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epson 9900 printing ghost strips or bands

Z

zag

Guest
I have been printing images on my epson 9900 beautifully until suddenly today, without knowledge of changing any setting, my images are being printed as a series of vertical bands containing the same light ghost image of only 2 inches of the image repeatedly over and over across the paper! Crazy! I have done the usual suspects of alignment, head cleaning, high speed off, power off, multiple images etc. I am at a total loss as I can find nothing on the internet that others have posted. 911!!!! Help!
 

kdphotography

Well-known member
Check or change the USB cord?

It sounds like it could be a data/print queue issue. Have you tried uninstalling and re-installing the driver? Good time to check for an updated driver...
 
J

jboles

Guest
I have a 9890 and have just run into the exact same issue. Mine came up after the belt clamp on my print head broke and I replaced it myself. I assumed I messed something up or the paper jam that broke the clamp was the culprit; now I'm not so sure. Oddly head checks and alignments print normally.
I'm getting a technician in and will advise here what the result is, please do the same.
I've already checked:
Head alignment
clogs
encoder strip
changed belt tension
re-installed firmware
carriage tilt
USB and Network connection
all with zero effect, I'm stumped
 

f8orbust

Active member
I would do a factory reset of the printer and install Quadtone RIP. Print through the RIP (and so bypass the Epson driver altogether) and if you still get the banding then it's less likely to be a software issue.
 
M

memax

Guest
I have been printing images on my epson 9900 beautifully until suddenly today, without knowledge of changing any setting, my images are being printed as a series of vertical bands containing the same light ghost image of only 2 inches of the image repeatedly over and over across the paper! Crazy! I have done the usual suspects of alignment, head cleaning, high speed off, power off, multiple images etc. I am at a total loss as I can find nothing on the internet that others have posted. 911!!!! Help!
Hello, I have just the same problem since one week or so. I don't think, it is a hardware problem as the printouts have these bands ( app. 1 cm) only when printing from PS 6 or Lightroom. From Acrobat the printout is correct as usual. But I have still no Idea how to solve the problem. Is there any help?
 
M

memax

Guest
I have been printing images on my epson 9900 beautifully until suddenly today, without knowledge of changing any setting, my images are being printed as a series of vertical bands containing the same light ghost image of only 2 inches of the image repeatedly over and over across the paper! Crazy! I have done the usual suspects of alignment, head cleaning, high speed off, power off, multiple images etc. I am at a total loss as I can find nothing on the internet that others have posted. 911!!!! Help!
http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/images/smilies/frown.gif Hello, I have just the same problem since one week. I think it's not a hardwareproblem, as the printouts have these ghost bands (1 cm) only when printing from PS 6 or Lightroom. Prints are correct from Acrobat. Anyway just no Idea, how to solve this problem. Please help!
 
M

memax

Guest
I have been printing images on my epson 9900 beautifully until suddenly today, without knowledge of changing any setting, my images are being printed as a series of vertical bands containing the same light ghost image of only 2 inches of the image repeatedly over and over across the paper! Crazy! I have done the usual suspects of alignment, head cleaning, high speed off, power off, multiple images etc. I am at a total loss as I can find nothing on the internet that others have posted. 911!!!! Help!
Printing from a windows machine does not show any vertical bands as on the macintosh. Perhaps it is a problem with the last release of PS CS6 or Lightroom. As I am using creative cloud, I cannot return to a previous version.
 

BANKER1

Member
Recently I had a software problem with CS6 on my 7880. A call to the Epson help line resulted in a complete resolution of the problem. That was the second time I got tremendous help from very patient technicians. The first time, I thought I was going to have to load it up and take it to Atlanta for service (my sister lives there). But, to my great relief, the technician was able to resolve a banding problem.

Greg
 
There is a known issue with some of the Epson large format printers - I have the same problem with my 7900. Long-story-short a call to Epson tech support revealed that somehow the print driver is some kind of collaboration between Apple & Epson. And, the most recent update to the print driver has this banding issue described in the first post. Supposedly, Epson/Apple are scrambling to release a new driver that will resolve the problem. It actually took me 3 calls to Epson support and half a day of lost time to figure this out. Epson tech #2 was able to talk me through a work-around that got my 7900 printing perfectly. BUT - it screwed up my R3000, which is on the same network. The third Epson tech told me it would not be possible (until a new driver is released) to get both printers working correctly - it had to be one or the other. Since I use the R3000 daily, and the 7900 maybe every other week, I opted for the R3000. He talked me through an elaborate procedure that got the R3000 printer working. He said he thought the 7900 problem was with roll paper and custom paper sizes, and that sheet paper should work OK. Another long-story-short, I decided to try loading the original Epson software from the original DVD - and the 7900 seems to be working OK right now, even though, according to Epson, it shouldn't. Bye-the-way, if you have a Mac and have the System Preferences set to automatically update the OSX software, you may have downloaded the latest Epson print driver automatically and not even known it. I will be writing a letter this week and sending it via FedEx to the CEO of Epson, as this is inexcusable. Don't these test this stuff before releasing it. I strongly suggest you call Epson tech and raise a little hell. The more people that do this the faster the problem will get fixed. One of the Epson techs told me he had already received many calls with this problem. One of the other techs said he had "not had that many calls". Anyone with a 7900 or 9900 using a Mac is more than likely going to have this problem when they install the latest (and greatest ....) print driver. I asked the last tech if Epson would be notifying registered users of their large format printers of the issue, and also when the new driver is available. I was told they "are not set up to do that" and it was best to "check the Epson web site frequently and to watch for the update". Quite honestly, I have had many different Epson printers over the past 10+ years and I don't think their support is anything close to what is was a few short years ago. Please call Epson (tel. 562-276-1305) and voice your concern and spread the news of this problem via other online forums. Mark Weidman
 
