R3000 VLM cart quit during printing

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

While printing last night the VLM cart stopped working. You could tell on print that it gradual.ly stopped providing ink and it said it was unable to recognize cart on printer. Took it out and refilled it and reset it. Ran nozzle cleaning and it still will not print that color but doesn’t give the error message.

What’s the problem? More cleaning cycles? Bad chip? Do we really need to keep spare empty carts for this issue? Spare chips? Not a year since I purchased this system and if it didn’t work at the start of a print cycle I’d probably understand but this stopped during.

Also, while the inks are great, this way of obtaining technical assistance is not user friendly. It’s a major pain when you have an issue and are forced to post a message on a forum to seek help. While it may keep your costs down, it’s not a way to maintain warm fuzzies with someone if time is an issue.

2

I’m sorry to hear of your experience, and are here to help you resolve this issue and get back to happily printing.
Our support forum provides a wealth of continuously growing helpful information (many people find the answer they need by reading FAQ’s or existing threads), and is a central location for informative documents, tips & tricks, and a place to ask questions that you don’t find the answer for. Prior to starting the forum in early 2013, we answered each support email individually, resulting in answering the same questions many times, which was very time consuming and not at all efficient. We now monitor the forum, and respond to questions here for others to read and learn from. Our forum has proven to be much more efficient and is working better for most people as a way to get information they need, and contact us if they need help.

Regarding your issue, I have a few questions to better understand what is going on to determine the cause, and therefore solution for your problem.

  1. About how often has your printer been used vs. how long does it sit unused?
  2. What happened shortly before the VLM stopped printing: had the printer sat unused for a while, had the printer been used regularly, had the cartridges been recently refilled with ink, etc?
  3. When this first happened, and you refilled the VLM cartridge with ink, what was the remaining ink level in the cartridge? Was the exit chamber more of less than 1/2 filled with ink? To refill the cartridge, did you inject ink or use the vacuum method?
  4. Please check the cartridge- the air plug must be removed, and air vent hole open, plus the exit chamber must be at least 1/2 filled with ink for proper ink flow from this cartridge.
  5. If you recently started getting an error that your printer is having trouble reading the VLM cartridge correctly, this may be chip related, but could also be the chip battery dying (or have a loose connection with the chip), or a bad connection between the cartridge chip and printer’s chip sensor.
  6. What is the humidity in your printing environment?

Please let me know so I can help you get back to happily printing.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

3

[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;2395]I’m sorry to hear of your experience, and are here to help you resolve this issue and get back to happily printing.
Our support forum provides a wealth of continuously growing helpful information (many people find the answer they need by reading FAQ’s or existing threads), and is a central location for informative documents, tips & tricks, and a place to ask questions that you don’t find the answer for. Prior to starting the forum in early 2013, we answered each support email individually, resulting in answering the same questions many times, which was very time consuming and not at all efficient. We now monitor the forum, and respond to questions here for others to read and learn from. Our forum has proven to be much more efficient and is working better for most people as a way to get information they need, and contact us if they need help.

Regarding your issue, I have a few questions to better understand what is going on to determine the cause, and therefore solution for your problem.

  1. About how often has your printer been used vs. how long does it sit unused?
  2. What happened shortly before the VLM stopped printing: had the printer sat unused for a while, had the printer been used regularly, had the cartridges been recently refilled with ink, etc?
  3. When this first happened, and you refilled the VLM cartridge with ink, what was the remaining ink level in the cartridge? Was the exit chamber more of less than 1/2 filled with ink? To refill the cartridge, did you inject ink or use the vacuum method?
  4. Please check the cartridge- the air plug must be removed, and air vent hole open, plus the exit chamber must be at least 1/2 filled with ink for proper ink flow from this cartridge.
  5. If you recently started getting an error that your printer is having trouble reading the VLM cartridge correctly, this may be chip related, but could also be the chip battery dying (or have a loose connection with the chip), or a bad connection between the cartridge chip and printer’s chip sensor.
  6. What is the humidity in your printing environment?

Please let me know so I can help you get back to happily printing.
Best regards~ Dana :)[/QUOTE]

Look,

My printer has not been setting idle.

