Symptoms
Random dark or light bands in area fills. (Print?Quality Plot ' page 8?56, 1. - Area Fills, and the offset?swath lines on the right of the plot.) (See also ' User's Guide, chapter 4.)
Cartridge Fault
DA nozzle is blocked or faulty and is not firing ink?drops. (P?Q Plot ' 2. - Nozzle Checkout.)
DThe ink drops of one nozzle are of smaller volume than those of the other nozzles.
DA nozzle's ink drop volume varies while plotting.
DA nozzle's ink drops are misdirected:
-Defect in manufacture of cartridge
-Dirt or debris on the nozzle plate
-Ink puddling on the nozzle plate
DAn electrical contact is misaligned or damaged on the cartridge, so that it doesn't make correct contact with the circuit on the carriage. (See ' page 8?39, w Carriage Test.)
Plotter Fault
DIncorrect swath?advance angle of the drive roller. This could be caused by a
-Faulty roller (irregular roller radius / defective bearings)
-Media?axis inaccuracy (defective media motor or driver circuit / calibration lost)
DAn electrical contact is faulty in one of the plotter cartridge chutes, so that it doesn't make correct contact with the circuit on the cartridge. (See ' page 8?39, w Carriage Test.)
DNozzles touch the service station, thus causing puddling to occur on the print?head.
DSome of the small slots on the encoder strip are damaged. Therefore the plotter cannot position the carriage correctly during cartridge servicing.
DCartridges are misaligned with respect to each other.
DCalibration values lost or incorrect.
Media Fault
Some types of media have a coating that prevents them getting •wet" from the ink drop. The ink doesn't spread out sufficiently around the point where the dot is placed.
Banding may not occur on some poor?quality media, where it is counteracted by another problem: large dot gain. This is where the ink spreads out excessively on the media around the desired dot position. To accurately test for banding, use HP polyester inkjet film.
Solutions
One or more of the following actions may be appropriate to solve a banding problem:
D | Prime/clean cartridges. | D Perform accuracy calibration |
D | Reseat/replace cartridges. | D Reseat cartridge caps in service station. |
D | Perform cartridge alignment. | D Replace encoder strip. |
C4699?90000 | Troubleshooting 8?57 |