I have been slowly replacing the original Epson cartridges with the Cone system. Up until recently, I had replaced the blacks and blue. I recently replaced LC and Y, and now the prints look washed out. This is for both colour and black/white images.
This is via both the standard OSX driver as well as via ImagePrint. When I set it for 1440, I get the washed out print. When I set it for 2880, the printer goes through the motions of printing, but the page is blank. It looks like it is dumping the ink into the maintenance cartridge as I went through a brand new cartridge just trying to trouble shoot this.
Have tried cleaning cycle, head alignment etc. I have also removed and gently agitated the ink, with no improvements.
I did notice that the yellow ink had some frothy bubbles, but after two weeks, I would think it would have settled.
Attached is a sample of two prints, one colour and the other B&W. Very much appreciate any help or advice.
Have you printed a nozzle check to make sure all eight channels are fully printing, and printing in the correct order?
What Mac OS and Photoshop versions are you using?
How is your printer connected to your computer?
What paper(s) are you printing on?
If your nozzle check looks good, please attach screen captures of your print settings, as well as a scan of your recently printed nozzle check for me to review.
Yes, did a manual nozzle check and all 8 colours are printing. They appeared a little faint, but I have no reference point to judge. All colours did print and the order and alignment looked fine.
OSX 10.9.1
Photoshop CC
Image Print 9
Tested computer connected via Ethernet and USB
Papers - Epson Ultra Smooth Pearl, Epson Premium Photo Glossy, Canson Rag Baryta, Hahnemuhle Photo Rag
Printer Settings:
Nozzle Test (done twice so you’ll see two sets here. As I mentioned, they are quite faint).
Thanks for the additional information. Your print settings all look correct, though it’s difficult for me to see your nozzle check- from what I can see, it looks like the colors are muddy and there are many mis-firing nozzles (is this correct, or am I seeing things?)
Here is a color nozzle check from our 9880 (so the colors aren’t in the same order as your 3880- but the nozzle step pattern and vibrancy of colors should be the same).
Did you print a good nozzle check and test print with full set of Epson ink prior to installing the refill carts and ConeColor ink (with the same computer, OS, Photoshop version and settings)?
Have you tried doing a fresh install of your print driver? I have certainly seen STRANGE things happen, that were resolved by reinstalling the driver. If not, I recommend deleting your current print driver, then going to the Epson site and downloading a fresh driver for your OS, and install the fresh driver, then make a test print to see how things look.
I hope this helps, please keep me posted and let me know if you have questions or there’s anything else I can help you with.
The Nozzle check from my printer looks identical, with the major difference in that it appears washed out. This is why you are not seeing it in the scanned file. The pattern and colours are all there.
Yes, I have printed before, and it was similar to your sample. As I mentioned, I was printing fine until a couple of weeks ago when I changed the remaining 4 cartridges. This was with 4 epson and 4 cone cartridges.
Yes, reinstalled printer driver with the latest from Epson. Same issue. Tried from my Mac Pro as well as my Macbook Pro, same issue. I also did a complete removal of the old driver.
I don’t believe it is a driver issue as ImagePrint has the same issue, and it does not use the OSX printer driver.
My maintenance cartage is filling up quickly and the ink levels are going down at a similar level. Does this give you any ideas?
After reviewing your order history, I see you purchased the ConeColor bottles and set of 3880 refill carts in 6/2013.
Did you make sure to shake the ConeColor ink bottles prior to filling the carts, or had the bottles been sitting prior to filling carts, and you drew ink from the top?
Please clarify- did you first install ConeColor matte black, photo black, and cyan (or also light black and light light black?)- and prints were looking good until you recently installed ConeColor light cyan and yellow? So magenta and light magenta are still currently Epson carts?
How often have you been using your printer vs. how long does it sit unused?
How often have you agitated carts to maintain in-suspension pigment?
Have you even refilled any carts, or are they still using the ink you initially filled them with?
[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;2776]Thanks for the additional information.
After reviewing your order history, I see you purchased the ConeColor bottles and set of 3880 refill carts in 6/2013.
Did you make sure to shake the ConeColor ink bottles prior to filling the carts, or had the bottles been sitting prior to filling carts, and you drew ink from the top?
Please clarify- did you first install ConeColor matte black, photo black, and cyan (or also light black and light light black?)- and prints were looking good until you recently installed ConeColor light cyan and yellow? So magenta and light magenta are still currently Epson carts?
How often have you been using your printer vs. how long does it sit unused?
How often have you agitated carts to maintain in-suspension pigment?
Have you even refilled any carts, or are they still using the ink you initially filled them with?
Please let me know, thanks- Dana :)[/QUOTE]
Dana,
Bottles were shaken prior to filling the cartridges - both with the initial cartridges I installed and in the more recent ones… In fact, I thought I may have shaken the yellow too much as I noticed some frothing.
Yes, the black inks and cyan were installed earlier, alongside the remaining Epson cartridges - prints looked great
All cartridges are are now ConeColor
Printer is used a couple of times a month. I use an HP as well so it does not get as much use, but it was fine a couple of weeks ago prior to changing the latest cartridges
I agitate the cartridges in the printer and on the shelf every couple of weeks.
I have refilled two of the black inks and the Cyan. All cartridges are near full at this point.
Based on your screen captures and what you say, your print settings are correct, and the frequency of cartridge agitation and printer use is good.
The fact that your printer acts like it’s printing, but doesn’t actually print when you select 2880dpi is very strange, and concerns me that your printer isn’t working correctly.
I just got a new laptop with 10.9, and installed Photoshop CC this afternoon- tomorrow I will do a test print with our 3880 that is set up with ConeColor, and let you know my results so we can move forward to resolve this and get you back to happily printing.
Yesterday I spent some time testing your setup, by installing Photoshop CC on my new 10.9 laptop, and printing to our 3880 set up with ConeColor Pro inks with the latest print driver, downloaded from the Epson site.
Although I’m using 10.9, and you’re using 10.9.1- my results came out as they should. I printed with both the Epson profile, to match your workflow, and with our CCP-3880 profiles, and both gave me great results.
So- the variables are the slightly different OS you’re using, and your printer. I also discussed your situation with Jon, and he agreed your issue is very strange, and unlike anything we’ve heard of or seen before (I have had strange and overly light output due to a stale print driver, which was fixed by reinstalling the driver- but this is not your issue).
My thoughts are: 1. something in the new OS or driver has been programed to sabotage output for people using non-Epson carts, 2. your printer dampers are a few years old, have particle build up that’s filtering the ink, and need to be replaced, or 3. something electrical or other mechanical issue with your printer is causing the sudden light output, and the printer to not print at 2880dpi.
The fact that your printer doesn’t print at 2880dpi makes me suspect there’s something more going on that an off setting or filtered ink, etc…
Jon suggested reinstalling a set of Epson carts to see if the problem continues or resolves (playing on the theory that Epson may have finally programmed a sabotage code in their latest drivers when detecting non-OEM carts), or possibly trying another Mac with older OS or Windows computers.
Please keep me posted, as I’m curious what’s causing your washed out prints, and let me know if you have further questions or there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana
I have tried multiple reinstalls, ink shaking, different papers and the problem persists. However, now I am getting a “Maintenance Required 80” error. Any thoughts?
Is that exactly what it says, or does it say “Maintenance Request 0080”?
I’m looking thru the repair manual to figure out what’s going on, but don’t see the message you reported, so please clarify the exact message displayed on your printer’s LCD panel so I can help.
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