New orders for October* will be delayed a few days while Epson investigates an anomaly I’m seeing in dark black areas on some prints. Originally looked like canvas settings only but using a workaround with a different profile is giving similar problems intermittently. While not apparent on most images, I’ve decided to hold off printing on the 9900 while Epson looks at the test prints I sent in earlier this week**.
Just stocked up on 9900 ink etc. but my backup printer (4800) is out of some inks. Next week I’ll evaluate whether I need to bring the backup printer back into production – just so much easier on the new printer 😉
I’m notifying clients right now, just wanted to post the details here on my blog. Will provide updates here as well, but as always please feel free to contact me with any questions 🙂
* Orders affected include the Rio Grande Art Festival in Albuquerque, Georgetown, online store orders placed in October, and a couple special orders prior.
** For quality assurance and the fact it’s getting very expensive… 😮
Even I cannot see the anomaly on most images printed in the last few days, but just the potential is enough for me to pause. I’ve spent most of the week trying to use a workaround, but just not 100% comfortable with the results. I’m sure everyone will appreciate the diligence and my desire to provide you with the absolute best quality print of my images 😀
All current Orders are scheduled to be out by next Tuesday, November 18.
I appear to have the printer working and will be printing orders all evening. I printed all the matted print orders yesterday and hope to finish the canvas orders by midnight. They still all need to dry and either matted or sealed & stretched before sending out.
Will just keep everything up with the same settings so hopefully nothing will get messed up.
Ok on the phone with Epson upper-level tech off & on today. Had me try a Watercolor driver with higher paper feed settings to print to the canvas but just got banding. He said he’d schedule a the second tech to come back out again to really, really, really replace the main board like they said 3 weeks ago instead of just running tests on matte paper (instead of canvas) and eating up another $250 in ink 😐
Well I got to thinking: if the first tech really fixed some things back to spec, and there is a a stray setting in there that is mucking things up, why don’t I start from scratch and reset my printer driver settings back to zero and make everything match the printer settings exactly (even though the software driver should over-ride).
Did a test print and came out ok, reprint an order and looks good! 😀
Well the tech just left a few minutes ago (second one). He seems to think there is an incompatibility between Epson’s 9900 printer HDR inks and Epson’s matte canvas (which I use). We tried several rolls I have here in several sizes and they all had the problem. However those same rolls print wonderfully on the 4800 (K3 inks). I showed him some prints I had done which were fine (beautiful blacks printed by the 9900 on Epson’s matte canvas).
So he called Epson to have their high-level techs print on their own canvas. – Guess what ? they don’t have any of their own canvas to test. Sounds odd , but I agreed to wait a couple more days to let them test this out.
I just cannot believe Epson would not thoroughly test out a $6k printer on their only matte canvas. But whatever.
I did look through some old canvas prints that had ‘messed up’ in the past and several had the same problem. So I guess it had cleared up, but now wont go away. Perhaps they changed the formula on the canvas or something…
He recommended I try a different canvas, so I need to call Epson and see what canvas will work with the 9900 since theirs will not – after they test it of course.
So what do I do with the stock of Epson canvas I’ve invested in then??
Good news is looks like the new print head the first tech put in fixed the problem with printing full resolution on the textured papers (not canvas). So, I can resume the matted print orders. Bad news still delayed on the canvases 😐
Will post as soon as I hear back from the Epson high-level techs – yeh, as soon as I get feed up waiting for them and call in asking for their supervisors again.
Yesterday I called and they told me they would ‘escalate’ the problem.
Today I am calling every couple hours to try and get some progress.
Well just checked the ink levels again and the tech used over $150 in ink – which is really not that bad 😐 Plus we’ve ate up a lot of canvas so getting a bit expensive.
One note though – the 4800 ‘backup’ printer is still pretty new (2 yrs), newer than most print houses are using I’d guess. And fantastic quality. Most of my pieces were profiled for it which is why some actually look better printed on the 4800. It just will not print the larger pieces (over 17″ wide), which is why I moved all the production to the newer one (to simplify). It’s just that I have been promoting the snazzy new 9900 that I didn’t bring it back into production sooner 😉
Well it’s 8:03 pm and the repair technician just left after being here 8+ hrs (since about noon). He replaced the wiper & Cleaning unit and the print head. The printing is much better, but still getting those light/dark waves in the blacks. He is reporting back to Epson and we’ll go from there. It may be next week before he can get back out though.
I will do some more testing and see if the drivers on my Mac may be an issue as well. Do plan to get the backup printer going so I can do some production work, however I will still wait for the 9900 to be 100% for those who want their orders printed on it.
Tech just called and scheduled to be here tomorrow (Friday) between 11a-12p – has to wait on parts to be delivered.
Assuming the printer is fixed, would mean I can get matted prints out by Monday and canvases by Wednesday. 🙂
Again, thanks to those who have been understanding 🙂
Those who have canceled the orders rather than me print on the backup printer – doing the best I can here. Guess that’s what I get for honesty, but that’s the way I do business…
Epson called this morning and had me run a couple more test and I guess we’ve ‘satisfied’ the requirements to get a technician out. They think its the mainboard (computer) @ said they’d have someone call to setup an appointment. Who knows when we’ll actually get them out. 😐
The 9900 printers are less than a year old so its not cause for concern. My experience in the tech industry helps me understand that. However, the fact its taken this long and still no ‘appointment’ is frustrating.
So still do not have an ETA on orders unless you opt to have me print on the backup printer which does a great job as well.
Thanks again for your patience…
They had me do another test print, spent 30 minutes trying to get to tech on phone then they said he had left for day (4p California time).
Epson can’t find the test prints I sent last Tuesday (over a week ago), so spent part of the afternoon reprinting test prints and handed to fed ex this evening.
Left message with all clients with outstanding orders. Most opted to wait for the new printer to be back up. Cannot find any problem with prints done before I replaced several ink cartridges. One cartridge was defective and replaced.