Magenta starvation, HP 310 printer

[iladi]

Friday morning runout of magenta, change cart, print another half magenta cart and on friday evening I notticed banding and loss of color in Magenta. Replace printhead no 6 and go home.

Saturday morning, after only 2 sq meters magenta banding reapears, a nozzle check: the same printhead.

Long story short: the no 6 channel, magenta ink starves only after less than sqm after a printhead cleaning. The no 5 megenta printhead is (in almost all the cases the same as ever). As I say, a normal cleaning results in (almost) perfect nozzle check.

What I did: clean the droplet sensor, clen the printhead electrical contacts, shake the magenta ink cart, turn of and back on the printer. No effect.

The serviceman suggests a bad ink cart, but I doubt it since only one magenta channel gets clogged/starving.

Any other thouts?

 

[balstestrat]

Here are some thoughts... Once the printhead goes into banding, you can't recover it. So warranty it and put a new one in.
It probably has air inside or the filter is getting clogged etc. You can't clean to fix it.
Might be just bad luck that air got into one of the line... There is a Y-connection on the line so both slots are not equal.

If you want to be sure it won't happen again with a new printhead, the ink line should be purged with a syringe.

To make sure it wouldn't happen again, I would check the needle cover on magenta PIP is not stuck at the bottom position (will leak ink and air gets in to the line when you replace ink).
And shake the cartridges monthly unless you print enough to replace with a new one every month.

 

[iladi]

Here is what happened this morning:

Start printer, nozzle check

Perfect.

Print a large block of magenta and this prints after a few cm

And this a nozzle check right after the bad print, WITHOUT a printhead cleaning.

PERFECT. I'm verry confuzed.

 

[balstestrat]

Like I said, air/clog inside the printhead. It will go fine for a moment, then it can't keep up if it needs to print longer.
Then you stop, it will settle again, do the test just fine and looks like it's all good.

Only way you will fix that is by replacing the printhead, so you have a new printhead just warranty it with HP. Don't waste time.

 

[iladi]

If you want to be sure it won't happen again with a new printhead, the ink line should be purged with a syringe.

How can I do the syringe thing?

 

[iladi]

Update: I take the old printhead, shake the hell out of it, put it in the printer and print about 4 sq meter perfect. After that the agony: the same starvation.

 

[iladi]

Rant: can it be heat related?

It is hot outside and hot in the printer room. I have a portable AC pointing to the printer but it is still very hot, almost 86 F/ 30 C.

Update, a big storm cools the things down in the office, now there is under 25 C. But I am not abble to print a thing, banding after some random time. So, aparently it is not the temperature.

 

[Scooter13]

I had a new printhead go bad within a few prints, (banding). I replaced the printhead after multiple tests and all was fine. To get a new printhead from HP to replace the bad printhead is not fun.

 

[iladi]

Long story short: it was the ink cart.

The serviceman showed me a HP memo with a serial no of bad batch magenta and yellow inks and the simptoms were very similar with mine. Strange enough, the serial writen on the cart was different from the serial reported by the printer in serviceplot. So that is why we figgure so late it was a bad batch ink cart (question is how my supplier get the cart from HP). Serviceman pull out about 50 cc magenta from the new cart, re insert the printheads, couple of cleanings and I was up & running. A little heart attac 7 sq meters later when I see a little banding, but I think a couple of cleanings removed traces from bad magenta in the lines.

 

[lknmedia]

Do you have a list of those bad cartridges? Do you know if it also included the 3 871's as well? I have been fighting the same issue with Yellow. Though I think I may have some air in the lines but it would be good to know.

 

[balstestrat]

Man I did not remember that, it was almost from 6 months ago. Anyway good to know you got it figured out. You got some bad luck there.

Do you have a list of those bad cartridges? Do you know if it also included the 3 871's as well? I have been fighting the same issue with Yellow. Though I think I may have some air in the lines but it would be good to know.

It's only 831 magenta & yellow.