Prints appear misaligned on IPF8400

[crwoo]

Hi, I have a IPF8400 that is still under warranty and I cant get the print quality up to where my 8300 was. The align head printout is a mess, or should it be? Printer accepts the head alignment, but mu prints are blurred and appear misaligned by quite a bit. the heads are 300 days old (same age as printer) and I am wondering if canon has warranty on the heads, or maybe it's not the heads? can any one help me? I'm printing with Aperture...just like i did with my 8300.

[Geraldo Garcia]

Just to start thinking with you:

How is the nozzle check?
Have you performed the paper advancement calibration recently for the paper you are using?

[smjphoto]

Heads are definitely under warranty for a year. They will sometimes replace them after more time, though.

[crwoo]

The head check prints perfectly without any missingline, paper advance was off, but then i did paper advance and head alignment.
Is there a particular order to do the alignment/calibration the would baybe work better?

[crwoo]

even after doing a paper feed amount adjustment there is about a .05 gap right in the middle of the nozzle check print on every color.

[Geraldo Garcia]

Every channel's pattern is divided in two grid blocks of the same color (one above of the other) with a small gap (blank line) in between. That is normal.
See the attached nozzle check image and tell if yours is like that (terrible scan, but you can see how a good nozzle check should look like).

Keep us posted.

[crwoo]

Hi, Mine is exactly like that. I didnt realize there should be a gap. OK the nozzle check comes out perfect but the prints are blurry.

[Geraldo Garcia]

Give us more background info:

Has the problem started suddenly?
Have you tested with different driver settings? (quality settings)
Have you tested from different software? Which software are you using to print?
You said the head alignment pattern is a "mess", please explain.
What paper are you using (to print and to perform the head alignment)?
Which head alignment have you performed (simple or standard)?

[crwoo]

I received the printer after I put the 8300 away.
I am using aperture to print as I did with my 8300, no i have not tried the photoshop plugin yet.
I am using HP Premium glossy photo paper.
By the head alighnment I mean the head alignment is printed ugly, maybe it should, but i am expecting the squares to be nice and the lines to look like a head alignment where the lines have steps. On that output there is mostly blurred.
I tried the simple and standard, also the initial one.

Give us more background info:

Has the problem started suddenly?
Have you tested with different driver settings? (quality settings)
Have you tested from different software? Which software are you using to print?
You said the head alignment pattern is a "mess", please explain.
What paper are you using (to print and to perform the head alignment)?
Which head alignment have you performed (simple or standard)?

[Malcolm Payne]

I've had a problem with several heads whereby the nozzle check appears at first sight to print normally but, on close inspection, some of the nozzle lines have what I can best describe as 'echoes'; where this occurs, the vertical lines in the nozzle check pattern print as expected, but fainter than usual and with a second faint line offset slightly to the right of the original. This can be quite difficult to spot, especially where the offset is small and in the lighter colours, but might be a potential contributor to your blurred prints if the colours are not printing correctly in register as a result? The effect was certainly visible in prints when it occurred in the matte black, if not obvious in the other colours, and was cured immediately by a replacement head.

For what it's worth, the UK distributor (Velmex) replaced the in-warranty heads showing this pattern without quibble when I emailed them a scan of the nozzle check, so they clearly recognise it as a fault, though they refused to replace one similar that was out of warranty by just four months even though it had only printed a small fraction of its rated throughput.