Epson 9900 "RESETTING .. PLEASE WAIT"

[JohnHeerema]

Lately, my Epson 9900 has hung at the end of every print job, with a panel message: "RESETTING .. PLEASE WAIT" (it never resets).

This happens when the printer is starting to finish the bottom margin of of the page (sheet media).

I tried switching from Ethernet to USB, which worked for a few pages, but then I got the same behavior again with every sheet.

Naturally, I tried the usual "solutions":
- Updated the Epson drivers to that latest (more buggy) version
- Updated the Epson printer firmware
- Reboots all around

My guess is that there is a hardware-mediated process at work when the printer is printing the lower margin, and that this has broken ... but of course that's pure speculation.

Any ideas?

[jwittes]

John,

I had the exact same issue with my 9900 last month when I installed a new Epson Eco Tank printer on the same workstation.  After 45 minutes of tech support walking me through different fixes, deleting all Epson drivers and reinstalling only the 9900 drivers fixed the problem.  It turned out that the Eco Tank printer drivers were conflicting the the 9900 drivers. Not sure if my situation helps remedy yours...Good Luck.

[JohnHeerema]

Hmmmm ... interesting!

I haven't installed any other Epson drivers since adding a P800 a year ago, but it wouldn't hurt to rip out all of the Epson drivers and start over... I'll try that, and let you know what happens.

[JohnHeerema]

Well, it was worth a try...

Here's what I did:
- Remove all printers in "Printers & Scanners"
- Uninstall all Epson software
- Reboot
- Install Epson 9900 current driver package

Unfortunately, I still get the same darn behavior!
And naturally, I'm printing an entire exhibition this week, so the printer knows that I'm at its mercy!


So, something happens at the end of a page, regardless of the media size, which causes the printer to hang just before it finalizes the bottom border of the print.

I wonder if the paper presence sensor might be getting screwed up?

[BrianWJH]

Hi John, are you saying that the issue only happens when printing sheets and not roll media?

Brian.

[JohnHeerema]

I've only tried sheets so far, but the behavior is present on the two sizes I've tried.
I've tried letter size, and 24 x 30" poster board.

I wonder if perhaps the Edge Detector sensor is the problem...

[BrianWJH]

Hi John, not sure if you have resolved the issue however here are a couple of links that discuss the same issue.

 - https://lifewitha7900.blogspot.com/2012/12/resetting-wait.html

 - https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=71445.msg574859#msg574859

Brian.

[JohnHeerema]

Thanks Brian,

I'd seen the LL thread,but not the lifewitha7900.blogspot thread.

Unfortunately, the problem now occurs all of the time, with either an Ethernet or a USB connection.
Since it always happens right at the very end of a print, I suspect that something is being reported by the hardware that the Epson firmware doesn't handle, causing it to attempt to reset itself.

Since sheet media loads correctly, I'm currently wondering if the Ink Mark Sensor is bad.
Does anyone know of a source for this sensor, or perhaps have a broken 7900 or 9900 that could be a source of parts?

Thanks!

[BrianWJH]

Hi John, you can perform an automatic ink mark sensor adjustment as follows:

[BrianWJH]

John, the referenced figure.

Best of luck.

[JohnHeerema]

Thanks Brian!

The Good News / Bad News is that the ink mark sensor test passed.
So the Good News is that the sensor seems to be OK.
The Bad News is that I have no idea what's making my printer hang.

But, I'll methodically go through all of the self tests, and see if anything shows up...

[Garnick]

This is just a guess, and likely not a good one.  I don't believe this would have any barring on your problem, but it only takes a minute to check it.  If you haven't tried this yet, in the menu go to Printer Settings and then to Paper Size Check and make sure it's turned ON.  As I said, just a guess, but since you've not yet had much luck this is easy to neglect and easy to set properly.     

[Wayne Fox]

Any further information on this?  A friend is experiencing the same problem.

[JohnHeerema]

Thanks for the idea Garnick!

Yes, the Paper Size Check has been turned on, as has the paper skew check.
I would guess that both of these settings affect paper loading, but I don't know if they affect end of page handling.
I will try setting them to Off, and see what happens.

I did try printing in maintenance mode, and got the same behavior ... except that I could still navigate through the menus in maintenance mode. But I couldn't do anything useful, like abort the job, or release the paper. So perhaps it's not quite dead, but a zombie...

[JohnHeerema]

When I turned off the paper size and skew checks, the printer gets a tiny bit further before hanging.
Now, it prints most of the bottom margin on the image being printed...

[JohnHeerema]

A few people have told me that they are experiencing this issue - has anyone found a solution?

Thanks!