Epson 1270 color dropouts

[George Deliz]

My trusty 1270 recently started malfunctioning. There are quarter inch
bands on the prints that have a very strong color cast which looks as
though one or more of the inks are not getting printed there. These
bands appear at random and run the entire width of the page. The color
casts of the bands can be green , cyan, magenta, and orange.
I'm printing from PS Elements 3 on OSX 3.9 using full color management
and using the official Epson driver.
So far I've tried the following with no success: changed the color
cartridge, used a different USB port, used a different USB cable, and
run from a different boot volume with its own copies of the software.
Anyone got a clue?

George Deliz

 

[Jan Alter]

When you run a nozzle check what are you getting?

 

[George Deliz]

When you run a nozzle check what are you getting?

The nozzle check looks perfect.
Since the problem started I have tried about a dozen prints from 8X10 to A3
and most of the printed area is fine. It's just that at random times the
printer quits printing one or more colors for about a quarter of an inch and
then prints fine again for a while until the next anomalous band appears. I
suspect a disruption in the data going to the print heads, perhaps a loose
contact somewhere.
I sent an email to Epson and got a canned response telling me how to clean
the heads and telling me that if that didn't work the printer would need
servicing. I think I'll take the thing apart and look for loose connections
or corroded contacts.

George Deliz

 

[Jan Alter]

I think you might be on the right track, but it could also be a component on
a circuit board that heats up during printing and intermittently fails.
It's certainly worth the look-see.
Good luck,

 

[George Deliz]

I think you might be on the right track, but it could also be a component on
a circuit board that heats up during printing and intermittently fails.
It's certainly worth the look-see.
Good luck,
--
Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)
or
(e-mail address removed)12.pa.us

It turns out that there is nothing wrong with my printer. I booted my Mac from
an OS9 volume and had no printing problems. Apparently there is something on my
OSX volumes that is causing the problem. Probably one of the third part PS
Elements plug-ins that I have recently added. It looks like I've got some work
to do, but at least I won't have to buy a new printer.

George Deliz

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Hi George. If you have a scanner, can you send me a sample scan of an
area about 2" x 2" or equivalent scanned at 300 dpi and jpegged high
quality and send it as an attachment to my private email address shown
in the header of this message.

I'm not quite sure from your description what is occurring and where. I
can probably give you a diagnosis and supply yo with a solution.

Also, please tell me about the nozzle test... does it show all the
colors? Are any steps missing from the nozzle test?

Art

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Do you refill your own cartridges? This can be air bubbles in the
cartridges or ink starvation due to partially clogged air vents in the
cartridges. Does the problem get worse with a longer or larger print
being produced?

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Very interesting. Could it have been a badly plugged in cable, causing
the data flow to be corrupted?

Art

George Deliz wrote:

 

[George Deliz]

Hi George. If you have a scanner, can you send me a sample scan of an
area about 2" x 2" or equivalent scanned at 300 dpi and jpegged high
quality and send it as an attachment to my private email address shown
in the header of this message.

I'm not quite sure from your description what is occurring and where. I
can probably give you a diagnosis and supply yo with a solution.

Also, please tell me about the nozzle test... does it show all the
colors? Are any steps missing from the nozzle test?

Art

Arthur,
Thanks for responding.

I tried different cables and also reseated the ribbon cables at the print
head.
I have never refilled or used third party cartridges. The nozzle tests are
completely normal.
Unfortunately I don't have a scanner at present or I would be glad to send
you a scan.
Later today I will try to produce a simulation of the problem on a jpeg and
send it to you.

The anomalies are bars of off-color print about a quarter inch thick,
sometimes double that, running in the same direction as the print head. The
bars usually run the entire width of the page, but sometimes not, and they
are not solid colors but instead have the appearance of transparent
overlays. (One of the first odd anomalies I saw when this problem started
was when I was trying to print a Noise Ninja calibration target consisting
of a checkerboard pattern of colored blocks, and the one and only anomaly
was that one of the blocks was divided into two rectangles of different
color.)

As I've stated, this problem does not exist on OS9 with the old Epson
drivers and an older version of PS Elements. Last night I also tried using
the Gimp print drivers with OSX.3.9 and Elements 3 and there were no
anomalies with that either.

I have also trashed all files I could find associated with the epson drivers
and re-installed the driver but
the problem still persists with OSX and the epson drivers.( I trashed the
com.apple.print files as well and all .plist files associated with Elements
or the Epson driver). I also tried deleting the epson driver from the
printer list and adding it back again. The print errors began sometime in
May so it may possibly be connected with the 10.3.9 update but I can't
remember exactly when the problem began.

I have also removed some third party plug-ins from Elements but I don't
think they are the problem because I get the same errors when printing from
a different 10.3.9 boot volume that has a completely stock version of
Elements 3.

George Deliz

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I am not Mac literate, so I can't reply with authority in that area. It
seems fairly obvious there is a problem with the drivers with OSX.
Perhaps someone who is using OSX can tell you if they have had similar
problems with this printer with the OSX operating system.


I assume you have already gone to Epson's website and to Apple's to see
if they has previously been reported. Under any circumstances, I would
try contacting both Epson and Apple for any information they may have
regarding this issue.

I suspect there is something which is interrupting the data flow on a
random basis.

