Epson Surecolor P8000 error : No headclean or MK - PK swap until power cycle

[mcbroomf]

Weird error that I thought I'd document in case anyone else has seen this, or in case it crops up again (with me or anyone else).  So the title kind of covers it, but to make a short story long ...

  Been printing with MK for a month or 2.  No issues.  Periodic exercise when no printing and occasional nozzle tests.  Today though I got a line missing in the MK test pattern (1 whole slanted row from left to right).  All other's OK.
I went into the menu and decided to do a short clean (MK only) 1st rather than heavy.  Printer whirled for only 1-2 seconds then went silent and showed ready .. huh?  Ran a nozzle test and nothing changed.  Went back into the menu and chose a heavy clean.  Same thing .. just 1-2 seconds of activity then said it was ready.  Despite that I ran the nozzle test again but no surprise nothing changed.   Tried another head clean but this time choosing all nozzles (light clean).  Same results as above, ie only 1-2 secs of activity and no change in the nozzle pattern.
  I do have some prints needed for luster paper so I decided to switch over to PK ink to see if that cleaned the head and got the printer performing normally.  When I hit the switch button though I got the same as above, ie just a second or 2 noise.  Clearly no switch and no change on the screen for ink type .. still showing MK ink loaded.

  At this point I did what any self respecting techy does and power cycled everything (PC as well as the printer although all the testing had been driven from the printer menu on the LCD).  The printer took a good 10 mins to start back up though, with lets say "ink cleaning" sounds the whole time.  No info displayed though so I couldn't tell what it was doing.  When it finally finished and went to Ready it had switched from MK to PK and a nozzle check was fine.

  It seems like something was preventing it doing the cleans and MK-PK switch that cleared after a power cycle.  It clearly remembered the ink switch I'd requested ..  don't know if it queued and performed all the other cleans that it missed as well.

  I have had to do a few cleans in the past so I know they have worked normally .. same for the PK-MK switch (although only one).

As I said this is just to document the issue in case it comes back to me or anyone else, but please chime in if you have ideas for the cause or have seen this.

Mike

[I.T. Supplies]

Have you checked if a firmware update was available or have been doing that since you had the printer?  This may have been an issue that Epson has corrected from a firmware version, but I haven't heard it happening much as we sell the large format P series often and not many call us regarding something like this.  You may also be one in a small percent that hit this issue, but can't confirm.  Maybe check with Epson if it happens again and you made sure the firmware has been updated to the most current version.  If others that had the same issue and don't post it on these forums, they may not know how to resolve it either and it's something helpful for anyone with the large P models.

Other option is to restart the printer as it may need a refresh (if you haven't already done it).  Sometimes with a file stuck in the print q may block cleaning options from happening.  Never know with technology nowadays.

IT Supplies

[mcbroomf]

Good suggestion on checking firmware.  I think I updated it once some time ago but will check again.

I did restart the printer ... that's how I fixed it, as mentioned in the post.