After a slow start to the year, I've been very busy printing in March. I rarely print on mat papers, but recently, after completing several client jobs on Epson Luster (with PK ink), I had to switch to MK, and then make 14 small prints for a client.
Several of the inks in my printer show 1%, which means these cartridges are somewhere between 1% of their capacity and empty. I've learned I can make a number of prints with inks at 1% before I'm forced to replace them; Epson has indicated it's perfectly OK to run these cartridges until the machine stops and requires new ink, and I've done that a number of times. When I initiated the swap from PK to MK, the printer displayed a message indicating there wasn't enough ink to continue. The machine never specifies which ink, and with a number of "low ink" cartridges this can lead to a lot of trial and error (or just swapping all of the low-ink cartridges for fuller ones). In this case I assumed the complaint was about MK; I installed a new cartridge, and the swap then completed as usual. "As usual" means after the swap finishes, no auto-cleaning happens prior to the first print job. I finished the printing job, but left MK loaded.
Today, two days later, I wanted to print some focus targets to test a new lens. I'd print these on very glossy paper, so I swapped back to PK. Once again the printer complained of not enough ink to continue. I removed the 1% PK and installed a fuller one, expecting the ink swap to complete after that. The MK to PK swap then completed and as usual when swapping from MK to PK, an auto-cleaning started. And stopped right away. Again the machine displayed the "not enough ink" message. Having no clue which ink(s) stopped the show, and not having time to change them one at a time to determine the culprit(s), I changed all of the 1% cartridges (there are six, total). The cleaning then completed.
An MK to PK swap always requires two auto-cleanings. I inserted a sheet of plain paper and initiated a nozzle check print. As expected, the printer then performed the second auto-clean, after which the nozzle check print completed. All nozzles looked good. I then removed all of the fuller cartridges and installed the 1% inks.
My focus targets for testing the lens have no color patterns, only black. These targets are small, so I set up an image in Photoshop to print two per sheet. I needed six targets (three sheets). I printed the first sheet, and after carefully inspecting it I printed the second. When that completed I inserted the sheet to print the third. The 7900 stopped, displaying the "not enough ink to clean" message. Huh? Clean what? Why? With Auto Nozzle Check (ANC) turned off since the first day I owned the printer, how could it know it needed a cleaning?
As usual with this machine, I had no idea, and no way to find out short of swapping inks with fuller cartridges one at a time until the machine did its cleaning. Since my targets use only black ink, in this case PK, I reinstalled the fuller PK. That allowed the cleaning to proceed. When it finished I restored the 1% PK to the printer, and then, finally, the last print completed (and looked fine).
Nothing above is unusual except that third cleaning, and that's something I've never seen before today. I don't know what initiated it. I don't know if it really was necessary, or if some other glitch caused the printer to think so. Perhaps the 1% PK cartridge is very nearly empty, and that triggered an incorrect message. In any case, I finished printing the test targets and they look fine. Just another 7900 mystery.
--Jay
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