Banding issue

[mrelmo]

here is an image of a manual cover i just printed with my 4200, i noticed the banding in the black area, i can't tell if it is from the dye based black or the pigmented black, the paper is a heavy 24lb 96 bright xerox multipurpose paper, the PGI-5 is about 20% full, the black 8BK is 95% full, i don't print very many photos if there is a link for a test print i should try, i will do that, any ideas why this might be happening

 

[brendo]

When i used to have my ip4200 I had similar problems with the balck cart. The results look the exact same as what you have posted. I never fully worked out what was the actual problem, but my best guess was a feed problem caused by air in the head, or a small clog.

The only way i could stop it was to dip the cart into some warm water ( the outlet port) for about 20 seconds... Put it back into the printer and print a page of just a black square. This got the cart feeding properly again. In my case, im 99 percent sure it was air getting into the head while refilling.

 

[Grandad35]

...snip... if there is a link for a test print i should try, i will do that, any ideas why this might be happening

What does the nozzle check show?

 

[lin]

i can't tell if it is from the dye based black or the pigmented black

when you print that manual, if you have selected plain paper as the media type, it will make use of the pigment black (PGI-5) cart. And if you have selected other photo setting as the media type (such as PPPG, PPP, GPP...........etc), it will make use of the dye base cart (CLI-8BK).

It seems to be more of an electrical issue with your printhead such that one band of the nozzles are not firing. However, just as Grandad35 had said, you need to print a nozzle check to further determine what could be the possibily issue with your printhead.

 

[leo8088]

As Grandad asked, how did the nozzle check come out? It will tell which black is clogged. I believe it is the print head of the PGI5 that is clogged.

 

[Molitor]

Was this printed in draft mode? Sometimes draft mode will show more banding in solid areas, and magnify any ink-starvation/paper-feed/head clog issues that may normally go unnoticed, even in nozzle-check test prints.

 

[mrelmo]

printer is in standard print mode, here is copy of the nozzle check, it looks good these checks have always been a little skewed on top which i didn't know what to make of but the nozzles look clear

 

[leo8088]

Your printer has a clog (or possibly defect) on the dye black nozzles. Your pigment black nozzles are perfect.

 

[mrelmo]

did you determine that because the BK swatch is light ? i should be able to do a cleaning of individual colors correct, also what about the top grid that is crooked

 

[turbguy]

The "crookedness" of the top grid comes from the nozzles firing in sequence, so that each nozzle shows individually. This "staircases" the grid downwards.

If a piece of the grid were missing, or distorted, there's a printhead problem.

Your Pigment black nozzle check appears perfect!