M

memax

Guest
I have been printing images on my epson 9900 beautifully until suddenly today, without knowledge of changing any setting, my images are being printed as a series of vertical bands containing the same light ghost image of only 2 inches of the image repeatedly over and over across the paper! Crazy! I have done the usual suspects of alignment, head cleaning, high speed off, power off, multiple images etc. I am at a total loss as I can find nothing on the internet that others have posted. 911!!!! Help!
Hello, after reinstalling OS X 10.8.2 (instead of 10.8.3) again, the printouts are correct as usual. Once more I am sure, it is not a hardware problem with the printer, but shall we wait for an updated Apple System ore an updated epson driver?
 

mitchdob

New member
Hello, after reinstalling OS X 10.8.2 (instead of 10.8.3) again, the printouts are correct as usual. Once more I am sure, it is not a hardware problem with the printer, but shall we wait for an updated Apple System ore an updated epson driver?
=============

I have the same issues but I believe have confirmed what I think is a bug in Epson ABW driver for the 9900.

I purchased a new 9900 last week. I was shocled to see vertical bands on my prints. With little help from Epson (aweful tech support) and after spend thousand of $$ on paper and inks, swapping paper stocks, USB cables, power outlets, computers, operating systems, profiles, resolutions.... I came up with this:

Printing on a 24" roll of Hahnemhule Photo Rag 308gm with Epson's ABW driver = large verticle bands in dark areas.

Printing on 36×24″ SHEETS of Photo Rag 308gm, feeding paper 36″ side horizontal and turning image 90 degrees to fit on paper = no bands. Also tested on 44″ wide paper feeding the image the paper manner = no banding. Feeding 24″ paper again = banding. So it is no mechanical.

WTF? If someone else wants to try this, let me know your results as I want to make sure I'm not losing my mind.

I plan to also let Epson take a look at this to confirm the driver bug... if they ever contact me. Amazing that they seem to be taking their time doing that - even though this is a new printer that is under warranty. I have contacted them multiple times and they seem to have seriously terrible tech support.
 
Yes, Epson tech confirmed this issue is mainly with roll paper or custom paper sizes, not so much with sheet size papers. If you paid for the new printer with a credit card, contact the seller. Depending upon the response, maybe give them 24 hours for THEM to contact Epson on your behalf, I would then contact the credit card company, file a complaint, and refuse to pay for the defective printer until it is running properly. This will get someone's attention. Most cc companies allow you to contest a charge online. The other thing I have done successfully in the past, depending upon the issue, is to write a letter to the CEO of the company (Epson USA) and send it FedEx, with cc to various professional organizations, forums, etc. When the CEO's office hands your letter down to customer support or tech support, you can imagine it suddenly takes priority over someone simply calling their 800 number. Bye-the-way, I also write positive letters to CEO's when service, support or products excel, I just wrote one to Tom Cook CEO of Apple Computer, telling him how one of their AppleCare techs went out of his way to help me with a problem. Good luck!
 

coady

New member
I also have a Epson 9900 but I only use maby once a month but today I turned it on and I'm having light ghost image issue also I tried printing from two different Macs with two different operating systems 10.7 and 10.8 with the exact same result. of course I can't contact epson because they're closed on the weekend I was just wondering if anybody had any help in fixing this problem.
Thanks Ryan
 
The problem is with the newer print drivers, which appear to be some kind of collaboration between Apple & Epson. We have all been waiting for a fix to this defective driver for over a month now. The more customers who voice their frustration to Epson, the better. The only temporary fix is to install an older version of OSX and make sure you also have the print driver that is previous to the current one on the Epson Download site v9.04. An Epson tech talked me through this workaround, but not only was it laborious and time consuming, but when we were done he told me my Epson R3000 would now not work properly .... You may want to try printing with standard paper sizes that come with the Epson driver, the problem appears most often with roll paper or custom paper sizes.
 

kweide

New member
Although i do not print with an 9900 but with an HP9180 i experienced the same trouble with printer drivers coming in thru Apple Update. My printer suddenly started to flood the paper with ink but only when i used the high quality or best quality settings. I decided to roll back to the last known "good" driver set and freezed it ! Thanks to time capsule it was an easy thing to do. And now everything is fine.
 
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