Epson Stylus Color 600 - distorted test pattern

  • Thread starter Thread starter Edgar Iredale
  • Start date Start date
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Edgar Iredale

I've been using an esc600 printer for about 5/6 years with no problem at
all. But now it has started banding and the test pattern (switch on while
holding paper feed) is distorted rather than gapped. This doesn't seem, to
me, to be a blocked jet problem. It's more like the horizontal alignment is
out for some jets.

The colour patterns come out correctly.

The black pattern has every little horizontal line in the two
parallelograms, but some are a bit higher or lower than they should be in.

It looks as though sometimes the wrong jet fires but it's not that as when I
scan and blow up the test print I can see that the missplaced lines are not
quite in the same horizontal place as any other line.

Has anybody seen this before? What causes it? How can I fix it?

The printer doesn't owe me anything, but it would be satifying to fix it.

Edgar
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I've had this problem on a number of occasions, and it always turned out to
be partly blocked nozzles. The nozzle holes seem to be partly restricted,
and kick off the ink stream slightly on an angle.
I was always able to fix it with Epson's maintenance utility, which came
with the printer, i.e. run a cleaning cycle. If one cleaning cycle is not
enough, you might want to run one or two more, before looking at repairs.

Good luck,
H.N.
 
Herbert said:
I've had this problem on a number of occasions, and it always turned out
to be partly blocked nozzles. The nozzle holes seem to be partly
restricted, and kick off the ink stream slightly on an angle.
I was always able to fix it with Epson's maintenance utility, which came
with the printer, i.e. run a cleaning cycle. If one cleaning cycle is not
enough, you might want to run one or two more, before looking at repairs.

Good luck,
H.N.
Click to expand...


Herbert,

You are right!!

Before I posted the above I'd already done about 20 cleaning cycles in 48
hours and given it a hot water and pads treatment and there had been no
sign of improvement or change at all. Although I couldn't figure out how
the head could have become damaged I decided that must have been the fault.

After I posted I kept on cleaning and after another 15 or so cycles it has
started to improve a little.

I really didn't believe dried ink/dirt could cause the jets to be redirected
without also diminishing the flow. I was wrong!

Now I'll just keep repeating the cleaning process.

Right from the beginning I've used cheap non-Epson cartridges and have been
using the same supplier for a long time. Recently I started a new batch
and I've noticed the ink smells slightly. I wonder if the ink is different.

Many thanks

Edgar
 
I hope it comes good for you.
Only ONCE I used non-epson inks, and immediately struck nozzle clogging
problems. So I stick with the originals now, although I still think, the
prices are a rip-off.

H.N.
 
You could try a little Windex on the piece that inserts into the ink
cartridge. It doesn't take much so be careful and don't slop the Windex
around

I had a bad blockage one time with my 600 and this is what I did.

1) removed ink cartridge and put some tape over the hole on the bottom of
the cartridge
2) with a cringe, placed a drop of Windex right on top of that piece that
goes into the ink cartridge when you install an ink cartridge.
3) waited about 40 minutes
4) replaced the cartridge and ran a cleaning cycle
5) printed test pattern
6) wasn't quite perfect so repeated whole procedure
7) printed test pattern and the print was appearing normally from the
previously blocked nozzle

I hope that this works for you.
 
Ron said:
You could try a little Windex on the piece that inserts into the ink
cartridge. It doesn't take much so be careful and don't slop the Windex
around

I had a bad blockage one time with my 600 and this is what I did.

1) removed ink cartridge and put some tape over the hole on the bottom of
the cartridge
2) with a cringe, placed a drop of Windex right on top of that piece that
goes into the ink cartridge when you install an ink cartridge.
3) waited about 40 minutes
4) replaced the cartridge and ran a cleaning cycle
5) printed test pattern
6) wasn't quite perfect so repeated whole procedure
7) printed test pattern and the print was appearing normally from the
previously blocked nozzle

I hope that this works for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ron.

It's improving as I keep cleaning and is almost acceptable now. I'll try the
window cleaner method if the problem recurs.

Edgar
 
Also realize that those cartridges are not chipped. They tell you not to
take it out but if you do it loses track of the amount of ink in the cart.
If you are trying to do numerous cleaning cycles with a cart. that is almost
out of ink sometimes you won't get good results until you use a new
cartridge.

They tell you in the manual to use a new cart. if you remove one.
 
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