Hi all. I hope you can help me with an odd problem.
For awhile, I’ve been using an Epson WF-7710 to print images on Canon semi-gloss paper. I’m using a CISS but only fill it with Epson 512 bottled ink. Have never used anything but that ink and have always had good results with this setup. Bidirectional printing is always turned off. High speed printing is always turned off.
I noticed a very subtle white line on my prints the other day. Printed out a nozzle check to see if the heads needed cleaning. The printout was perfect. No gaps, etc.
So I decided to run the built-in print head alignment -- the one on the product screen, not in the driver; there isn’t one on the driver; just the product itself. Horizontal alignment printout was fine.
The vertical alignment is where my trouble started. The first vertical alignment printout before changing anything showed just what I expected—a few boxes with very slight gaps. So I began the alignment procedure per the instructions, selecting the best # box, etc.
The minor gaps in #1 and #4 disappeared on the first pass, but the other four boxes suddenly showed major gaps. I re-ran the alignment, choosing new numbers per the instructions, but nothing changed. By the 3rd or 4th pass, four of the boxes were “stuck” with wide gaps. Nothing I do makes any difference. The last 10 re-passes and printouts are identical to each other – two boxes fine, but four with huge gaps. Selecting different numbers during the alignment does nothing.
See printouts below.
During this process, I rechecked the nozzles several times – still showed perfect patterns on the printout. I cleaned the heads anyway a couple of times. Nozzle checks remained perfect throughout. Also, rechecked horizontal alignment, which remained fine.
Also tried turning on/off bidirectional printing. Same problem either way.
Prior to this odd situation, I had never had any problems with alignment. Its like the heads suddenly went rogue the minute I started the head alignment and now they’re stuck in what seems like the extreme-most positions.
Any suggestions?
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eppyson & community -
I know you posted this a while ago. I hope by now you were able to resolve this issue, or maybe, you've thrown in the towel on your Epson printer and moved on ! Either way, I'm going to go ahead an post this so that maybe it might help others in the future who may run into this same issue. Obviously, I was running into this same problem with the 3 Epson printers I have (WF-7720 & WF-7840 & WF-3640). The 3640 was the worst, and at one point I had major lines in every box, in every set of the vertical alignment page. So, here is what ultimately got me out of this mess. I was able to verify that this approach works across all 3 WF printers I own.
First of all, if you start this and you want to complete it, be sure to have spare time set aside and some patience. I can be a bit of a process. So here are the steps that I took. To set a baseline starting point, let's assume the worse case scenario - major lines in all sets of your vertical alignment sheet....
First run, reset the alignment numbers to an extreme, so pick either 1 or 7 and set all of them to that number, and rerun the alignment. NOTE: You may want to set all the black sets to 7, and all the colored sets to 1 and realign. Now compare the 2 alignments.
You SHOULD see some changes. Now, in deciding what to do next, look at each set:
1) If a set got better (less lines) - then set it to the number you had previously (if the lines are still pretty significant, then set it to either a 1 or 7 again, but if you've gotten a shift that's much better, then you might want to choose, say either a 2 or 3 (or 5 or 6 on the other end).
2) If a set actually got worse, then I suggest setting the number to the OPPOSITE extreme you first picked. So rather than setting a set to 7, you would set it to 1, Or instead of a 7 you would set it to 1. I'm sure you get the idea.
3) If you got lucky on a group, or several groups and the "middle number", the column that you're trying to align, turns out to be the one with no lines in it - PERFECT, consider that group done, and make no changes to the value on your alignment settings. Now, in theory... you shouldn't have to adjust that grouping any more. But that could change as you work to correct the other groupings and get the box with with the middle value to be the one with no lines.
And that is basically about it !! You just keep repeating this process over and over again... and over and over again!! On the WF-3640 that was really jacked up, it took about 24 alignment runs to get it just about perfect. So patience is key, and don't be afraid to use the low end/high end numbers. You won't hurt print head by doing so. You're really just trying to get a change in that grouping, either good or bad, doesn't matter. Once you get a change in an alignment group, that kick starts this process of getting that print head aligned in that particular group.
Remember, the 2 "sets" of alignment boxes (all black boxes, and all colored (mine happen to be red) are vertically aligned as an individual group (meaning, changes in alignment you make for the black set will not change the alignment for the colored boxes) - so once you get, say all the black boxes with no lines appearing in the "middle", then any alignment changes you make in the colored set should not change the black. This also means that you can work to alignment both sets (black & colored sets) at the same time, during each alignment run.
That's it people. I hope this helps anyone beating their head against the wall trying to get this resolved. It can be done, just takes some patience and trial and error.
Good Luck, and happy printing !!
Regards,
Matt R.
