eposn pro 4000, bad results

[artyvisual]

I recently bought a (used) epson pro 4000, but I am dissapointed in the results, or are my expectations to high of this (old) printer?
Especially the blacks are ' all over the place' . I printed a test chart, high quality on hq inkjet paper. On plain paper it is much worse. Is this a possible result of a clotted head?

See the zoomed image


All help appreciated!

 

[gmikol]

The fault may not lie in the printer, but in the test chart.

Can you provide a link to the chart you used, or upload it as an attachment (in its original format), if possible?

I can't speak about the black patches, but I suspect the "dirt" around the text is artifacts from too much jpeg compression. An investigation of the original chart file will tell.

Also, what program did you use to print the test chart?

--Greg

 

[L Gebhardt]

A simple nozzle check will tell you if the heads are clogged. If that passes then move on to printing some test images. The chart you are printing is probably not that useful. It won't tell you how well it will print a photo. For that look at one of Bill Atkinson's test charts, or this Printing Insights #48.

You will want to print with a proper profile for the printer and paper combo to get decent results.

 

[artyvisual]

Gmikol, that's what I first thought also. Therefor I made a simple chart in illustrator to make sure it is vectorised. (attached as a pdf). I also placed a plain paper example that shows how extreme this dirt is.

testchart.pdf
Gebhardt, thank you for this. The nozzle check is not completely perfect, but I have seen worse, and I can't get it better by cleaning the heads. No dirt there by the way. Of course in photoprinting it won't be that obvious to see, but this printer must do text better then this wont it? I thougt this night that maybe the vertical head allignment is way off and the gap is to big between head and paper. Does this make sense?
Thanks for the link, I will use this test also.
image below is the nozzle pattern:

 

[artyvisual]

well, I did an extra 'auto nozzle check' wich emphasizes the problems with head. (handy feauture by the way)
It seems to make clear that the nozzle are clocked/not working proparly. The ink that came on this printer is expired by about two years by the way, that may be a part of the problem.

 

[L Gebhardt]

You will never get good results without a perfect nozzle pattern. All the nozzles need to be firing for consistency and smoothness of the image. I wouldn't waste any more photo paper until you get this cleared up. There are many methods out there to clean the nozzles, but I can't recommend any of them. There are also cleaning solutions to purge old ink from the printer, but again I haven't tried any of them. I'm sure with a bit of searching you can find a solution. But since you probably need all new ink, it may be cheaper to return the printer and pick up a new 3880. Once you factor in the cost of the ink the printer is fairly reasonable. They're $1139 at Atlex right now shipped, but I have seen them with rebates selling for about $900. At that price the printer is only about $450.

 

[artyvisual]

you might have a point, but I want to print from roll. And I am planning to refurbish the printer with an all BW ink system if I can make the head clean. I will give it a try to clean the head, I emailed the notorious mr Entlich for his much spoken about cleaning manual, and will give it a try before wasting a used printer.

 

[Felinik]

Running cleaning cycles won't help you if there's dried ink on the head blocking the nozzles. Though I guess you've googled that up already by now.. How did this end up?

 

[pschwart]

The zoomed image looks like ink has accumulated on the bottom of the print head. I get this occasionally and it's easy to fix, at least on the smaller Epson desktop printers. All I need to do is move the print head into the replace cartridge position, unplug the printer so the print head can be manually moved back and forth, fold up a paper towel and dampen it with a few drop of cleaning fluid (I use technical pen cleaner), insert it into the printer carriage, and manually move the print head back and forth over the paper towel. If the print head is really dirty I repeat with a clean towel until it comes out mostly clean. I have done this successfully on my 1800; I have never had to do it on my 3800 (and not sure if it is even possible to free up the print head this way. If it not, you can try dampening some heavy watercolor or blotter paper with cleaning fluid and running it through the printer a few times.

Running cleaning cycles won't help you if there's dried ink on the head blocking the nozzles. Though I guess you've googled that up already by now.. How did this end up?

 

[artyvisual]

Though I guess you've googled that up already by now.

That's un understatement. I spend many many hours on this. Dismounting a lot of parts. I tried nearly all the methods desribed un the web to clear the nozzles. Finally I gave up. I found a working 4880 decently priced and I stored the 4000 for spare parts, or when I get the feeling to give it another shot (I still want to replace the dampers...)

 

[Felinik]

That's un understatement. I spend many many hours on this. Dismounting a lot of parts. I tried nearly all the methods desribed un the web to clear the nozzles. Finally I gave up. I found a working 4880 decently priced and I stored the 4000 for spare parts, or when I get the feeling to give it another shot (I still want to replace the dampers...)

HEHE!! I understand you!! I've spent quite some time finding out how to get both my 7600 and 4800 clean and nice, but now they work like a charm. Yeah, the dampers are good to change every once in a 2-3 years or so, I just bought my printers (used) during the last 3-4 months, and as long as they work fine and I can keep them clean I'll wait with the dampers. I'm about to buy another 7600 for spare parts too, it's in a "service needed state" and the owner don't know what to do, so I'll bring it home prolly this weekend and see if I can get it up and running just to see what state it is in, and if it's not in TOO good shape, I'll start disassembly it and clean and store the parts.

 

[toyotadesigner]

I don't have an Epson, but a HP printer, and your problem sounds very familiar to me: I stored the printer for 2 years in the heat of southern Spain in a warehouse of a movers company. So I took off the print heads, filled hot water with 10% pure alcohol into a bowl and bathed the heads for 30 minutes in the mix. Then I took several clean kitchen paper towels and put the print heads onto the paper towels for several times, until no more ink was visible on the paper.

Re-installed the print heads and cleaned them. Took around 20 minutes (8 colors). Then I aligned the prints heads and was up and running again.

Maybe you can do the same trick with the Epson print heads?

 

[lenny]

Jens,

What you may not realize is that Epson doesn't want you to do this.... they make it very hard to get the heads out. It's one of the reasons I went to using Roland's (but Roland got knocked out of the art market by Epson so my next printer will be an Epson again).

If you do get the heads out then you have to realign them, a process that takes hours. That's why it costs so much to have a tech do this. I haven't seen a situation where enough power clean's didn't actually finally clean it. Sometimes its just an exercise in pouring enough expensive liquid down the drain.

Best thing is to have a fairly new one and make the tech come out and do it, under warranty. When the warranty is up, sell it and get a new one. It's very rude, but that's the ticket...

Lenny

 

[toyotadesigner]

Lenny,

Best thing is to have a fairly new one and make the tech come out and do it, under warranty. When the warranty is up, sell it and get a new one. It's very rude, but that's the ticket...

that's why I hate today's society and don't have any faith in the future.

On the other hand I'm pretty satisfied with my HP printers ( Pro B1980 and Z 2100) - I can remove the print heads and tear apart the whole printer. But these two are old, so I don't know if I would be able to service the new models at all.

I'm not sure what I would recommend at this moment. After the warranty for HP runs out, the customer service is extremely lousy. Epson gives you a hard time to service the printer yourself, Canon features oversaturated colors, for the Roland I used to work with a year ago I had to call (and pay!) the service technician every or every other week - what remains?

I guess when my printers will die, I'll subcontract all LF printing, because I don't want to have a heart attack...

 

[Felinik]

Or learn how to do services yourself, change dampers, capping station etc. and do that regularly every 1-2 years...