I have had a Epson 9900 with one dead channel, LC, sitting here for a few months with Piezoflush in it waiting for the new Pro inks to show up. I would run daily a nozzle clean and/or a nozzle check to keep the printer happy.
Yesterday I put the new inks in, did an init fill and have many bad nozzle patterns. Tried all the usual cleaning tips and even another init fill just to make sure all of the Piezo flush was out and the new inks fully in the dampers and head. Waited overnight for things to “settle”, still the same today.
What next? Why would I be getting all nozzles good except my LC before the ink change?
Yes I did. They are the same carts I had the Piezo flush in, I drained them, rinsed them out with distilled water, then filled them with the Pro inks. Before I did this I printed out a nozzle check, everything looked good except my partial dead LC channel as expected.
Wouldn’t the two init cycles push out all the air?
It should push the air but there really shouldn’t be any air in there from the change-out of the flush w/ the ink if the carts were primed. It seem like there is something up w/ your cleaning assembly. I suggest taking the right cover off, do a powerful cleaning of one channel pair that is out on both channels (if there is one) and see if anything is going through the waste lines at all. You may need to change the cleaning assembly elevation.
I see evidence of Yellow and Light Cyan in the nozzle check as well which should not be the case after 2 init fills.
I did not know the cleaning assembly had a height adjustment. I have always just replaced the whole unit when it stopped being inefficient. This one is very new, replaced less then a year ago.
On cleaning I am seeing some ink go into the maintenance tank when cleaning a pair. Found the Cleaning PG Adjustment (page 193 Field Guide), did a check, it said NG, ran the adjustment 2.2, then ran check it said OK. Tried a few cleanings, not any better.
Now I am staring to run out of inks, what is the deal to order more? I know it says this week the website is open for ordering but obviously the pro inks are not available to order on the website.
There is so little ink left until we do the next batch in Mid-Late January… It’s off the web store. So PM me to what you need and I will check inventories. Sorry you’re having trouble on this install, Mark!
There are multiple variables and factors that go into this nozzle check failure. Hopefully we can work through them. Jon will email soon regarding ink as well.
First thing first. If auto nozzle check is on and you have a permanent channel fail (aka LC or any other temporarily clogged channel), turing auto-nozzle check off will not clear the loop. Basically if auto-nozzle check is performed and a cleaning is done, ANC is performed again to the point where “Clogged nozzles are still detected” shows up on the screen even when you are printing, this means a command has been logged into the machine such that ANC will be performed on the next nozzle check or black ink change or boot up regardless of whether ANC has been turned off in the printer settings menu. It’s an evil little gremlin that has persisted even through the most recent firmware version.
The way to clear this is to turn ANC off, turn the printer off, boot into maintenance mode and clear all ink parameters. This clears the ANC instruction lock. An ANC may still be done during black ink changes however, but will not stick into a permanent loop as long as ANC is turned off in the printer settings.
Bad cleaning assemblies and the ANC loop are a prime factor in head failures on this printer. I recently resucitated a printer at Latitude that was in this state (about a week ago) with PiezoFlush and Pro inks. We replaced the damper and cleaning assembly together and then did an init-fill with flush and an init-fill with Pro. Then 2 normal cleanings and we were set to go.
If you still have PiezoFlush, I suggest the reverse. After getting out of the ANC loop, fill carts, flush with PiezoFlush and check nozzles. I’m worried about the relationship between your dampers, head, and cleaning assembly as it is absolutely not normal for this results post flush. Jon will email you in a bit as well.
One question: where you getting random nozzle drops during pigment printing with this printer before your flush-sit?
Another, when the cleaning assembly was replaced, was the damper (ink selector) assembly also replaced?
And for confirmation: You did prime your carts after cleaning and adding pro ink?
