Epson R2400 banding--remedies?

My post here is to inquire if there is something that I can do myself to remedy

the banding problem that I'm having with my Epson R2400. After a couple months

of not printing anything (I realize this is probably the cause of the problem,

so please don't chastise me)I attempted to print. There was banding in the sky

area of the photo. I performed the head clean, automatic head clean, alignment,

test printed the patterns to see if everythign was all right there, and one

little part of the one of the lines in the light cyan grid is missing every

time I print it. I'm assuming that there may be a clog in that head. I have

since performed the head cleaning twice and still not right. As one last

attempt, I even downloaded the latest Epson driver.

 

The ink cartridges are anywhere from 2 to 8 months old, my OS is Windows XP. I

have had this banding happen before, but it was always correctable with a head

cleaning.

 

Is there any tricks or tips that I may use to correct the situation? I've done

a search and not come up with much, short of calling Epson.

 

I am not interested in purchasing one of those continuous ink sets, either. I

do not use it enough to justify that.

 

Thanks in advance.

DG

In my opinion, there is no secret, you just have to keep on cleaning the head until it prints correctly. In my experience with Epson printers, you have to print every few days if you don't want this clogging to happen.

I've found that when I get a particularly stubborn clog, that cartridge is usually very low.

Replacing the cartridge solves the problem.

 

It's annoying because I'm throwing away even more ink than the so-called "empty"

cartridge, which isn't really empty. But I suspect that when ink levels are low and I don't use

my 2400 for a while, I may be getting air bubbles rather than clogs. Who knows - anyway,

try replacing your light cyan cartridge and see what happens.

 

Don't throw the old one away; if the "clog" is still there you can always put it back and keep

trying.

Two things to consider:

 

- Obi is right that sometimes it makes a difference to replace a low cartridge.

 

- Also, there seems to be a practical limit to how many consecutive cleaning cycles make a difference. This used to happen to me with a 1280, and it's happened to me only once with the 2400, but if it's not clean after two or three cycles, then let it sit for a couple hours and then run the nozzle check. Frustrating, but it may work fine. In my case, I gave up on it late one night and it was fine the next morning.

 

Frustrating, but hopefully temporary. Good luck.

Buy some print head flush (i use window cleaner). Take out the cartridges and put a few

drops where each cartridge is inserted. Then put the carts back in, leave for an hour, do the

same again, head clean and as good as new!

Okay. I've not had any success yet, but I have to stop cleaning the heads........the printer simply will not do that any more because it says the ink level is too low, and I do not have any spare cartridges on hand. When I started this process, I had plenty! That is one thing I despise about this printer; the small cartridges and the rate at which the priming wastes the little bit of ink that is in there. I was able to run it through the head cleaning a few times today, though, before it got to the level where it would not clean them anymore.

 

Thanks to everyone that has responded so far. I'll reorder a set or two of cartridges and try it again. I was amused at Russell's suggestion to use print head flush or window cleaner. It sounds like a good idea, but since I bought an exchange plan when I bought the printer, I would rather not resort to that, in case something goes terribly wrong. I just would like to fix this, as it is likely to happen again. I have learned my lesson, though. Print often and it should not happen. I wonder if one could apply a solvent of some sort to the sponge pad and when the print heads pass over that they would get wiped and moistened at the same time? Maybe I'm totally off base in this line of thinking.

 

Thanks in advance again!

DG

Let me follow up with one more thing. Just so I'm certain that it really is a clogged/dirty head, let me explain as best I can the print pattern that appeared to determine the problem.

 

Each time I printed the test page after cleaning the heads, the problem is always in the same place in the same parallelogram. There are 8 parallelograms, each made up of what appears to be one of the ink cartridge colors. Light light black, light magenta, light cyan, light black, (photo) black, cyan, magenta, and yellow, in that order, left to right. Each contains 18 parallel lines, and each line looks good except for the light cyan, where on every test print, the 12th line from the top has approx 3 mm of the line, not missing, but "out of line" and it appears to be three times as wide as the rest of the line. This appears in the same place on every test print every time.

 

Can anyone tell me if this is indeed a clogged head? If so, is there a number of nozzles on the print head that print this one color, and that is why on the test print pattern the same line is affected in the same place on every printing of the test pattern? Just curious.

 

Thanks again!

DG

I've never seen the fat and out of line issue. See if a new cartridge does anything.

 

I've found that if two cleaning cycles don't solve the problem, I try printing out purge patterns (one for each color- CMYK, LM, LC, etc) on plain paper. If that doesn't improve the nozzle check, I let the printer sit for a while.

 

I also found that wetting the inlet for the cartridge can help if there is dried up ink- just a dab of water can do the trick.

It's been a few weeks and I have my issue resolved..........although it took me having to use my printer replacement program that I bought with the printer. I tried everything that's been suggested here, to no avail. The new printer prints just as good as the old one, it just seems to be a little slower and noisier. I can live with that, though.

 

Now I just have to stay on top of printing often enough to keep the nozzles from clogging again. It would be nice if there were a utility program that would print out a 4x6 automatically while I'm sleeping, just to keep things working properly. Might be a good moneymaker for someone who could write the program.

 

Thanks again to everyone that responded to the post!

 

DG