Art

 

[Rob]

I am not Mac literate, so I can't reply with authority in that area. It
seems fairly obvious there is a problem with the drivers with OSX.
Perhaps someone who is using OSX can tell you if they have had similar
problems with this printer with the OSX operating system.


I assume you have already gone to Epson's website and to Apple's to see
if they has previously been reported. Under any circumstances, I would
try contacting both Epson and Apple for any information they may have
regarding this issue.

I suspect there is something which is interrupting the data flow on a
random basis.

Art

Yep I would contact Epson and ask. I have had problems with other
printers and Epson have resolved them over the phone. You don't have to
be still in a 12mths warranty period.

rm

 

[George Deliz]

I am not Mac literate, so I can't reply with authority in that area. It
seems fairly obvious there is a problem with the drivers with OSX.
Perhaps someone who is using OSX can tell you if they have had similar
problems with this printer with the OSX operating system.

I assume you have already gone to Epson's website and to Apple's to see
if they has previously been reported. Under any circumstances, I would
try contacting both Epson and Apple for any information they may have
regarding this issue.

I suspect there is something which is interrupting the data flow on a
random basis.

Yes, I have contacted Epson and they replied with a canned set of instructions on
how to clean the heads and advised that if that did not work the printer would
have to be serviced. I also searched Apple's site and posted a message there.

Whatever is corrupting the data is only affecting the Epson MacOSX driver. The
driver came out in 2001 and I'm sure that Epson will never update it again. I'm
equally sure that Apple will do nothing about it either.

The old OS9 driver works just fine as does the Gimp Print driver for OSX. It is
however, inconvenient to use the OS9 driver, and Gimp Print does not give me
satisfactory results.

I have downloaded the new Gutenburg driver which is the successor to Gimp Print.
The developers claim compatibility with color management systems. I haven't had a
chance to try it yet but if it works alright then it will be an acceptable
solution to my problem.

Thanks to all for the responses.

George Deliz

 

[Arthur Entlich]

You might want to suggest that either Apple or Epson or both look at the
driver and try to figure out the problem since somewhere a "bug" was
introduced, or your installation got corrupted, or the driver got hit
during an upgrade. I assume you have tried to uninstall and reinstall
the driver?

Best of luck, someone should write a patch to fix it (either Epson or
Apple, depending upon who "broke it"

Arty

 

[Marky]

Arthur,
Thanks for responding.

I tried different cables and also reseated the ribbon cables at the print
head.
I have never refilled or used third party cartridges. The nozzle tests are
completely normal.
Unfortunately I don't have a scanner at present or I would be glad to send
you a scan.
Later today I will try to produce a simulation of the problem on a jpeg and
send it to you.

The anomalies are bars of off-color print about a quarter inch thick,
sometimes double that, running in the same direction as the print head. The
bars usually run the entire width of the page, but sometimes not, and they
are not solid colors but instead have the appearance of transparent
overlays. (One of the first odd anomalies I saw when this problem started
was when I was trying to print a Noise Ninja calibration target consisting
of a checkerboard pattern of colored blocks, and the one and only anomaly
was that one of the blocks was divided into two rectangles of different
color.)

As I've stated, this problem does not exist on OS9 with the old Epson
drivers and an older version of PS Elements. Last night I also tried using
the Gimp print drivers with OSX.3.9 and Elements 3 and there were no
anomalies with that either.

I have also trashed all files I could find associated with the epson drivers
and re-installed the driver but
the problem still persists with OSX and the epson drivers.( I trashed the
com.apple.print files as well and all .plist files associated with Elements
or the Epson driver). I also tried deleting the epson driver from the
printer list and adding it back again. The print errors began sometime in
May so it may possibly be connected with the 10.3.9 update but I can't
remember exactly when the problem began.

I have also removed some third party plug-ins from Elements but I don't
think they are the problem because I get the same errors when printing from
a different 10.3.9 boot volume that has a completely stock version of
Elements 3.

George Deliz

George,

With the Gimp Print driver there is not much that Epson can do (other than
write their own driver, but they won't for this printer). When I was
supporting Mac (senior level support, but no Mac expert by any means) the
most common thing to do was trash the whole Epson folder from your hard
drive and simply reinstall the drivers from the OS X disk.

Once that is done you should be able to go into PS and test the printer.
Before you do that, the most common color matching issue with Epson printers
was the profile selected in the application (Print with Preview on PS 7 or
CS) and the paper type. If you are using Elements you should still have
similar options in the Print window to select source and print space.

The source space simply must be Adobe RGB1998 and the print space must be
the paper type that you are using. If you should happen to have some other
profile selected in the source space then you will, undoubtedly, have color
issues.

If those check out properly, then make sure that you are using the CMYK in
the mode section...if available...if you choose RGB or Gray Scale (or
whatever other options there may be) then the interpretation of the image
(if you have options for turning color management off then that may work if
you are using some other color matching or Adobe profile) will not be
correct.

Turning off the profile on the printer or in Adobe usually gives some subtle
changes that tells you the printer is getting the information but it is
somehow being misconstrued by the processor or otherwise incorrect. I
realize that the Gimp Print driver is limited but not sure what options
there were.

If the printer works in OS 9 then, as you suspect, it is not a hardware
issue with the printer itself.

Hope this helps...