Bad 4x6 prints from XP-620

[Hansteis]

I have an XP-620 which has never been able to make a decent 4x6 print. From the time I first got it, when it made good 8x10's, the ink seemed to form droplets on the paper in dense areas. I tried to make a print today to show this, and now I have streaks on the prints. Notice the black lines at the top of the yellow and magenta printouts and the streaks across the print. I recently put in fresh cartridges and went through the head cleaning process four times, but I can't eliminate the problem. Are these a problem with all Epson XP-620's? Can anyone please suggest a cure for either problem? Thanks!

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I think you are victim of several effects - missing nozzles should be cleaned away - good printouts are not possible otherwise. It is not clear at this time whether another cleaning cycle would remedy that or the effect is more persistent.
But there is a more concerning effect - the top rows of the magenta field are not magenta but black, this may point to a printhead internal problem of leakage between those colors, a problem which cannot be fixed. I don't know whether the unit is still under warranty, whether you had an option to register for an extended warranty period at the time of purchase still effective today.
And you probably see an effect of ink puddles which gets you into the ink absorption limit of the photo paper in combination of particular driver settings. There are quite wide variations of 3rd party photo papers in this respect. You may check other driver settings like 'Glossy' instead of 'Ultra Glossy' or even 'Matte-Inkjet Paper' for a test if the effect goes away.

 

[Hansteis]

Thanks for your comments. The latest on the problem is that this morning I replaced the black cartridge, and now the color prints come out with broad bands with no magenta--coincidence, I suppose.
You say, "missing nozzles should be cleaned away", but aren't they part of the cartridges?
Ink pooling sounds like a description of the print defect I've always had. When I first used the printer I tried three types of photo paper and all the available variations in the settings but without avail. I finally gave up. That was two or three years ago, at which time it would still make good 8x10's.
I think I'd better get a different printer for my photos (I never had such problems with my earlier HP printers) and just use this for black and white text or discard it. Unless someone has an unmentioned insight?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

The printhead with the nozzles is separate from the cartridges which only contain the inks. The printhead is mounted at the bottom of the printhead carriage and not easily removable. The cross contamination is the most serious problem and cannot be cleaned away. In order to gt a grip on the ink pooling issue you may do some test prints with genuine Epson paper as a reference, and then compare those prints to prints on other types of photo papers. Just printing text is an option but that still would require that you need all color cartridges in place properly and not empty, and those will be consumed as well during cleaning cycles even if you only print b/w.
You may do one thing - turn on the printer, and as soon as the printhead carriage starts moving pull the power plug, this let you move the printhead carriage freely. You fold a piece of kitchen paper
into a small stripe and place it into the printer bed, soak it with a window cleaner and move the printhead over it. Let it rest there for a few hours and take the kitchen paper away, rund a cleaning cycle and a nozzle check which you may post here - (and protect your fingers against the ink)

 

[The Hat]

@Hansteis, I would also like to add, while your wiping the print heads bottom with the paper towel, it would also be a good time to give the parking station a good clean, (Where the print head sits).

You can be very generous with Windex and spray around the immediate area then clean the excess up with plenty of paper towels, and lastly flood the parking station with Windex and allow it to drain off itself.

If none of the cleaning works for you and your still not happy with the printer then consider purchasing a Canon Maxify, it will do all the thing you every wanted from the HP machine, but do far better...