Epson Artisan 837 suddenly getting corrupted prints

[artprint1]

I have CIS ink running through my Artisan 837

Thinks were working fine for the last 3 months. Have printed about 1000 glossy documents.

Suddenly today I started getting bad "banding" on my prints.

Have ran the "cleaner" from software 10 times.

It's not improving things.

Please help ;(

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[jtoolman]

Ok, what does your nozzle check show? you should be able to see what colors are not properly printing. Are your lines and dampers or carts completely full of ink on all 6 colors? Or is there air in there somewhere?
More ink as "Banding" really doesn't describe your problem. Banding could be caused by bad head aligment, or nozzles misfiring.

Joe

 

[artprint1]

Hi, thanks for the message.

Update: the instruction manual said to turn it off for 6 hours and try again. I unplugged it overnight and it started working again this morning.

Yesterday, Nozzle check shows full ink. The test pattern output seemed to always behave randomly. e.g. sometimes the yellow pattern was messed up, sometimes several patterns were messed up, etc...

I am using http://goo.gl/2TDYR and just got refill bottles yesterday.

When I refilled the tanks, I squeezed the bottles really hard and shot the liquid into the container. I wonder if this caused bubbles in the line. Didn't think about that...

Regarding head alignment, I attempted to do a head alignment but each time the sheet would print out, every single swatch had bands through it -- making them all equally bad.

Thanks for reading my question. The printer is working now but I will monitor this issue.

 

[artprint1]

Update: ahh..

;(

Well I managed to get about 6 prints out, and then the problem came back.

I printed a demo with obama and jessica rabbit

http://i.imgur.com/DljWb.jpg

 

[jtoolman]

When you get bands on all your aligment rectangles you choose the numbers with the least banding and repeat until you are finally getting some clear rectangles.

So your nozzle check is perfect? Every little step is there for all 6 colors?
Aren't also having problems with your CISS chips on another thread?

Yes, shooting ink into the chabers will generate air bubbles which could get into the lines and into your carts.
Have you been able to print continuosly with that CISS without any problems up to this point and now they are suddenly there?

CISS are tricky beasts and have to be perfectly balanced, by locating the "SWEET" position heghtwise in the relation to the printer.
The PRIMING of the carts themselves has to be flawless. You may have to removed them and re prime them. Could get messy!

Joe

 

[artprint1]

I attempt to do alignment but each square is SO bad, that they are literally all of the same poor quality. Choosing any square to be "better" or "worse" wouldn't even matter because every square on the page is unreadable. I'm assuming this tells me that I have an ink issue.

My nozzle check basically always looks like the bad one http://goo.gl/pTVPc

I have run 'cleaner' 20 times. Always random output after each time. The manual says if you run cleaner 4 times with no improvement, then to turn your printer off for 6 hours.
This is what I did last night and it worked this morning.
But only for 10 prints.
Then the problem started again.

Yes the CISS print quality has not had any problem till now. (Except for the chip error in the other thread--which i guess is a firmware issue)

I don't visually see any bubbles in the line. But maybe they are too small...

 

[jtoolman]

The fact that you cannot clear your nozzles leasts me to believe it't a massive feed or flow problem in your CISS. Stop doing so many cleanings or your will very quicky saturate you waste ink pads. Luckily they are user replacable on the Artisans but you will have to buy a reset key to reset the waste ink counter or the printed will cease to run.

Plug your Vent Holes on your ciss with the plugs it came with. Remove all the carts and in a place where it won't matter if you make a mess raise the CISS unit so it is higher then the carts and One by One remove the vent plugs and proceed to insert a syringe into each of the ink exit ports and aspirate ink and any air the may exit in your lines and carts. After you are positive you are getting nothing but ink in your syringe, plug the coresponding vent hole on the CISS. Repeat until you've done all 6 colors. Wipe all chips clean and reinsert the whole system back into your printer. Remove all the vent plugs and replace the air filters.
Run one cleaning cycle if the printer itself does not automatically run one after the re insertion of the carts. Run Nozzle check.

By the way the waste ink tank is located directly on the top of the steel rectangule door on the underside of the printer. One screw removes it.
The WIC tool will reset this printer's Waste ink counter but is cost about $9-10 per serial reset kew #

Good luck

Joe

 

[artprint1]

wow thanks

this sounds like quite a job.

I'm wondering though, in light of the other thread, i'm now thinking that the only way i'm going to avoid more "unrecognized cartridge" errors is to actually buy a different CISS system anyway...

e.g. even if i get this flow problem fixed, i'm still going to have the "unrecognized cartridge" problem.

So maybe the faster move is to just throw this CISS system away, and buy a new CISS system now -- that won't have the cartridge problem.

Can you recommend a new CISS system for the Artisan 837?

 

[jtoolman]

It does look that way.
Check out Precission Colors ( Mikling ) Or just go to refillable carts. I've also used then with total success.
You are still going to be looking at a full waste ink pad VERY soon, from the high number of cleaning you've been doing.
Remember that the printer will cease to work and you will have to replace the pads and reset the counter.

 

[mikling]

You might have a contact problem or if it is intermittent or it might be the newest Epson firmware with the older chip programming. Epson does not announce a new firmware and the best thing they do is just throw it out there and what had been working before is no longer working and you end up with all kinds of problems with aftermarket. Now if they had introduced new firmware with new models this problem would not exist but all is going smoothly and then hey something is strange with what is going on. It's intentional on Epson's part.

I won't be getting the combo chip CISS with the latest programming till the first week in January 2013.
For the refillable solution I have them online at my website and if you choose the 837 or 730, you will now receive the latest as I don't want to chance an incompatibility issue. if you have one of the early 837 and 730, then the older chips will work and also do so with the resetter. The other drawback to the newest chips is that they cannot be mixed with the OEM cartridges and all must be changed out at once. So if you have an 700,710,725,800,810,835 you're better off with the old chips. If you have an "early" 730, 837 you're better off with the older chips. How can you tell which model you have or what will work? Only Epson knows, otherwise it is trial and error. Hence my current practice of the newest always for the 730 and 837.

The same story holds for the 1430. Some will work with the older chips and some won't depending on production date.

it looks like Epson discovered a hole in the aftermarket programming and very quietly decided to use it against the existing aftermarket products. Hence confusion and user frustration.

The Artisan 7xx 8xx series are extremely reliable machines when they work well or ink is properly fed. Epson has gone out of their way to make the install of CISS systems harder on these machines. I would check on the tubes entering the printer and carefully check for any pinched areas on the tube. The quality of physical install of these tubes will mostly determine the long term reliability of the CISS system. Sometimes pinching is not apparent until months later when the pinch eventually closes off after constant pressure from the top.