.

I'm currently trying to clear a few lines of blocked/deflected green nozzles in my 7900 and when I print solid green test blocks I see exactly the same pattern as you are.  My dots are green and in some cases I've seen them drop as far as 1 inch away (in the direction of head movement) from where I was printing solid green.  In my case (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=90897.0) I am slowly beginning to conclude I have a bad head, since I have not been able to clear this with cleaning or head soaks.  I have not done a SS Clean but may resort to that before I give in and replace the head and damper.

Dave

[deanwork]

Also look at the pattern of the nozzle check target. If you see lines that are distorted and wiggly in the problem channel you might be in need of a new head. This dripping occurred with me on my Epson 10 K when the head finally went. That was back in the day when their heads lasted a long time. Mine lasted 10 years of fairly heavy usage. If you don't see the bent nozzle pattern you might be able to save it.

john