Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Ink Bay Door Issue (Again!)

Back in April I wrote about my 7900's left ink bay door opening itself. I've not made any prints in the last several weeks, have not disturbed the printer, have had no reason to wake it from stand-by mode. I have installed a laminate-covered work surface in the studio, in the corner opposite from the printer's location. I've used that workbench recently for some matting and framing work. I've otherwise spent little time in the room.

I entered the studio yesterday and noticed the printer's LCD was lit; it's bright enough to catch one's eye. Said another way, in stand-by mode the printer does not usually call attention to itself, so one can't help but notice when the display is lit.

The LCD carried a message indicating a bay door was unlatched. And it was, exactly as described in the April posting:
"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."
As with last time, I can think of no cause for this. The machine hasn't been touched. It's well out of the normal traffic path in the room. I don't bump into it when working or moving around in the studio. I have a small UPS for the printer; while there have been no obvious power surges or other issues, the 7900 should be safe from them.

A quick Google search resulted in no hits of others reporting a similar issue (the search did find my April posting). Perhaps my print studio is haunted by a ghost who likes pushing buttons.

  --Jay