Epson P9000 Print-head (possible) clog causing stripe on light cyan only

[PrintNovice]

I have an Epson P9000 that has begun misbehaving now that we are 1 month out of warranty (suspicious?).   Every print has a 1/8" strip missing from the light cyan about 1/16" down from the top.  No other colors are affected and the problem only occurs at the one location at the top of the each print and the rest of the print looks great.  We can work around this by simply adding crop marks to every print which causes the stripe of missing cyan to occur above the main print.  However, we are not sure how long this work around will work and if the problem will get worse.  In our attempt to fix what we assumed was a clog we have tried many power cleaning cycles which always fail at 99%.  I am pretty confused as to how a clog would result in such a consistent yet limited failure.  Updating firmware has had no impact.  We have run several purges of the light cyan (printed a 6" x 40" strip of light cyan) and have noticed that there is a faint banding.  Replacing the entire print head is extremely costly and for a 13 month old printer seems ridiculous.  Until we are sure what the problem is we would rather not gamble on that solution.  I am attaching several images.  Any advice would be much appreciated.

[mearussi]

What does Epson say?

[PrintNovice]

Epson's Tech Support suggested updating printer drivers, turning off high speed printing, increase settings to Max Quality, and running a Power Cleaning from the Admin Menu (which errored out). Unfortunately none of these seemed to make a difference.

[Mark D Segal]

There is clearly a problem of ink flow which is not necessarily the at the level of the print head, so I would agree the print head is not the first line of attack. It could be that something is wrong with the damper, which is a much cheaper repair. After doing all that Epson recommended and the problem persists, I suggest you need an on-site technician to visit and trace the ink flow from cartridge to printhead in order to diagnose where the blockage really is, and hopefully, fix it.

[Paul2660]

Hard to believe it's not the head, sorry to see this on a 9000.  You can replace the damper, but the head showing that type of clog points to head and the nozzles no longer firing.  Damper problem tends to cut off an entire color or 1/2 of it on the large printers.

You are seeing the issue in  the entire light cyan test strip as you point out in a faint banding. 

If you have not been able to clear this with a pairs cleaning and have done several power cleanings, it's time to call Epson for service call.  Epson used to use only Decision One in the US, but now they use both Fuji by default I was told you can still ask for D1. 

Note, running several power cleanings shortly after each other can cause damage also, as shown by the hundreds of issues that came up with the 9900.

It's a tough call, Last time I checked for the 9900 it was 2500 for the head 90 day warranty on parts or 3995 for a new printer. 

Paul C

[BrianWJH]

I tend to agree with Mark that there appears to be a ink flow problem, have you tried a new light cyan cart, there could be pressurization problems with the ink cart itself or valve seal, maybe a leak that requires a little longer to reach sufficient pressure to expel ink.
 
Brian.

[Mark D Segal]

It is important to run purge prints of the affected colours between cleanings, and do no more than three cycles of this per 24 hours, giving the printer overnight to rest. This should be tried for several days. After each print and nozzle check, see whether the missing ink pattern changes or remains the same. If it remains the same it could well be the print head. If it changes it could be elsewhere down the line. If at the end of several days doing this there is no significant improvement you definitely need a technician.

[Garnick]

If your printer is indeed barely out of warranty, call Epson every day if necessary and complain about the situation and their apparent lack of interest in fixing the problem.  I had nightmarish issues with a NEW 9900 back in 2010-2102 which originally caused me to extend the warranty to its limit.  With my new P7000 in mid 2017 I immediately noticed a cosmetic issue and called Epson, sent pics of the issue etc.  It took at least 6 -8 calls, working my way up through the chain to find someone who could actually do something about the issue.  One thing I have learned about dealing with a company such as Epson or any large corporation is to NEVER give up.  Keep on beating the drum and make sure the sound gets louder each time you call.  Work your way up and eventually you might find someone who can help.  No guarantee, but it also can't hurt and it could have some positive effects if you continue the journey.  After a few calls they will have a file concerning your situation, and as that file grows they might realize that you are one person who's not going to give up.  Do NOT let them off the hook, stay with it until you are satisfied that you've done all you can.  Also, keep us updated here.  If Epson does help fix the issue that's good for you and for them.  If not, we will all know and that's not good for Epson.       

[mearussi]

From reading the comments I think the lesson learned here is to never buy a Epson without the extended warranty.

[32BT]

... back in 2010-2102 which originally caused me to extend the warranty to its limit.       

I can imagine...