Thanks for the ANC, will do that. To answer your questions:
was getting very good nozzle checks except for partial LC with color inks
no, the damper was not replaced, but I did change the wiper blade
yes, I primed all the carts with syringe
As far as putting flush back in, I know you guys has access to vats of flush and inks so its an easy test/procedure for you guys to try, but us as end users it really hurts the pocket$ every time we do one of these types of ink changes, lots of wasted ink and flush.
Hi Mark and Walker – I’m adding to this thread because I’m having a similar problem with my 9900. Converting it to PiezoPro and decided to flush everything with Piezoflush first. I had a stubborn GR channel and hoped that Piezoflush would clear it up. Everything else was clear and I had been using the printer for 6 years. 2 months ago I had the pump cap assembly and wiper blade changed by Epson (also updated firmware).
Everything at first seemed to be working well after an init fill. I’ve been working on this for 2 weeks, allowing the flush to do its thing on the GR channel, which is almost clear. At my 9th nozzle check I suddenly lost my OR channel completely. After several OR/GR cleanings I coaxed back a few stripes. I’ve run several printer purge prints and it appears that the OR channel is printing without banding, as far as I can tell with a Piezoflush print.
I don’t seem to be making any progress on getting a good nozzle check on the OR channel. Strange, in all my years of running this printer I never had a problem with OR, and have had issues with just about every other color. I have checked the OR cart and the top cap is tight, everything primed, etc.
Given the integrity of the purge print, could there be something screwy with the nozzle check? It’s strange that the channel dropped out completely and yet still manages to put out ink (apparently). I don’t want to proceed with loading my PiezoPro inks if I can’t get a clean nozzle check.
Also, should I keep flushing until all the channels look the same?
That is pretty much what happened to me, just went downhill fast with the flushing fluid. Was getting everything perfect with color inks except the LC was only partial. Now I can not get one complete good channel, the head is dead as far as I am concerned. The printer is free to anyone who wants to pick it up. I gave up. I wasted plenty of $ on inks and time. Good luck Doug.
Do NOT print purges with clogged nozzles!!! This can ruin a channel.
Switch carts with a channel you know is perfect (switch the chips on the carts) and put the new cart in the Orange channel. Then do 1 CL4 cleaning (from maintenance mode) on the Orange/Green channel pair. This will ensure that the cartridge you are using in Orange is pressurizing properly. I feel like that is the issue.
Make sure your firmware is up-to-date too. The old firmware does not properly equalize pressure between carts (especially when doing init fills).
Walker – I was optimistic this would work but the nozzle check for OR is coming up completely blank. I had noticed previously that I could not do a CL4 (or CL3) on OR/GR, the printer would try to pressurize and then quit. This time it made it through the cleaning but failed to activate the channel.
I hope you have some other ideas. Should I also switch the chip on the GR? Thanks.
Walker – Firmware is latest, I switched the GR cart chip, did another CL4 and it worked! The OR channel came back. Ran it twice to make sure. I think I am set.
Should I continue purging until all the channels are the same color as the Piezoflush, or is it ok that there is some residual.
Thanks!
PS: Mark, I’m sorry you are throwing in the towel on this. To be honest, my adventures with my 9900 and clogged nozzles are epic, I don’t know why I’m going down this road to be tortured by this printer!
Just put the pro inks in there and do an init-fill but make sure to prime those cartridge perfectly. No air in the outlet.
I also suggest putting sharpie line on the ink level before init-fill. This will give you an idea of a cart/channel that is not init-filling properly if you pull the carts later and see some carts with way more ink than others. We can/will always replace a cart that does not pressurize properly.
After 1 init-fill do some purge prints on cheap roll of bond paper (or scrap luster, whatever) to get rid of LLK magenta and a few power-cleanings. Should be good to go.
I wonder if this is related. A friend I have been helping now has his 9900 constantly cleaning itself, only since the PzoPro inks installation.
He says he had he had auto check off. Would this-
"The way to clear this is to turn ANC off, turn the printer off, boot into maintenance mode and clear all ink parameters. This clears the ANC instruction lock. "
