Low humidity has gotten to me again. I was having some drop out on VM and decided to do a cleaning. After the cleaning, the entire VM was missing. Plus some of the Cyan was dropping out.
I installed both cleaning carts into C and VM, ran the service program with ink charge, let sit overnight. Decided to run a test print this morning. What surprised me is that the Cyan channel still printed Cyan color.
My question is, when doing an ink charge, does the ink / fluid go thru the head or does it bypass somehow?
BTW, I ran a second ink charge with the same results.
I am a casual user but do run test prints everyday and print once per week.
I see you purchased the 4900 VM and C refill carts, and bottle of PiezoFlush in October 2012, so I assume you were having issues with these channels over a year ago- is this correct?
When did you install the flush carts and do the first ink charge cycle?
If your cyan channel is still printing cyan color after two ink change cycles, then something is restricting flow thru that channel.
Unfortunately, the issues you’re experiencing are very common with this model… and it could be a de-laminated print head, or other non-fixable problem causing your issues with these channels.
Is the VM still totally blank after installing the flush cart and doing two ink change cycles? About how many nozzles, or what percentage of the C channel is printing?
What is the humidity in your printing environment?
Without going up to look at our 4900, I believe the C and VM are “paired”, so they share the same capping station and dual damper. The fact that you’re having trouble with these two positions makes me wonder if the cause is something to do with the damper and/or capping station? Or- it could be totally unrelated…
If the head is gone, you will likely get a whole new printer, since a replacement print head costs about the same an a new printer… which is wrong at so many levels, both morally and environmentally
If you get a new model printer, be sure to get the extended warranty- so you’re covered if this happens again (which there’s a good chance of if you get another 4900, or 7890/9890, 7900/9900).
I had this same issue when I bought the flush from you last time. Had VM drop out and after much work got it going again. The printer was working fine up to this point.
I had heard that there is vacuum needed to help pull the ink thru the head, during a cleaning? I am wondering if for some reason I don’t have adequate vacuum to pull the ink thru.
The flush is going thru to the waste tank. At least the screen on the computer shows less capacity available in the maintenance tank.
Originally, I had total drop out on VM and 10 or so nozzles in Cyan that weren’t working. Once I ran the flush thru the system the first time, and let it sit overnight, I got all of Cyan back and a few VM back. I ran the flush one more time with the exact same results.
The humidity in the room had plunged to 30% before I caught it, which caused my original problems. Now it is up 45%.
With the service program, the selection I used was the ink charge for the one pair Cyan / VM. Not sure of it would help to run the full side charge of the clean lines option?
I’ll keep playing with it, if I get any results, I’ll let you know. Yes, the 4900 is a pain, when it goes down. Beautiful when it prints.
One other question, I am going to use up my Cyan and VM during this process. Can I run the Cone inks in just that pair? Would there be a noticeable color shift? I have a hard time justifying to my boss, wife, the complete cost of switching over at one time. Especially considering the problems I am having with this printer. I would hate to throw a bunch more money at the problem.
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