;-)

[Mark D Segal]

If your printer is indeed barely out of warranty, call Epson every day if necessary and complain about the situation and their apparent lack of interest in fixing the problem.  I had nightmarish issues with a NEW 9900 back in 2010-2102 which originally caused me to extend the warranty to its limit.  With my new P7000 in mid 2017 I immediately noticed a cosmetic issue and called Epson, sent pics of the issue etc.  It took at least 6 -8 calls, working my way up through the chain to find someone who could actually do something about the issue.  One thing I have learned about dealing with a company such as Epson or any large corporation is to NEVER give up.  Keep on beating the drum and make sure the sound gets louder each time you call.  Work your way up and eventually you might find someone who can help.  No guarantee, but it also can't hurt and it could have some positive effects if you continue the journey.  After a few calls they will have a file concerning your situation, and as that file grows they might realize that you are one person who's not going to give up.  Do NOT let them off the hook, stay with it until you are satisfied that you've done all you can.  Also, keep us updated here.  If Epson does help fix the issue that's good for you and for them.  If not, we will all know and that's not good for Epson.       

I haven't detected lack of interest on the part of Epson tech support. The people who answer the phone are trained to advise certain routines depending on the problem described to them. And they give you a file reference number in case you need to revert to them if the problem remains unresolved. They start with the most obvious/easiest things first and if the problem persists progress through any remaining user-implementable steps that may be relevant until they can't help any more over the phone and recommend a technician or a machine exchange. The fact that the printer is out of warranty is nobody's fault and formally they are not obliged to make policy exceptions, but to the extent their people have leeway to make some kind of accommodation depending on the circumstances perhaps that could happen. If it does, one should be thankful.

[Mark D Segal]

From reading the comments I think the lesson learned here is to never buy a Epson without the extended warranty.

This is an insurance policy - it's a business for the issuer and a crap-shoot for the purchaser. These warranties are priced as a function of risk and cost to the company, which would normally be estimated using internal data. At the least, it provides peace of mind that the owner won't be faced with very costly repairs over the duration of the plan, but the probability of it being worthwhile is another matter and impossible to know without the aggregate frequency and cost of repair data relative to the number of machines in operation world-wide, which no consumer is provided with. Anecdotal information over the internet is seldom all that useful in this regard because it tends to be highly skewed - in the sense that people will write posts when they have issues, but not when all is well - and even the population of active writers relative to the population of users with problems is unknown. So there really is no rational basis on which to decide whether to buy an extended warranty, save for the possibility that it may be worth the peace of mind.

[Garnick]

"So there really is no rational basis on which to decide whether to buy an extended warranty, save for the possibility that it may be worth the peace of mind".

Well Mark, it becomes extremely rational when one has experienced a situation that I found myself in with the NEW 9900 in 2010.  Within the initial one year warranty period the printer had two print heads as well as other parts replaced by D1.  Near the end of the year it was obvious that the situation had not been completely take care of.  Therefore, since the printer was the centre piece of my business I dropped another $1250.00 to extend the warranty to the max.  Yes indeed it was an insurance policy and I advised others here on LuLa to think about doing the same if they experienced issues with the same sort of consistency as I had.  That was probably the best decision I made for that printer.  I just revisited my SP9900 Issue Log that I started a month after putting the 9900 into operation.  Thirteen full pages in Word and 105 entries, all dated and containing very specific information concerning the current issue(s) and how it had been approached by Epson and D1.  When Mark N. installed a new print head on the 9900 in Jan. 2016 we had a very interesting conversation about that and he passed along a couple of other remember-able situations he had experienced.

When I bought the P7000 I did entertain the notion of extending the warranty, but since I had moved my business to my home location I knew that printer would probably not be a big part of my business, so I declined the urge to extend.  I do occasionally somewhat regret that decision, but I've never encountered an Issue that I couldn't fix with minimal effort. 

My only reason for my reply to the OP was to pass along a bit of advice from my own experience and hope it might fit his situation.  However, I do believe it is the sort of advice that would fit most situations of this sort with any corporation.  NEVER GIVE UP!  But of course as in many cases, there is a point when one must weigh all of the odds and perhaps succumb to the inevitable, which might mean investing more money into an extended warranty and be able to sleep at night.     

         

[Mark D Segal]

"So there really is no rational basis on which to decide whether to buy an extended warranty, save for the possibility that it may be worth the peace of mind".

Well Mark, it becomes extremely rational when one has experienced a situation that I found myself in with the NEW 9900 in 2010.  Within the initial one year warranty period the printer had two print heads as well as other parts replaced by D1.  Near the end of the year it was obvious that the situation had not been completely take care of.  Therefore, since the printer was the centre piece of my business I dropped another $1250.00 to extend the warranty to the max.  Yes indeed it was an insurance policy and I advised others here on LuLa to think about doing the same if they experienced issues with the same sort of consistency as I had.  That was probably the best decision I made for that printer.  I just revisited my SP9900 Issue Log that I started a month after putting the 9900 into operation.  Thirteen full pages in Word and 105 entries, all dated and containing very specific information concerning the current issue(s) and how it had been approached by Epson and D1.  When Mark N. installed a new print head on the 9900 in Jan. 2016 we had a very interesting conversation about that and he passed along a couple of other remember-able situations he had experienced.

