Color problem with HP Z3200

[RedBud]

I have an HP Designjet z3200 printer.  I love this printer and it has treated me well for about 8 years.

The last time I went to use it, it reported that the Blue ink cartridge needed replacement.  I ordered a cartridge and installed it.  When I sent my print, it started printing fine but then the color was washed out for the last 25% of the print (see attachment).  I ran the diagnostic print and the color calibration procedure several times with no change in results.

All of the printheads were showing as OK, but out of waranty.  I ordered a Blue-Green printhead and installed it.  Again the print started out OK and then the color was washed out.  Ran the color calibration routine and diagnostic print and everythiing looked ok.  No error messages from the printer.  Tried the print again, same results.  Started out good and lost color through a 12 inch print.  I repeated the color calibration and diagnostic print several more times, always getting the same ressults

I did a chat with HP support and didn't get much from them.  They suggested changing print heads.

I am willing to replace another printhead (and eventually all of them) if this will fix things.  I can't afford to do them all at once and don't want to put this money into it if the problem will not be fixed.

Note on the attached print:  The bottom of the top most row of prints is the leading edge.  I rotated the print on the right so you can see the results.

Is this something that could be caused by a bad printhead?  The HP folks suggested replacing the Light magenta-Light cyan print head.  Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks
Rick

[deanwork]

Did you do the pair cleaning for the blue-green printhead ? That’s the first thing to do. Might need two. I’ve never had to do more than two cleanings.

When you run out of a color and keep printing you can get air in the line.

If you are seeing a clean blue and the other colors like cyan and magenta in your diagnostic sheet then the heads are good most likely.  When they start to go out you will not see a solid color pattern but see light stripes or nothing at all.

If all that is ok, I would certainly try printing another file if you haven’t already. You could also just create a solid blue rectangle and print and evaluate that after you do the head cleaning.

I’d probably do one normal cleaning and one blue pair cleaning before I ordered a new head.

John

[John Nollendorfs]

It could also be the Light Cyan print head, (like HP support suggested) and not the Blue which you replaced. I've had these kind of things happen too, cleaned the head, diagnostic looked good, and then it poops out in middle of print. That's usually a print head going bad. Print head is quite cheap on HP compared to Canon & Epson. Remember, inkjet printers like to be used. You leave them sitting too much, you always have problems.

[RedBud]

Thank you both for your replies.  I was suspecting a printhead issue.  The thing that got me was the repeatable results of the print starting out good and then losing the color.

I ran two more cleaning cycles and then another diagnostic print.  The light magenta/light cyan looked a little bad, so I am ordering that printhead.  I will get back with the results.

Thanks again.
Rick

[RedBud]

Update: The light cyan/light magenta print head seems to have fixed the problem.  Thanks again for your replies/

Rick