Ink Bay Door Opens Itself?

I haven't run a print job since late February, surely my 7900's longest idle period to date. Gallery sales of my prints dribble in, always nice during this slow time of year. I had that print job in February, doing another batch of repro-prints for a local watercolor painter (she insists on calling these giclées, about which I've no complaint since she pays her bills promptly). I've been out shooting a little, but it's an odd time of year here in northwestern Montana. Winter's pretty much over, but spring has only just appeared in the form of warm and sunny days. Until a week ago it was still quite cold, with cloudy skies and generally lousy light and "blah" color. Fortunately, that's beginning to change.

But to my point for this posting: I've just completed the installation of a laminate floor in my print studio. As you'd expect, a job like this requires removing as much as possible from the room. For the most part that was no trouble, just a lot of leg-work. I left one large (and heavy!) desk in the room, and I left the 7900. When I completed laying the flooring in one half of the room, I moved the desk and the printer to the completed side, and then finished the rest. I wrapped up the job yesterday, removed all the tools, trash, and remaining materials from the room, and then moved furniture, my framed print inventory, all my printing supplies, and a few other odds-and-ends back into place. That included rolling the printer across the room and restoring it to its customary location. Given the smooth flooring and the casters on the 7900's stand, that was quite easy. During all of this the printer remained in standby mode. It's powered through a small UPS, so even when I had to unplug the machine from the mains it remained in sleep mode—LCD dark, the usual LEDs on or blinking. That's the normal "off" state for my printer.

The 7900 and a few printing supplies on the new floor.

After moving the printer I continued working in the room. Perhaps 30 minutes after moving the printer I noticed the LCD was lit; it displayed a message indicating the left ink bay door was open. Huh? I hadn't open it. I hadn't touched the printer's controls—hadn't, in fact, for a month.

But sure enough, the left bay door was unlatched, as if I'd instructed the machine to open it. I pushed to latch it closed. The printer then made its usual noises, and the carriage made several very slow, full-width passes. After the expected time-out period, the machine went into sleep mode.

I don't know how or why the door came ajar. The floor is very smooth, so there were no bumps or impacts as I rolled the printer across the room. I didn't lift or drop the machine. Odd. Clearly the door came ajar during the move, but I can't explain how it happened.

I'm awaiting receipt of some Photoshop files from my Michigan panorama client. I also have a couple of prints I want to make for a show that will hang next week. In the next day or two I'll start up the printer and (I hope!) verify there are no other anomalies.

  --Jay