It had printed probably 100 or so 5x7 prints and had more to go and I walked away from it. At some point it stopped and I went to add more paper but found that it had on one print lost the vlm and then had printed 3 more without that color. It was showing that it didn’t recognize the cartridge. I removed the cartridge, refilled it and reset it. When installed it read the cartridge as usual but is not delivering ink. I have done several cleaning cycles and it appears to be depleting the inks with great abandon but not the vlm.

I’m not sure if it is a cartridge problem or it has an empty line from the cartridge not displaying that it was low/empty and sucked it dry.

I need to get this thing operating asd I have a bunch of prints to get done and not having any kind of support from a third party is very frustrating. I’m not a hobbyist and maybe I can’t rely on these carts to be as reliable as disposable Epson ones. While I know you produce a great ink… I’m having an issue and hours or days to get a definite diagnosis is really not what anyone needs when they rely on a piece of equipment.

As of tomorrow at end of business I’m pulling these things our and replacing them with Epson if I can’t get some better support. I just bought 2 bottles of ink from you guys yesterday and I’ll not need it if I swap everything out.

If you believe I am frustrated, I am very much so. Why not an email to tell me that someone responded to me? I just figured out that someone had by logging back on after checking here all morning.

Oh… I’m not sure what the humidity is but it doesn’t seem to be an issue with any of the other inks.

I originally injected it and then thought that maybe I needed to vacuum fill and then did that. Still no ink.

IF you tell me the system needs primed I’m going to have to download the software and pay those people more money with no guarantee that it will fix the problem. If nothing works then I wait for a new cart from you or just replace it with an Epson. There are no Epson supplies within less than 90 minutes one way so I’m not happy that its taking a day to get a response when a few minutes of phone time could save me lots of time. Inefficient for you but allows me to get my problem resolved and my printer back online.

4

Thanks for the additional information, this is very important for me to help you get past this issue and back to happily printing. I am unsure why you say you aren’t getting any kind of support from us, because I am certainly trying to help you, but as I’m not at your printer, I must rely on the information you provide in order to understand what’s going on to determine the cause and solution for your problem. When you posted this thread, you had the option to be notified immediately via email whenever any posts were made to your thread, but if you didn’t select this option, you would have to manually check the forum for updates to your thread. I leave the office at 5pm, and you posted after I left yesterday, but I am responding to your message as soon as I got into the office this morning.

If you have read your printer manual, ever spoke with Epson support, read about recommended conditions for use and storage of other inks and papers, you would realize that humidity is a HUGE factor in the function of your printer, inks and paper. But- if you ran your cartridge empty, then this has nothing to do with humidity.

If the cartridge was totally empty when you removed it to refill, then yes- you likely have air in the line, and this is what stopped that channel from printing. A cartridge can run dry before the chip indicated it needs to be replaced if the cartridge isn’t completely filled when the chip is reset to full, or if the chip is reset without refilling the cartridge.
It is clearly stated in our cartridge instructions that the exit chamber must be at least 1/2 filled with ink for proper function, and if an exit chamber is less than 1/2 filled, you must refill the cartridge using the vacuum method to refill the exit chamber.
I believe you will have much better results and fewer frustrations if you read the information that comes with your products- printer, inks, cartridges, paper, etc…

If the cartridge was run dry, and air was sucked into the ink line, then installing any new cartridge (refill or Epson) will not magically make the VLM start to print again- no matter what cartridge you install, you will need to purge the air and refill the line with ink to resume printing. To do this, you will either need to do an Initial Fill cycle using the Adjustment Program, or download QuadTone RIP and follow our instructions for printing with the VLM channel to refill the line with ink to resume printing.
You can find our instructions for flushing an individual channel using QTR’s Calibration Mode, here: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?144-Print-Ink-Separation-Image-thru-QTR-Calibration-Mode (you will want to follow the second procedure near the bottom of this page).

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have further questions, how things go, or if there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

5

[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;2404]Thanks for the additional information, this is very important for me to help you get past this issue and back to happily printing. I am unsure why you say you aren’t getting any kind of support from us, because I am certainly trying to help you, but as I’m not at your printer, I must rely on the information you provide in order to understand what’s going on to determine the cause and solution for your problem. When you posted this thread, you had the option to be notified immediately via email whenever any posts were made to your thread, but if you didn’t select this option, you would have to manually check the forum for updates to your thread. I leave the office at 5pm, and you posted after I left yesterday, but I am responding to your message as soon as I got into the office this morning.

