This isn’t a Linux problem but more of a “clutching at straws” issue, so isn’t at all important.
The previous post related the sad story of replacing a friend’s Epson printer with an HP. I now have the Epson Photo PX720WD at my emporium and have installed it on my Dell D505 / Peppermint 3. It’s a nice printer except that it is printing some lines of text giving the appearance of the characters having been printed twice, up to 1mm apart. The effect had me reaching for my glasses though I still had them on. Some lines are OK, some not. I attach for the reader’s perusal a jpg file of a sample print-out.
I’ve tried all the usual maintenance tricks, to no avail. My question is: Should I take the printer to the municipal recycling facility or might there be a solution?
In the light of subsequent tests, I think you are absolutely right about cleaning!
The printer has been in regular use and I had cleaned all the jets not so long ago (but not using isopropyl alcohol which is warned against) so I doubt that it’s dust.
However: when I tried printing with colours other than black, the result has very good - so it looks like a cartridge problem, although the owner has changed the black cartridge twice (from the same batch) to try to rectify the problem.
I shall get another cartridge, clean the jets and report back. By the way: the best way of cleaning the jets is to use “Magic Bullet” non-alcohol jet cleaner. The UK supplier is at http://www.specialistinks.com/cleaning-heads.php, with which I have no connection other than as a satisfied customer.
Alcohol is a great thing to use to clean the rest of the inside of the printer, like the rollers & guides and stuff. When it comes to the actual print heads, the design varies but manufacturer - some have the heads in the cartridge themselves, some have them in a cradle, probably some other variants too. If you’ve got a printer where the heads are in the cartridges, it’s safe to remove them, use alcohol to clean the cradle, throughly dry it (blowing/compressed air is great), then replace the cartridges and run a few test pages. If the print heads are in the cradle, you can still use alcohol to dissolve any crud, you just have to be very careful not to touch the head itself. If you are/were any good at Airfix, it’s a walk in the park ;D
Edit: thanks for the link mate, will check it out (always good to check out new cleaning agents!)
Epson’s piezo print heads favour the “print heads are part of the cradle” approach (in fact they don’t “favour” it as much as use that tech “exclusively” in their inkjets) … so it’s MUCH less likely to be an “ink cartridge” issue … in Epson injets, the cartridge is just an ink reservoir (tank).
There are loads of youtube videos about cleaning Epson inkject print heads … good luck
@ Chemical Fan
I take your point - IPA is very good for general cleaning, and doesn’t get one too high. Not high enough, anyway.
@Mark
I was wondering if the seating of the cartridge had anything to do with the problem, even though it was difficult to see how. It was your good self who told me about Epson’s preference for printer-based jets and my friend has not had ink-flow problems since I cleaned them.
Just before replying I did a test print and all colours print with crystal clarity. It’s always the way, isn’t it? Get the Forum involved and the problem clears itself! But I shall take CF’s good advice and do some cleaning anyway.
Many thanks for your assistance. I’m sorry to have troubled you unnecessarily but I guess you are used to that by now.
