Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Technical Discussions => Printers => Topic started by: dschuh on March 19, 2022, 08:08:27 PM



Title: Epson R2000 Issue
Post by: dschuh on March 19, 2022, 08:08:27 PM
I have an Epson R2000 printer that is starting to give me issues.  When I print an unclog sheet (or anything for that matter), the first inch of the print has banding but the remainder of the print does not and looks good.  It has also started misfeeding paper too.  Could both issues be caused by the paper slipping on a roller or something?  Maybe once the paper feeds in an inch or so another roller grabs onto the paper and it stops slipping? Maybe the rollers need cleaning?  Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Dave


Title: Re: Epson R2000 Issue
Post by: admin on March 19, 2022, 10:20:42 PM
It's possible that the rollers could be having trouble.  The other possibility is that ink delivery is inconsistent and the ink doesn't really get flowing until some ink is put down first.  You might be able to test it to determine if it's the rollers.  What if you print something smaller like one 5x7 right in the middle of the sheet.  That way it'll load the paper a few inches before it even starts to print since the 5x7 won't be at the leading edge of the paper.  See if it still has the problem when it isn't trying to start at the edge of the sheet.  The other method would be to print two prints: one at the top of two consecutive pages.  If ink is having trouble flowing for the first few moments, loading and printing on a second sheet right away might give some info too: if the second page doesn't have the problem at the top, it might be ink flow.

Regards,
Mike


Title: Re: Epson R2000 Issue
Post by: dschuh on March 21, 2022, 05:42:10 PM
Mike,

I tried your suggestions over the weekend and I think I may have several issues going on.  The link below is to a couple pictures I took of the output of the printer (I can scan tonight if the quality is too bad).

Pic1 - single print middle of the sheet
Pics 2 & 3 - consecutive prints middle of the sheet.
Pic 4 - single print leading edge
Pic 5 - purge sheet

It seems that as the print progresses the banding becomes less and less.  I know I do have an alignment issue.  Auto align fails every time so I have to do the manual adjustment but the banding never goes away.  Starting to think maybe I have a bad ink cartridge or something else?  I'm puzzled.  I run purge sheets every week (matte and glossy) and its always been spot on.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AszMahDUCq5w9TiNPDomQhtiDrDb?e=S4rE9s

Thanks for your help thus far,
Dave


Title: Re: Epson R2000 Issue
Post by: admin on March 21, 2022, 07:58:27 PM
Does the nozzle check pattern look good?  Magenta seems to be missing from the top of your unclog pattern.  At this point with it being a hardware problem, I'd suggest joining Jose's photo printing techie group on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1915547415436501

He's the master of printer hardware and he's probably seen these symptoms before.

Regards,
Mike


Title: Re: Epson R2000 Issue
Post by: dschuh on March 22, 2022, 01:17:24 AM
Ran a nozzle check tonight (several actually) and as you suspected Magenta was spotty.  Several other colors were too.  They seem to get better in one session and then back to missing some in the next nozzle check.  Ran out of matte black now so I'll pick it back up Thursday when the ink comes from B&H. I'll try Jose's group once I get the ink and I'll report back here once its all settled.  Appreciate the help.

Thanks,
Dave


Title: Re: Epson R2000 Issue
Post by: Terry-M on March 22, 2022, 12:12:06 PM
Hi,
I have an R2000 printer too.
Re.
Quote
Ran a nozzle check tonight (several actually) and as you suspected Magenta was spotty.  Several other colors were too.  They seem to get better in one session and then back to missing some in the next nozzle check.
You do not say if you did a 'Head Clean' at all using the driver Utility - that is essential. After a nozzle check you are asked if you want to a clean session. Do it but it may take more that one go at it. As you continue to do extra cleaning operations, they become more intense automatically.
I did 2 sequentially yesterday after replacing 3 cartridges.
Terry


Title: Re: Epson R2000 Issue
Post by: dschuh on March 22, 2022, 09:21:15 PM
Hi Terry,

Yes, during each nozzle check I did a "head clean".  The results were getting better with each session until I ran out of Matte Black during the session.  Ink will be here on Thursday.

Thanks,
Dave


Title: Re: Epson R2000 Issue
Post by: dschuh on April 09, 2022, 07:32:33 PM
Forgot to reply back...so I got my ink from B&H and continued with the head clean with no luck.  Doing a little online research someone suggested parking the ink carrier on top of a paper towel soaked with Windex for a couple hours.  I tried that and printed a Qimage purge sheet and the print came out perfect with no lines missing.  I tempted fate and ran a auto nozzle check and it failed (fails every time actually).  Did the manual nozzle check and it looked horrible.  Missing sections of the patterns it prints.  Did a head clean/nozzle check with the same failure every time.  I printed a Qimage purge sheet and it again looks perfect.  I am kinda chalking it up to something in Epson's driver.  When I do Epson's alignment routine it always has missing lines and doesn't improve no matter how many iterations I do.  But yet the prints are now coming out looking good again....confused.

Thanks,
Dave