Epson P600 - new paper & ink - banding everywhere!

[tlm]

I've had this printer for a month.  Been more or less flawless* printing through 25 count of A3+ of canson platine, printing color and monochrome (using photo black) with zero visible abberation.

Today:
-Swapped in new Light Black tank
-Switched to canson rag photographique 310g   [[matte black]]
-Added appropriate ICC profile to computer
-Set all settings as instructed (choose velvet fine art, perceptual, 1440p high speed, yadda yadda)

Printed a monochrome photo and bam....
(1) banding everywhere, especially in the darkest region
(2) burnt browns/reds in the dark?






What could be the cause?
-printer supposed to have automatically switched photo to matte black?
-printer was last used 4 days ago.... should not have clogged
-never had alignment or clogging or any other issue so far
-have not run clean cycle
-maybe new Light Black cartridge should have been primed or something?  all i did was swap the thing
-driver automatically set to Standard gap and 0.5mm paper thickness from Velvet setting


*(sometimes borderless printing leaves an acute edge... uneven feeding?)





edit:  when i loaded using front feeder, i selected Premium Lustre (setting for Platine paper) on the panel... whoops...but could this have been the cause?

[Wayne Fox]

-printer was last used 4 days ago.... should not have clogged
-never had alignment or clogging or any other issue so far
-have not run clean cycle

So have you actually run a nozzle check to see?  There is no such thing as “should not have been clogged”.  First “clogs” are not always clogs and anytime you do an ink swap you can get air pulled back up into a nozzle and thus it is “missing” when printing.

Anytime you get banding, the first thing to do is run a nozzle check pattern.  I assume the p600 can do this, although I haven’t used one yet.

[tlm]

I have not run a nozzle check.  Printer gone longer gaps without printing without exhibiting problems so indiscounted clogging.  Figured a prosumer grade machine would be smart enough to cycle ink or do whatever it does to make cartridge swaps seamless. 

Will try nozz check later at home thanks

[digitaldog]

I have not run a nozzle check. 

First thing you have to do when such issues arise. Please let us know what you find.

[I.T. Supplies]

We've had the same issue once we started up our demo unit and the first few prints came out fine.  After that, doing a B&W, it came out like it was inverted and went thru about 3 cleanings and a few test prints to get it working properly again.  The nozzle check did show with a very small problem on one color and after doing a cleaning, it showed more issues.  I did a few more cleanings and couple test prints which it started clearing up and back to normal shortly after.

The printer auto detects which black to use once you select the profile.

Hope this helps with the confusion and frustration.

Atlex.com

[tlm]

First thing you have to do when such issues arise. Please let us know what you find.

nozzle check showed half missing black patterns!!! literally the lower half of the printed text didnt show.  random portion of the fence grid was missing.

ran 1 cycle of head cleaning, nozzle check came out good, and full print came out well

panic over.  i think it had to do with the new replacement tank airing up??

[John Caldwell]

Simple as this solution was, the very problem does highlight the stupidity Epson's black ink change.

[hugowolf]

... the very problem does highlight the stupidity Epson's black ink change.

Yep, and with the new P range printers, it looks like it is unfortunately here to stay for at least another few years.

Brian A

[MHMG]

Yep, and with the new P range printers, it looks like it is unfortunately here to stay for at least another few years.

Brian A

I begrudgingly accept the ink switching "feature" on my Epson 3880. What truly drives me crazy is that the 3880 driver makes an "automatic" switch without giving you a helpful alert, i.e. a popup window that says something like "Do you really want to perform an ink switch?". I have never figured out how to disable that automatic switch based on the media setting. Even with driver presets, it's a mind numbing situation to open new images in PS or new documents in just about any other app, whereby the driver defaults to one media setting or another.  If you forget to check and double check, you quickly are rewarded with an unintended ink switch taking place. Over the years, I've developed  a bad case of EISA (Epson Ink Switching Anxiety) .

I don't know how this will play out on the new P600 I purchased for preparing some new samples of HD ink for light fastness studies, but I do note that it adds a new default for plain paper printing. Unlike the 3880 which defaults to matt black, the P600 defaults to "last ink used". This is definitely a step in the right direction, especially for amateurs that intend to use the P600 for the occasional plain paper office print out in addition to glossy photos.  Now, if only I also discover a good warning by the P600 driver when the printer is about to auto switch. I haven't had time to learn how the P600 handles the unintentional media setting choice for other media besides plain paper.

cheers,

mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com

[hugowolf]

I begrudgingly accept the ink switching "feature" on my Epson 3880. What truly drives me crazy is that the 3880 driver makes an "automatic" switch without giving you a helpful alert, i.e. a popup window that says something like "Do you really want to perform an ink switch?"

It is a missing dialog. There was one with Lr 3 or 4, that failed to ask how you wanted to edit in Photoshop (Windows only, copy, original, copy with Lr edits), but adobe fixed that.

There are a couple of other minor bugs in the 3880 driver, but none as annoying as the auto PK/MK switching. You can even shut down the printer, and when you turn it back on, it will continue the switch.

It is, however, a remarkably good printer otherwise.

Brian A