Artisan 730 DX5 disassembly for ribbon terminal access?

LAV8ORG

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Ok, quick background, this not-particularly-worn Artisan 730 developed a horizontal banding issue after sitting for a day. One channel just isn't firing correctly. The nozzle check is flawless, alignment is fine. The spacing isn't consistent and it's restricted to one channel, so it probably isn't a page feed or sensor error. I've eliminated driver, print processor, OS, and connection type as culprits. In much digging I found one report of a similar problem mostly disappearing at lower DPIs, and that is also the case here; there's a strong correspondence between printer DPI and the visibility of the banding.
Anywho, I've swapped the mainboard to no avail, so it's down to the ribbon cables (which look fine) and the head. I've also already attempted further seating both ribbons. My experience with electronic repair has me inclined to think there's a solder failure on one of the ribbon terminals, but only one is (barely) accessible. Considering that there are still screws that can be removed on the head after pulling it from the carriage, is it possible to continue disassembling the head to gain access to the circuit board without permanently damaging it? Or, better yet, have I overlooked something?
 

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Ink stained Fingers

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could you please post the nozzle check and scan it with rather high resolution, just that part, not the complete empty page, those problems should be visible in the nozzle check even if all of the nozzle fire. It should be some problem in the cyan area. Are you printing frequently or not that much ? Are you using Epson cartrigdes or do you do refill ? The effect is more or less visible with diferent quality and paper settings since the overprint cycles vary. And the Epson nozzles can eject a varying amount of ink controlled by the driver, so this in combination with several print passes can hide such effects when different nozzles print at the same location sequentially. This is not a ribbon problem, it could be - in rare cases - a mechanical problem with the printhead carriage moving with a small loose on the transport rod, but then all colors would be affected.
 
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LAV8ORG

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Apologies for the severe delay in a response, I became quite wrapped up in preparing for my first art fest; no spare time to get the printer back together, and then the task just got buried in the queue.

That aside, I was able to (mostly) resolve the problem when a third Artisan immediately developing the same problem brought me to my senses and turned my focus to the obvious: the ink. Looking at the droplet pattern under a microscope showed very misshapen LC dots. I concluded thus that it was either heavies settling in the CISS or ink volatiles having evaporated. The former was eliminated by purging the lines, agitating, recharging and retesting to no avail (besides the fact that it is purportedly dye ink which isn't supposed to have heavies IIRC). Although I had used tens of mL of this ink making flawless prints, replacing it fixed the problem, so its composition must've gone off in the course of a few months. Whether it's solvent loss, particle aggregation or etc. I don't know.
Well, as I said, mostly resolved. Two printers showed complete recovery, but one can only produce acceptable prints with the high quality setting. I can only guess that the printhead and/or linear bearing on that one is just well on its way to knackered.

Thanks for trying to help!
 
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