When I bought the P7000 I did entertain the notion of extending the warranty, but since I had moved my business to my home location I knew that printer would probably not be a big part of my business, so I declined the urge to extend.  I do occasionally somewhat regret that decision, but I've never encountered an Issue that I couldn't fix with minimal effort. 

My only reason for my reply to the OP was to pass along a bit of advice from my own experience and hope it might fit his situation.  However, I do believe it is the sort of advice that would fit most situations of this sort with any corporation.  NEVER GIVE UP!  But of course as in many cases, there is a point when one must weigh all of the odds and perhaps succumb to the inevitable, which might mean investing more money into an extended warranty and be able to sleep at night.     

       

Nothing you're saying here invalidates what I wrote. You were in a rather unique situation of having sufficient evidence beforehand in your own case to justify the risk of buying the warranty. You were very fortunate (within the broader misfortune of the situation). I doubt this happens that way for many people.

[deanwork]

I wish I had a hundred dollars for every time I’ve heard of similar issues occurring a couple of months after the Epson warranty expires.

You may try this. It has worked for me.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m8NkgKw7mDw&t=35s

Really I think when contemplating the price of buying a large format printer, one should add the cost of an extended warranty and a set of normal sized carts and calculate from there. They should come with a three year warranty but they don’t.

John

I have an Epson P9000 that has begun misbehaving now that we are 1 month out of warranty (suspicious?).   Every print has a 1/8" strip missing from the light cyan about 1/16" down from the top.  No other colors are affected and the problem only occurs at the one location at the top of the each print and the rest of the print looks great.  We can work around this by simply adding crop marks to every print which causes the stripe of missing cyan to occur above the main print.  However, we are not sure how long this work around will work and if the problem will get worse.  In our attempt to fix what we assumed was a clog we have tried many power cleaning cycles which always fail at 99%.  I am pretty confused as to how a clog would result in such a consistent yet limited failure.  Updating firmware has had no impact.  We have run several purges of the light cyan (printed a 6" x 40" strip of light cyan) and have noticed that there is a faint banding.  Replacing the entire print head is extremely costly and for a 13 month old printer seems ridiculous.  Until we are sure what the problem is we would rather not gamble on that solution.  I am attaching several images.  Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Mark D Segal]

I wish I had a hundred dollars for every time I’ve heard of similar issues occurring a couple of months after the Epson warranty expires.

You may try this. It has worked for me.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m8NkgKw7mDw&t=35s

Really I think when contemplating the price of buying a large format printer, one should add the cost of an extended warranty and a set of normal sized carts and calculate from there. They should come with a three year warranty but they don’t.

John

John, if they came with a three year warranty the price would be higher because the estimated global cost of servicing the warranty would be factored in to the sales price; obviously that cost is more money covering three years rather than one, and then you'd hear the same raft of complaints from people whose machines fail in month 37. That said, the auto industry has done this very successfully from a marketing perspective, so it could be an interesting experiment to undertake with professional inkjet printers.

Do you have roughly any idea how many times you've heard of these printers failing (expensively) just after warranty expiry compared with the total number of such printers in operation world-wide? Knowing of course even you wouldn't have heard of the total of such cases - only the ones you happen to know of, one still needs crunchy information of the sort to begin to take these anecdotes seriously.

[I.T. Supplies]

The main reason why the manufacturer's don't allow the extended warranties past 3 years total (1-year warranty upfront and 2 years extended...max) is because for the money you're spending for everything, you can get a new printer and start fresh (realistically).

[Garnick]

I also believe that another reason for just the one year warranty is due to the probability that whatever issues that might happen will do so during the first year of use.  I think my case with the 9900 was simply a flip of the coin and it was not a flip in my favour.  I forgot to mention that the service calls didn't end after the first year of usage.  They extended into the third year until the printer seemed to "settle down" and really start humming along as expected.  Then it gave me almost three years of constant usage with no calls.  It's not that I have a particular beef with Epson, I have always used their printers, starting with a SP-7600 and then another one as well.  One for PK and one for MK printing.  I went from there to the 9900.  By the mid part of the third year with the 9900 a fellow named Eric (don't recall his last name) started a thread here on LuLa that changed how most of us looked at and proceeded with the maintenance of the 7900/9900 printers.  Unfortunately Epson chose to lock us out of many of the valuable features in Service Mode with the SC-Series printers.  I miss that and I believe a lot of other folks here do as well, but, it is what it is.     

[enduser]

Another way to buy might be to take on a fully maintained lease like people do with vehicles.

[Yvan Bedard]

Did you buy your Epson with a credit card that offer doubling your guarantee up to 1 year?  Before deciding not to buy Epson extended guarantee on my P9000, I called my credit card company (VISA, in Canada) and they confirmed that they would cover my P9000 for an extra year.

So, buying the extended guarantee for the second year appears to me as lost investment. My printer is 10 months-old and I love it. More fun than with my 24" 7900.