9900 Mystery!?¡

[Garnick]

Hello All,

I recently posted concerning my 9900 and nozzle dropouts. Just a very brief history however. I purchased the printer on Mar. 30, 2010.  Put it into full operation middle of April and worked with it for more than six months before placing my first warranty call to Epson. During that time I struggled with multiple nozzle dropouts, some rather minor and some major. It got to the point where I couldn't trust the printer to do more than one large print before executing a nozzle check and usually two or more cleaning cycles(pairs and normal). Finally, around the middle of Nov. 2010, knowing that things would be getting much busier during the Christmas season, I called Epson and pleaded my case. From the time I first powered up the printer I had kept a very comprehensive log of issues, which came in very handy. Of course that log is still accumulating entries. During the first service call a new print head and pump/capping station were installed. The print head did not work at all, so the original head was reinstalled. Got everything back in good working order and I was very satisfied with the printer until about two weeks ago when the LLK was starting to drop out and there were two lines that I could not bring back, regardless of the number or types of cleaning cycles I performed. Another call to Epson and another warranty service call. At that time I also extended the warranty, something I have never felt compelled to do with any other printer. The tech brought another print head and pump/capping station, but only installed the new head. Since then I have still been battling nozzle dropouts on a daily basis and had planned to wait until next week to call Epson again. However, another discovery has made it necessary to place that call a couple of days ago. I quite often print at 720dpi and step up to 1440 when necessary, mostly on Premium Luster. I have a "control" image that I print about once a month and compare it to a known good print of the file. After the last head was installed I began to notice that the Dmax was not as it should be and I could see slight banding in solid black areas as well. Nozzle checks were fine, so I compared the control print with three others that had been printed a few months ago at 720dpi and noticed a rather grainy appearance in the latest version. Almost as if it were actually printing at 360 instead of 720. Stepping up to 1440 did improve the image, but I don't believe that resolution is printing correctly either. Unfortunately I don't have a control print done at that res to compare. I have also eliminated the possibility that the driver has become corrupted by booting up on both of my backup drives and printing the image from there, with exactly the same results. Those drives haven't been cloned since the hew head was installed, so the driver is as it was before this happened. I've also done two head alignments, but no solution yet.

Has anyone seen this sort of problem with the 9900? A grainy appearance that resembles printing at a lower res than what has been sent from the driver. The Epson online tech said that possibly the head was out of alignment "mechanically", and that doing the standard head alignment would not solve that. The tech who will be working on the printer next week said that he has never heard of that possibility, so I guess it's now a waiting game, again.

If any of you have seen this phenomenon, please chime with any info you have.

Thanks, Gary

[Schewe]

Just to eliminate some possible questions, have you done a recent auto head alignment? Are you printing with High Speed on or off? Have you checked the print length to confirm the printed version is the exact correct length?

[Garnick]

Just to eliminate some possible questions, have you done a recent auto head alignment? Are you printing with High Speed on or off? Have you checked the print length to confirm the printed version is the exact correct length?

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.  To your first question, the answer is yes, I've done two auto head alignments within the past week. Looking back I remembered that the tech who installed the print head didn't do that, so I thought it would probably help, but I was mistaken. Still printing the same at 720dpi, grainy and seemingly at a lower res.  

Except for the occasional image I've always printed with high speed on, but turned it off in all 720dpi presets when this first happened. Again, no difference. I still use high speed when printing at 1440dpi and would like to continue with that. The printer is practically new, so I can't really understand why I should have to slow the process down at this stage. Perhaps as it ages, but I think this is rather early to be making such adjustments. I may be mistaken in that assumption however.

As to your last question, the answer is no, I haven't checked that yet. I had no reason to suspect that, but I will check first thing Monday morning. Since you mention it that does make sense. I suppose if it is slightly off I should probably try a paper feed adjustment. It's just that all of this seems rather coincidental and suspicious, since it all started happening right after the new head was installed. However, I will be having another tech visit next week. Of course if I can do some more troubleshooting in the interim that can't hurt.    

I have thoroughly enjoyed your videos with Michael and your other writings on this forum as well. I'm also a big proponent of PKS, since I've been using it for a few years and am now enjoying version 2.

Thanks again Jeff, I'll keep you posted.
Gary  

[Schewe]

As to your last question, the answer is no, I haven't checked that yet. I had no reason to suspect that, but I will check first thing Monday morning.

My first Epson, the 10000 had a paper feed problem that caused micro-banding because the feed was off. If you measure (very accurately) the final printed output and it's different than the image, then you'll know it's a feed problem. If it's not, then you can look towards other issues...

Just a factor in troubleshooting...

[Farmer]

Great advice from Jeff.  May I suggest that you measure a print of close to 1m, as shorter may not give you enough to accurately determine any variance.  Also, you need a really good ruler or other measure.  I usually suggest something like a Toledo steel ruler, but anything of sufficient quality/accuracy.  It should be within 0.5mm over 1m.

Check your workflow, too.  Remember that with the 900 series, the tension from the "spindle" is automatic based on media type, but it can be changed, so ensure it's a correct match.

Final thing that comes to mind is ensure the firmware is up to date.

Oh, and regarding mechanical alignment - yes, definitely there is alignment possible beyond what you can do as a user.  When a head is replaced it's positioning and alignment should be checked by the technician because if it's not within spec, no amount of adjustment by you will fix it.  You would also hope that they updated the print head rank ID, as variance in that could also be an issue (but that's pretty certain they'd have done that).

[Garnick]

Thanks Jeff and Phil, great advice from both of you and very much appreciated.

The firmware is up to date, but I'm not sure how one would change the spindle tension if it is set automatically.  Of course it might be covered in the user manual, but I won't have access to that until I'm back in the lab tomorrow morning. Also, not sure how to check the tension to see if it does match the selected media type at the printer. Again, perhaps something to look for in the manual.

As far as the alignment is concerned, when I talked to the tech who replaced the head he seemed to think there was no mechanical alignment possible, only the one initiated by the user, either at the printer or through software. That's contrary to what I was told by the Epson tech during my last phone call, and you seem to be in agreement with his assessment of the situation Phil.

Quite frankly, and I'll try to be as non-accusatory as possible, I didn't have a great deal of faith in the degree of expertise exhibited by the tech who last worked on the printer. For example, when he was disassembling it to install the print head he couldn't believe the number of screws involved. I take that to be indicative of someone who might never have taken on that particular task before. I'm sure he was very well versed in other printer models, but my confidence level was waning as I watched and listened to him. He also called the tech I had the first time round(Nov.2010) on at least three occasions to ask advice. Well, I guess I've probably said too much already, but to suffice, I did insist on the original(IMO more knowledgeable) tech this time. I imagine I won't be seeing him until Wed or Thur, but at least I can still print at 1440, even though I believe that's not really as it should be either.

Thanks again gentlemen. I'll keep you posted as this scenario unfolds.
Gary

[Farmer]

Gary,

Changes to paper tension (and platen gap and a number of other things) are accessed by clicking on Paper Config under the printer settings.  It would usually be set to Auto (which means the paper type will determine the setting).

Sounds like you'll have better results from the more experienced technician, too.