If you have read your printer manual, ever spoke with Epson support, read about recommended conditions for use and storage of other inks and papers, you would realize that humidity is a HUGE factor in the function of your printer, inks and paper. But- if you ran your cartridge empty, then this has nothing to do with humidity.

If the cartridge was totally empty when you removed it to refill, then yes- you likely have air in the line, and this is what stopped that channel from printing. A cartridge can run dry before the chip indicated it needs to be replaced if the cartridge isn’t completely filled when the chip is reset to full, or if the chip is reset without refilling the cartridge.
It is clearly stated in our cartridge instructions that the exit chamber must be at least 1/2 filled with ink for proper function, and if an exit chamber is less than 1/2 filled, you must refill the cartridge using the vacuum method to refill the exit chamber.
I believe you will have much better results and fewer frustrations if you read the information that comes with your products- printer, inks, cartridges, paper, etc…

If the cartridge was run dry, and air was sucked into the ink line, then installing any new cartridge (refill or Epson) will not magically make the VLM start to print again- no matter what cartridge you install, you will need to purge the air and refill the line with ink to resume printing. To do this, you will either need to do an Initial Fill cycle using the Adjustment Program, or download QuadTone RIP and follow our instructions for printing with the VLM channel to refill the line with ink to resume printing.
You can find our instructions for flushing an individual channel using QTR’s Calibration Mode, here: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?144-Print-Ink-Separation-Image-thru-QTR-Calibration-Mode (you will want to follow the second procedure near the bottom of this page).

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have further questions, how things go, or if there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :)[/QUOTE]

My frustration is that we are one day into this and it’s not solved since now I need to download a program and stumble through the process. If you hang your hat on needing carts at least 1/2 full to print, you limit greatly the amount of printing done. What I believe has happened is that your chip didn’t accurately know the amount of ink being used and instead of saying that it was low, it kept at it until the line was dry. The cart was filled properly and has been refilled properly.

If when doing a large amount of printing you must always maintain at least 1/2 a fill, it’s a huge inconvenience. for someone doing just a few it may not, but if you do many at a time it’s an issue. I have learned something that I didn’t know when I originally purchased your system. Maybe you need to make it very clear with a warning on your sales page that you MUST maintain at least 1/2 ink levels to alleviate any possible ink supply problems.

I’d also suggest that you inform people that have issues via email that you have posted a possible resolution to the forum or possibly just email the resolution directly as well as post it. Much more user friendly that way. Putting issues off on the customer is not helpful.

The one half full cart is a huge issue if you print more than a few at a time.

Downloading a program and needing to rely on a few lines on a tutorial is not the best way to try and fix an issue either.

Not trying to be mean here, just that sometimes it’s best to be a bit more user friendly.

6

I just edited your account to receive automatic email notifications for thread subscription (you checked "NO’ when setting up your account), so you should now receive emails whenever updates are made to threads you’ve started or posted on.

All the best~ Dana :slight_smile:

7

No, you are misunderstanding- the cartridge doesn’t have to be at least 1/2 full, the EXIT CHAMBER in the cartridge does (this can still be 1/2 full when the cartridge body is nearly empty).

Please understand, my main priority is to resolve your issues and get you back to happily printing ASAP, and we offer a lot of helpful and important information in the instructions we provide. I am here to help, and that’s what I’m trying hard to do- but you need to accept responsibility of reading and following the instructions we provided, and not get angry at me for pointing out the cause and solution for the problem you’re dealing with…

If your cartridge and the exit chamber were totally empty, but you inject refilled the cartridge, then you did not properly refill it as per our instructions. It actually says in three different places (underlined) that the cartridge exit chamber must be at least 1/2 full for proper ink flow, and in the refill section stated if the exit chamber is less than 1/2 full the cartridge must be refilled using the vacuum method.
We are always open to suggestions on how to make things more user friendly, and certainly want things to be as easy as possible, so please let me know how you feel I could make this more clear in our instructions, so others won’t overlook these details.

If you don’t want to follow my suggestions to purge air from your ink line, then you can do a few dozen regular cleaning cycles and hope it’s enough to fill the line with ink again- but it would be better to do one of the two things I suggested previously.

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

8

I also wanted to point out, that I am actually working with another R3000 user right now who is dealing with air in one of his ink lines, and has only ever used Epson cartridges (but I’m trying to help him get his printer working, when Epson won’t give him the time of day)- so this is something that can happen occasionally with OEM carts as well, and not specific to our carts.

