Re: Stylus Photo Banding

[Raphael Bustin <rafeb@channel1.com>]

On Wed, 19 Jan 2000, Tim Hines wrote:

> I have an Epson Stylus Photo 6-color lettersize printer. It is giving me
> microbanding on color printing only. Black is excellent. This is less
> noticeable in darker areas of the print. I have run numerous cleaning cycles
> and alignment cycles and changed the cartridges once. The bands are so small
> that I didn't even notice them until I was in Best Buy and saw printed
> samples from another Epson of similar specs and it was absolutely
> photographic! I freaked and went home to inspect my prints closer. I found
> that the first 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch is perfect, then the banding
> starts.
> 
> The only relevant issue I can think of is that when we first bought the
> printer it sat for several weeks without being used before we did any major
> printing on it. Best Buy has said that it will take 3-4 WEEKS! to get it
> fixed. (If they fix it at all) The idiot behind the service counter said,
> "I'm lookin' at this thinkin' it looks good to me. They're liable to send it
> back sayin' there's nothin' wrong with it." This I paid $34 extra dollars
> for... extended warranty.


The micro-banding has been described by numerous
folks on this list.  I saw it after about a years'
heavy use on my 600, and after ten months' heavy
use on my 700.

Ink-cart problems can sometimes contribute to this.
On at least one occasion, replacing the cart (even
though it was still half-full) eliminated the problem.

I have seen awful micro-banding on my 1160 when 
using Archiva, but in this case I'd blame the ink
and/or my refilling procedures.

In general, I think that micro-banding is as much a
mechanical (paper-stepping) issue as anything else,
and that it's related to the usage and the age of
the printer.  Gunk on the rollers, just a bit of
slop in the drive mechanism -- all these things
contribute.

When I was dealing with this problem on my 600, 
I found Epson service to be of no use at all.
The printer was sent back to Epson, and came back
to me about 3 or 4 days later... with the exact
same problem.

It would be interesting to run some Epson (or other)
cleaning sheets through the printer and see if that
helps at all.


rafe b.

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