Please HELP ASAP

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

last week we had a leak in a cartridge (which y’all sent a replacement cartridge quickly, and we appreciate). We have an Epson 9900. We have replaced the cartridge in the right bay with the new cartridge, and we have drained all the light magenta ink out of the other right bay inks (they all had light magenta ink sucked in through the air inlet) as much as possible. I had asked in my original post on the forum if there was a protocol that we should do to remove the ink out of the air pressure channel, and have not received an answer.

Now - a week since this has started - all the cartridges are in place, but our printer is not printing with any inks from the right side bay. Please advise. Is there ANYTHING we can do to get up and printing soon! A week of lost production time is costing us dearly.

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Hi SolasGallery~

I’m sorry to hear about your situation and for not responding sooner. I know you have called, and have given an update on your situation.

This is a very rare occurrence, though in my experience, is more of a mess than anything, and doesn’t cause damage to the printer or other carts (especially with the internal ink bag carts you’re using in all the other positions). I have looked thru past emails and re-read messages from the few other customers who have experienced this, and they have had great success and continued happily printing after draining ink from the other carts, as you did, and installing the new carts we supplied. I don’t feel that the week or so gap between when the cart leaked, to when you installed the new one would have been long enough for ink to dray and harden in the pressure lines, causing a blockage- and if this were the case, carts in the left bay wouldn’t be pressurized either, so I’m ruling out a blockage in the pressure line as the cause to your issue.
There is one pressurization pump in the printer, which controls all 11 carts. The pressurization line starts on the far right (VLM cart) and pressurizes carts from right to left, then the pressure line loops around and reconnects to the pump in the back after pressurizing the left bay.

Thinking of other possible causes: is your printer’s pressure pump turning on while the printer sits idle (to indicate a a cart is not holding pressure)? What are the ink levels of the carts in your right bay? I was told you have done a few regular cleaning cycles, but have you done any power clean cycles? Has air been removed from ink bags, and exit channels primed with ink on all your internal bag carts, and the exit channel primed with the syringe and priming tip with the new model VLM cart?

Please let me know so I can help you resolve this and get back to happily printing. I will be taking a brief lunch break shortly, but will keep an eye out for your response.
Best regards~ Dana

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Thanks Dana for getting back to us.

Let me explain.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
Inigo Montoya

I appreciate that this is a rare occurrence, but…

We apparently had a defective VLM cartridge that “leaked” (profusely hemorrhaged is more accurate). Either gravity or negative pressure caused the air tubes to fill completely back to the pressure pump. When the pump engaged, it indeed filled every other cartridge with massive amounts of VLM ink as well as spraying a lovely mist inside the guts of the printer a nice purple shade. The ink ran inside the printer as well and pooled around the back panel dripping down onto the fabric catch basket. I have removed the back and side panels and can see the bloody aftermath. The tubes do have dried globs inside inhibiting air flow and obviously preventing any ink from the entire right bank of inks from supplying the head. The left ink bank prints successfully (so amazingly the pump must still work at the moment although it is caked with ink) but there is ink residue in the pressure tube going to the left bank. I have squeezed a couple of clotted blobs out of the tubes to confirm my thinking that there is no way air is getting through.

To address your questions, yes we have done cleanings, power cleanings, primed etc… By the way, this printer is used daily and does not sit idle for long periods and is in a controlled humidity environment.

What to do next:
We are a busy lab stressing out about being shut down for such a long time…

1-Let’s replace all the carts on the right side.
You sent a replacement VLM cart for our defective one. thanks btw – not sure how this new style works…
We have obviously lost 300ml or so of VLM ink and have no reserve after refilling the replacement.
Clearing the cartridges of the ink is not working. Even with a lot of effort, there are still pools of ink sloshing around. (e.g. the green cart looks like it’s swimming in VLM-- as do all)
This issue is not only cosmetic. It seems reasonable that the amount of VLM ink that remains in the wrong carts could again pool into the tubes and repeat the error.
Is it possible to recover inks from the other ruined carts? We have lost a large volume of right side bank inks that need to be re-supplied.
Let’s start with clean cartridges and go forward from there. Since the problem is due completely to the defective cart, I trust the replacement would be complimentary.

2- The pressure pump must be compromised and should be replaced. I can’t imagine that it can swim in ink and keep working for its normal life expectancy going forward. Yep-- it is thankfully working now, but once normal workflow returns, I predict trouble. This should also be covered by your company since the faulty cart caused the problem.

4- I am willing to attempt cleaning out of all of the tubes although a technician would probably replace them all. At least four long and short tubes are full of ink residue. Perhaps the printer will work when I clean them all and we replace the cartridges with fresh primed ink?? i hope…

5- The cosmetic damage is less important to me, but there is no doubt that the resale value of my printer has tanked. The ink drips over the label and down onto the fabric will certainly dissuade someone from purchasing should we choose to sell the printer in the future.

It seems reasonable that a service call from a real Epson technician is called for. I can do a few things, and I’m not chicken – but the failure of the cartridge has caused some pretty serious complications. That said, if you feel that this is still something that a layman can tackle, I will follow your instruction

Dana, I really appreciate your prompt attention and help. We really do need to “get back to happily printing.” By the way, nice job in the videos. :o

Are you the Miracle Max who worked for the king all those years? --> hope the Princess Bride references aren’t lost on you

Thanks,

Tim

Tim – owner
Robyn – mgr

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Thanks for the additional information Tim. We have continued communication via email off forum to resolve your issue and get you back to happily printing, but I wanted to follow up with my response here for others who read this thread:

I was involved in teaching a workshop all day today (and was out of the office yesterday), but quickly checked in with Wells and Cathy to get an update on your situation this morning. I see we sent replacement cartridges and ink, which you should receive shortly. Due to ink back flowing into your pressure pump, we will be ordering a replacement pump to send you, though it’s a special order item, which will take 3-4 days to be delivered to the parts company (CompassMicro) from the Epson warehouse, before it’s shipped to you, so it will take a few days for you to receive it. The pressure pump is a very easy and straight forward part to replace, and you can get the Epson service manual, which has clear photos and step by step instructions for replacing this (and many other parts) from www.2manuals.com, here: http://www.2manuals.com/advanced_search_result.php?manufacturers_id=&keywords=Epson+9900&search_in_description=1. Instructions for replacing the pressure pump are located on page 188, and before that you will need to follow instructions on page 133 to remove the rear cover to access the pump. To remove the pump, there are just three screws, two pressure tubes, and two wire connectors- then installing the new pump is as easy as attaching the pressure tubes and wire connectors, then screwing it in place, and reattaching the rear panel.

You can transfer ink from your current internal bag carts to the new cartridges by simply inserting the funnel in the fill hole of the new carts, then take the matching color position bag cart, (agitate the bag carts first to make sure pigment is in suspension), then remove the fill hole, and tilt the cart to pour ink from the bag cart into the new cart. I have also attached instructions for the new model carts that we sent, please be sure to thoroughly read them, and let me know if you have any questions about cartridge use, etc…

Please also let me know how everything goes with installation of the new carts and pump, and how everything is working, or if there’s anything else we can hop you with.

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

(Insert# 114) 7900 350ml RCS Instructions -email.pdf (143 KB)