Epson R3000, black nozzles and dark yellow

jakk5

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Hello,

My R3000 works fine - MK.

Problems comes when switching on PK:

-50% black nozzles are gone,

-50% yellow nozzles are gone, the rest 50% yellow nozzles are darker. Sometimes no yellow nozzle is missing and all the yellow nozzles are darker.

Cleaning doesn´t help.
 
Hello,

My R3000 works fine - MK.

Problems comes when switching on PK:

-50% black nozzles are gone,

-50% yellow nozzles are gone, the rest 50% yellow nozzles are darker. Sometimes no yellow nozzle is missing and all the yellow nozzles are darker.

Cleaning doesn´t help.
Pk/Mk switch valve is failing!

Joe
 
Probably a failing print head issue. Time to think about a new printer unfortunately as the repair is cost prohibitive. Seems to be a common problem. Happened to my R3000

Greg
 
Epson Stylus Pro 3800.

I replaced black damper and PK/MK switch valve.

1. INK-CHARGE....ok (The tubes are full of ink and maintenance tank is heavier)

2. TEST NOZZLE......on display appeared (first time) : MAINTENANCE. Non-genuine cartridge! May not perform at optimum. Continue? <YES or NO>

I selected YES.

Test nozzle.....the paper was completely empty.

Should I put the genuine cartridges? Reset the counters? What else...?
 
Epson Stylus Pro 3800.

I replaced black damper and PK/MK switch valve.

1. INK-CHARGE....ok (The tubes are full of ink and maintenance tank is heavier)

2. TEST NOZZLE......on display appeared (first time) : MAINTENANCE. Non-genuine cartridge! May not perform at optimum. Continue? <YES or NO>

I selected YES.

Test nozzle.....the paper was completely empty.

Should I put the genuine cartridges? Reset the counters? What else...?
Where did you obtain just the PK/MK switching valve, or did you purchase the complete dampers and switching valve assembly?

Bob P.
 
Epson Stylus Pro 3800.

I replaced black damper and PK/MK switch valve.

1. INK-CHARGE....ok (The tubes are full of ink and maintenance tank is heavier)

2. TEST NOZZLE......on display appeared (first time) : MAINTENANCE. Non-genuine cartridge! May not perform at optimum. Continue? <YES or NO>

I selected YES.

Test nozzle.....the paper was completely empty.

Should I put the genuine cartridges? Reset the counters? What else...?
Where did you obtain just the PK/MK switching valve, or did you purchase the complete dampers and switching valve assembly?

Bob P.
I have cleaned it.
 
It was becouse of the blown fuse. Fuse had 375mA. At the store they didn´t have this kind of fuse, therefore I bought the 315 mA.

Now there are missing even 50-60 % of the nozzles. Head-cleaning doesn´t help.
Do you think it is becouse of the 315 mA fuse?
 
It was becouse of the blown fuse. Fuse had 375mA. At the store they didn´t have this kind of fuse, therefore I bought the 315 mA.

Now there are missing even 50-60 % of the nozzles. Head-cleaning doesn´t help.
Do you think it is becouse of the 315 mA fuse?
Either the new fuse is good or not. Did the new fuse blow again? If not the 315 mA rating is fine. If it blew then you need a 375mA rated fuse, and if that blows again you have an electrical issue.

I do not know of where a fuse in the R3000 that would blow and only affect one color to print correctly. Seems like some people have a PK issue and that is usually stated as a switching valve failure, and if you have black going into the yellow then you could have print head delamination. If that is the case time to start looking at a replacement as a repair with switching valve, and print head replacement could be very costly.

Bob P.
 
Mixing is indeed a problem of dampers and mainly the K valve, just as infamous PK streaks. I recently had a similar issue and after manual damper/valve cleaning some mixing unfortunately still appeared. Here are 2 more remedies that can mitigate the problem: (1) try to cycle PK>MK>PK... few times, (2) power off the printer when not in use as it reduces the printer idle + ink pressurization time.

In case of entire colors missing - did you prime the dampers and K valve after the cleaning?

Now few steps to do it...I'm assuming you have the upper housing off, the whole ink system with dampers and K valve disconnected from printhead. Now the priming can be easily done, especially if you have refillable carts.

You just need to disconnect pressurization hose (left side of the cart ) from air pump, plug a bigger syringe (50ml or so) to that nozzle, using a piece of soft tubing and whatever adapters you need to have a tight connection. Apply some pressure using it (push in some 10-20ml air...gently); this acts in similar way as actual pump and now valves in dampers can operate as they should. Take another syringe (normal tip, no adapters, 10ml or similar size) and gently attach it to one of the damper output ports; syringe tip must not go in, just touch the gasket. Pull few ml of ink until no bubbles come out. If you pull more, you can return it to the respective cart / bottle. Repeat for all channels, push in more air if ink stops flowing. Additionally for K ink, manually rotate the servo of MK/PK valve (small tube connected to opposite motor shaft makes it easy) few times to make sure both lines and dampers are primed.

You can also use this moment to (gently!) push some cleaning fluid to p.head ports. Use syringe+tube, apply low force and don't use very small syringes as they can induce much higher pressure.

In my case, after the re-assembly, a single, normal cleaning cycle produced clean nozzle check (well, as clean as my print head allows :)
 
Mixing is indeed a problem of dampers and mainly the K valve, just as infamous PK streaks. I recently had a similar issue and after manual damper/valve cleaning some mixing unfortunately still appeared. Here are 2 more remedies that can mitigate the problem: (1) try to cycle PK>MK>PK... few times, (2) power off the printer when not in use as it reduces the printer idle + ink pressurization time.
(3) Press the ink cover open/ Up button for 3 seconds to unlock the ink cover ?
 
I wouldn't leave the printer on with ink cover open as a routine standby procedure. Turning it off when not in use for extended periods of time seems like e better choice to me.
 

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