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Need Help Roland VS-640 Self Cleaning like crazy.

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Shadowglen

New Member
I was told yesterday that our Roland VS 640 has been doing a lot of self cleanings as it prints and it filled the 500cc drain bottle in less than 2 weeks. Aside from not being told sooner I am sick to think that over a full 440 cc cartridge of ink was wasted. but what is causing it? We did a very intense manual cleaning hoping it would help, but it did not. It will print the front crop marks, and maybe an inch or two and then pull to the side and announce it is doing a cleaning. After it cleans for a few minutes it resumes printing for about a foot to a foot and a half, then clean cycle again. on a 4'x8' print it stopped to clean 4 times. It seems to be random every time not the same locations. Anyone else experience this, or similar, and have a fix, or any suggestions? Thanks in advance. Dave.
 
Solventinkjet

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
It's a setting in the menus. I can't remember what it's called on Rolands but on other printers it's usually called clean during print or something similar. Just turn it off and it should do the trick.
 
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Shadowglen

New Member
Solventinkjet said:
It's a setting in the menus. I can't remember what it's called on Rolands but on other printers it's usually called clean during print or something similar. Just turn it off and it should do the trick.
Click to expand...
I have went through every item in settings, menus and sub menus and see nothing for clean during print.
 
S

Shadowglen

New Member
Mystery solved. switched out cartridges got to the 6th one (the second black ) and back to normal. Factory chip was saying it was 3rd party. Well if third party inks will piss away a cartridge a week for no reason and slow down the print process, who would ever invest in them?
 
Baz

Baz

New Member
Hey Shadowglen ... I guess it is my turn.
My VS-540 has started doing this as well. Stops every 24" - 28" or so to do a cleaning.
It just happened on the fly between two print jobs a couple of nights ago.
My machine is 6 years old and has always had Roland inks going through it.

Did you just one by one replace the cartridges?
How did the printer tell you your old chip was 3rd party?

I am also thinking of going into the Service Menu to do an IC Check.
If nothing works my last option is to update the firmware.

If i have to bring in a service tech i will seriously consider trading it in for a newer model. (looking at the VersaExpress RF-640)
 
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Scott at Roland

New Member
Baz said:
Hey Shadowglen ... I guess it is my turn.
My VS-540 has started doing this as well. Stops every 24" - 28" or so to do a cleaning.
It just happened on the fly between two print jobs a couple of nights ago.
My machine is 6 years old and has always had Roland inks going through it.

Did you just one by one replace the cartridges?
How did the printer tell you your old chip was 3rd party?

I am also thinking of going into the Service Menu to do an IC Check.
If nothing works my last option is to update the firmware.

If i have to bring in a service tech i will seriously consider trading it in for a newer model. (looking at the VersaExpress RF-640)
Click to expand...

Hi Baz - While I would much prefer you trade in your printer for a new one, you should check/replace the battery on your main board first. The only thing the main board battery does is maintain the printer's clock. If it dies, the printer no longer knows how long it has been dormant and will start cleaning more frequently. The batteries are pretty cheap.

Always start with the cheap stuff!
 
premiercolour

premiercolour

Merchant Member
Shadowglen said:
Mystery solved. switched out cartridges got to the 6th one (the second black ) and back to normal. Factory chip was saying it was 3rd party. Well if third party inks will **** away a cartridge a week for no reason and slow down the print process, who would ever invest in them?
Click to expand...

That is not fair to say. Third party ink will not do that. Machine does not recognize what kind of ink it is. It is the chip that gave the problem. It happened to be a "Roland" chip. Anything happened people point to third party ink. How much do you know about third party ink? Roland doesn't make their own ink. Does that mean you are using a third party ink vendor?

It is like my Audi has tire issue. It is the third party ink. LOL
 
premiercolour

premiercolour

Merchant Member
Baz said:
Hey Shadowglen ... I guess it is my turn.
My VS-540 has started doing this as well. Stops every 24" - 28" or so to do a cleaning.
It just happened on the fly between two print jobs a couple of nights ago.
My machine is 6 years old and has always had Roland inks going through it.

Did you just one by one replace the cartridges?
How did the printer tell you your old chip was 3rd party?

I am also thinking of going into the Service Menu to do an IC Check.
If nothing works my last option is to update the firmware.

If i have to bring in a service tech i will seriously consider trading it in for a newer model. (looking at the VersaExpress RF-640)
Click to expand...

You really don't need chips to run on some of Roland printers. Our VS540i does not have any chip on it. Some models required black chips only. The versawork will say low ink but the printer will print. I would remove all the chips and start to print. If the printer still cleans every few feets, put black chips only. That should resolve the problem. Just a try before calling an expensive tech. It has something to do with the chips.
 
Baz

Baz

New Member
Thanks for the tip Premiercolour.

It is still doing it even after removing all chips! after 27" it stops and performs a cleaning.
 
Baz

Baz

New Member
Thank you for all your suggestions.
I will speak with my dealer tomorrow and discuss further.
Will mention about the clock battery and see what else we can trouble shoot.

Edit: It even stopped halfway printing registration marks to do a cleaning....
 
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