Designjet Z5200 Blurry (3rd try)

[pmfjoe]

That pic is so small I can't really see what's going on.

Load the bond paper and tell the printer it's HP Coated paper.

Kiran

Lets try this.

[Phil B.]

That's funny. A forum about printing that doesn't like the word 'print' in the subject?

Kiran

been that way since I started on here...

[Kiran Otter]

I assume you've run a printhead alignment. This is a scan axis problem so I'd say you've got a bad encoder strip, especially when you mentioned the carriage test not homing in the center. Replacing the carriage PCA replaced the encoder sensor.

Kiran

Have a look at this. What a damaged encoder strip looks like from a Designjet

[pmfjoe]

I assume you've run a printhead alignment. This is a scan axis problem so I'd say you've got a bad encoder strip, especially when you mentioned the carriage test not homing in the center. Replacing the carriage PCA replaced the encoder sensor.

Kiran

Have a look at this. What a damaged encoder strip looks like from a Designjet

Would that cause the other failures with the line sensor (possibly I suppose if it isn't able to scan the print properly) or the color sensor?

[Kiran Otter]

If it were a test that relied on the printer printing a pattern and then scanning it, either as a test or calibration, I would say yes, since the carriage movement is not correct due to the encoder strip. That's my theory anyway. These kinds of problems are hard to diagnose without being able to physically observe the printer.

Btw, what started all this? Did the end user replace a printhead or something?

Kiran

[pmfjoe]

If it were a test that relied on the printer printing a pattern and then scanning it, either as a test or calibration, I would say yes, since the carriage movement is not correct due to the encoder strip. That's my theory anyway. These kinds of problems are hard to diagnose without being able to physically observe the printer.

Btw, what started all this? Did the end user replace a printhead or something?

Kiran

Apparently from what I was told it was quite random. They just went to print and it happened.