Print Problems with HP Latex 115 - new ink cartridge installed and now doesn't print

[Krittah]

Overview:
After the 3 day holiday weekend, I started up my Latex 115 and got a printhead warning with request to print a "Printhead Test Plot" to address problem. Once done, my #6 Magenta printhead was clearly missing a lot.

Steps taken:
Day 1...
1. I auto cleaned printhead, plot test looks terrible.
2. I manually cleaned printhead with distilled water and lint-free rag, got a little better on plot test.
3. Auto cleaned again
4. Manual cleaned again
5. Auto cleaned again, little better on plot test
6. Manual cleaned again
7. Magenta ink is out, so I replace the cartridge.
8. Color calibrate, magenta prints with a lot of streaks
9. Auto cleaned again, plot test still looks bad
...stop for the day
Day 2...
1. Started with another Auto Clean and Plot Test
2. Light Cyan isn't showing up at all now, and ink cartridge says 1ml left, so I go ahead and change it.
3. Color calibrate, still no light cyan and magenta looks terrible.
4. Ran a couple of auto printhead cleanings for both colors, light cyan shoes up about half way now but doesn't seem to be getting any better. Magenta still looks bad
5. I contact HP tech since my printheads are under warranty (not expired and only 400ml fired through them)
6. They have my do a drop test and send photo, but it doesn't look like I'm missing many nozzles on the drop test. This has me concerned it's something else going on and not a faulty printhead.
7. HP is sending me a Light Cyan and Light Magenta printhead. Which is great, but the Magenta printhead is the one that is the most faulty. Or at least that's the one that first went out.
8. Contacted HP again with no response yet on why they are sending the Light Magenta and not just the Magenta.
Day 3...
1. Just waiting on printheads to arrive and hoping some one here might have some extra insight in case the new printheads don't solve the problem.

Other things to note:
- You can see the streaks running through the Plot Test in attached files. These are from the most recent Plot Test I did, they were worse when I started out, but don't seem to be getting any better now.
- Drop Test also pictured
- I see some light banding when I try to print anything right now.
- The 115 is about 15 months old, bought new.
- This was the first time I've changed the Magenta and Light Cyan ink cartridges, but I've changed other colors without any sort of trouble.
- Printer sat idle with very low ink for both the Light Cyan and Magenta for 3 days before problem started.
- I have recently seen some print quality issues (grain, fuzzy text, and misalignment),. This is mostly on the HP Premium Poster paper that I print a lot of. This is probably a different problem, but who knows, maybe it's related? This only happens occasionally, but enough to cause me to reprint 1 or 2 things a week.
- I'm probably forgetting something, but I've definitely added a lot of info here.

Basically, I've ran a bunch of Printhead cleanings, Printhead Plot Test, Color Calibrations, and Printhead alignments on about 20 ft of gloss and matte vinyl, and I'm still getting streaks on my magenta and light cyan.

Any insight is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
-Kevin

 

[balstestrat]

Just some notes of the things I see going on here.
- Very low usage on the machine. That means the ink sits still in the cartridge and doesn't get replaced often. In this case, never before. You should consider starting to shake the inks every month to keep them in decent condition.
- Only manual clean (hand) the printheads as the very last effort. You will do more bad than good if the head isn't actually clogged and dried up on the nozzles.

Anyway I've seen this before (on this forum as well) on very low usage machines. You will have the ink cartridges in the machine for a long period of time and extremely low usage which can result to the ink separating.
Then next thing you have a low cartridge and all the good stuff has fallen to the bottom of the cartridge, you start printing/cleaning or whatever and you will start pumping that stuff in the printhead.
Next thing you know the printhead filter gets clogged and you get this missing nozzles that you see in the test.

Now it's very unlikely that you will recover those heads by cleaning. I recommend trying to move as much fresh ink to the heads as possible and then put in new printheads.

After that start shaking your inks. Maybe replace them with new ones well before it runs out if you know that the cartridge has been in the printer for a year already.

 

[Krittah]

Just some notes of the things I see going on here.
- Very low usage on the machine. That means the ink sits still in the cartridge and doesn't get replaced often. In this case, never before. You should consider starting to shake the inks every month to keep them in decent condition.
- Only manual clean (hand) the printheads as the very last effort. You will do more bad than good if the head isn't actually clogged and dried up on the nozzles.

Anyway I've seen this before (on this forum as well) on very low usage machines. You will have the ink cartridges in the machine for a long period of time and extremely low usage which can result to the ink separating.
Then next thing you have a low cartridge and all the good stuff has fallen to the bottom of the cartridge, you start printing/cleaning or whatever and you will start pumping that stuff in the printhead.
Next thing you know the printhead filter gets clogged and you get this missing nozzles that you see in the test.

Now it's very unlikely that you will recover those heads by cleaning. I recommend trying to move as much fresh ink to the heads as possible and then put in new printheads.

After that start shaking your inks. Maybe replace them with new ones well before it runs out if you know that the cartridge has been in the printer for a year already.

Very helpful, I appreciate the insight.

I got the Light Cyan printhead today and that one now seems to be working fine. HP is sending me the Magenta as well and hopefully everything will be back up and running smoothly at that point. I also went ahead and changed out my Optimizer Ink Cartridge since it was the only one left from the original install and only had 47ml left (although it felt empty when I took it out of the printer). All cartridges are now 3 months old or less. Every month now I'm printing more and more, so hopefully this won't be a problem moving forward. But good to know about the occasional cartridge shake in case I need it! And good to know what the actual cause is!

Thanks again!