9

Ok… Installed and used QTR calibration mode.

Did 8 channel flush and attempted to flush single channel. Will not flush single channel as it just moves paper through. Since there is no VLM tiff is that a problem?

Did a test print and nothing has changed.

What tiff needs to be used to flush single channel and why is it just moving paper through and not printing?

10

If all the channels are fine, and you are only dealing with air in the VLM channel, then you only need to print the LM/VLM purge image to focus on that channel, and not waste ink in the other channels that are working well.

Are you saying the printer is acting line it’s printing, but the page comes out blank- or it’s not printing and just ejects the sheet?
Since there is air in the ink line, you will need to print a few pages of pure VLM, and the first few will come out blank (air) until the VLM ink refills the line and reaches the damper/head again.

Please let me know, thanks- Dana :slight_smile:

11

The printer just ejects the sheet.

Sounds like it starts to draw ink and position paper… then just runs it through.

12

It is just passing sheet through after appearing to start normally when doing LM purge.

Doing an 8 channel it put 4 bars of color on page.

13

If all channels except VLM are fully printing on your nozzle check, but only four bars print when you print the 8-color purge image thru QTR Calibration Mode, then a setting may be off, causing you to not get correct results.
Are you printing from Mac or Windows? What operating system?
If it prints the full sheet (although only four bars) when you print the 8-color purge image, but ejects the sheet without printing when trying to print the VLM flush image- please tell me, do any error messages pop up on the computer screen or printer’s LCD panel?

14

Windows 8

No error messages

I’m trying to print the lm tiff via lightroom and see what happens

15

Does it need to have the K7 installation before it will do all the inks? I thought those were profiles for certain papers.

16

You will not be able to print pure ink from an individual channel unless you print thru QuadTone RIP as instructed. Printing thru Lightroom, Photoshop or other printing application will not print pure ink from the individual channel.

When using Windows, you will need to install the QuadTone RIP after downloading, then when opening the RIP select calibration mode, then the VLM flush image. If you have the option to select a curve, then you are not in calibration mode.
I haven’t yet used QTR with Windows 8, and just sent Roy (the maker/supporter of QTR) to check on the compatibility.

~Dana :slight_smile:

17

[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;2420]You will not be able to print pure ink from an individual channel unless you print thru QuadTone RIP as instructed. Printing thru Lightroom, Photoshop or other printing application will not print pure ink from the individual channel.

When using Windows, you will need to install the QuadTone RIP after downloading, then when opening the RIP select calibration mode, then the VLM flush image. If you have the option to select a curve, then you are not in calibration mode.
I haven’t yet used QTR with Windows 8, and just sent Roy (the maker/supporter of QTR) to check on the compatibility.

~Dana :)[/QUOTE]

The printer will not print single channel LM

It just passes paper through quickly… no attempt to print

I’m uninstalling and reinstalling printer software to ss if it’s a corrupted file.

18

[QUOTE=mweaverpics;2431]The printer will not print single channel LM

It just passes paper through quickly… no attempt to print

I’m uninstalling and reinstalling printer software to ss if it’s a corrupted file.[/QUOTE]

Reinstalling did nothing.

only prints inks 1, 2, 3 and 4 when doing ink 8 channel pattern page on QT

19

[QUOTE=mweaverpics;2432]Reinstalling did nothing.

only prints inks 1, 2, 3 and 4 when doing ink 8 channel pattern page on QT[/QUOTE]

Epson believes it’s the cartridge after a telephone diagnosis.

Any ideas?

20

From what you explain, I suspect the problem you’re dealing with QTR not correctly printing thru calibration mode is related to your operating system. I asked Roy about compatibility with Windows 8, but unfortunately he said he doesn’t know, and can’t update QTR for Windows. We don’t have Win8 to test here, so I have no experience with this setup to give you any recommendations.

I can certainly send you a new VLM cartridge, but that’s not your problem- your problem is air in the ink line after the cartridge ran dry, now on top of that you’re dealing with issues related to Win8 and QTR, making our solution for purging an individual ink line using QTR Calibration Mode possibly not a solution for you. If this is the case, you use the Adjustment Program to do an Initial Fill (though, I recommend checking to make sure it works with Win8 before downloading).

Please let me know what I can do to help.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile: