Horizontal Banding After Changing Inks

I'm in the middle of a job and seem to have run into an issue I can't resolve..

I was doing a print and suddenly everything printed greener than usual on the 2nd row. I figured that the Magenta may be completely out -- even though the ink estimates said there should be 30ml left.

After changing out the Magenta ink cartridge, the prints continued to be greenish, so I did a color calibration. But then I noticed that the Magenta blocks showed banding. So I did all the image quality maintenance steps available (cleaning print heads, printhead alignment, etc) and the Magenta STILL shows banding.

I'm not sure what else there is I'm missing -- especially since it was working fine before having to change ink cartridges..

I've attached photos of the initial print starting to show green (lack of magenta) -- and also the patterns during the maintenance. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

additional photos

Hi @bhprinter,

Since the banding is only appearing in M it could be that one or both M PHs are in bad shape.

Our suggestion would be to:

• Run a Printhead hard clean for magenta to try to recover the printheads -> go to the front panel to Advanced calibrations > Printhead hard cleaning > Continue, and select the printhead(s) to be cleaned.

• Check the status of the printheads by printing the nozzle health plot -> check the M PH status. If the PHs are still bad, you can clean a printhead manually with a soft, fiber-free cloth dampened with de-ionized water. Clean gently, with minimal pressure.

• Check the nozzle health status again -> If the PHs are still bad, replace the one that is in bad shape.

Remember to align the printheads after the replacement and follow the correct color management workflow to achieve a good color consistency (running a CLC before beginning the job. Note the CLC is media dependent).

I hope this helps.

#3 Thanks for the reply and tips.

I've tried all those things during the weekend and it's still having issues. I was just hoping that it would be a fluke since it happened so suddenly.

I tried contacting HP Latex support since my print heads are still under warranty and they said that a "technician will be contacting me" but I still haven't gotten any word back.

Hello,

Were you able to resolve this issue? I am having the same EXACT problem after replacing an ink.