Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Thomas
Keesling" <tom.keesling@a...> wrote:

> My 1280 with CIS and VM inks has performed extremely well for two years,
but
> now will not print black at all.
>
> I'm on my second set of 4-oz bottles of VM inks, and installed new tubing
> and carts when I got the second set of bottles about 9 months ago.
>
> I recently had to take the printer in for minor mechanical repair. I
removed
> the CIS and installed new Epson cartridges when I took the printer in for
> the repair. Upon the return of the printer, I continued using the Epson
> cartridges for a few days before reinstalling the CIS/VM inks. The printer
> was printing flawlessly before I took it in for the repair and continued
to
> print flawlessly with the Epson carts.
>
> The printer repair took only 24 hours, but the CIS was out of the printer
> nearly a week. During that time, the CIS carts were stored using the CIS
> plugs (metal pins on lucite-type plastic). The CIS seemed to work OK right
> after it was reinstalled, but the printer was not used for a few days
> thereafter. The next time I started the printer, the red light was
flashing
> and the color cartridge indicator in the status monitor was grayed out. I
> reseated the cart and everything seemed fine until I tried to print. No
> black. I printed a purge pattern and all five "color" carts are fine, but
no
> black. Initially, I could get a good nozzle check, but now there is no
black
> even in the nozzle check. There are visible air bubbles in the black
tubing
> and they've been stationery through half a dozen cleaning cycles and test
> prints. The cart is clearly still full of ink and the black bottle is
still
> about 1/3 full.
>
> Today, I placed a drop of Fantastik on the black nipple and printed a
purge
> pattern. The five color carts are still fine, but the black printed as a
> medium gray briefly and then quit completely.
>
> It seems I need to replace my black cartridge, but I'm wondering what
might
> have happened so suddenly to my black cartridge while it was out of the
> printer. I'd appreciate your thoughts because if this happens again, I'd
> like to be able to avoid the problem next time.

Thank you all (Art, Jim, Steve, et al) for your suggestions.

After letting the printer sit idle again for a few days, it's now printing
normally. This didn't work the first time when I let it sit overnight, but
letting it sit idle for four days seems to have resolved whatever problem I
had with the black CIS VM cart. I'm still puzzled by the sudden appearance
of the problem and wish I knew what to do next time to avoid a repeat. Oh,
well...

Tom Keesling
Intelligent Design, Inc.