Epson R800 - A waste of money ... NOT!

Geez, any chance on taking it back? That's not acceptable in my books, I'd be sending back with a note.

 

Yeah I have had great prints with mine. I assume you have all the software and profiles installed? The banding is another issue though  I would send it back

 

Doug... Before you pushed the button on your computer to print, did you go into "preferences" and select which resolution you wanted? for example..."best quality"...did you select the type of paper you are using? In the preferences box...you have to choose all of those issues each time. I learned that when I set up my Epson R1800 for the first time.

 

How are you handling color management? Make sure that if you are doing it in PS, that you are not also having the print driver profiling also. I had the R800 (and now the R1800) and it should not show obvious banding.

 

I have had mine for 15 months now, and I am delighted with it.
Only problem I had, which was a big one, was due to Microsoft's SP2. That screwed it up entirely, but I know that they have now solved this with new drivers.
BW. Bob F.

 

A further thought. If you are getting BANDING then you may not have not set your preferences correctly.
Use Best Photo. Works for me.
BW. Bob F.

 

I once had this problem with another printer. It turned out be related somehow to my screen resolution. In any case, I suspect it has something to do with your setup. I also recommend sizing your prints yourself before printing. (at 300dpi). I'm sure you'll work it out. YOu might also try your printer on a friends computer to help determine if it could be a problem with the printer itself.

 

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

 

You already ran a cleaning cycle, but did you run the head alignment cycle? I had to do this with my old R800 right out of the box.

 

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

 

I had serious banding issues with my older Epson printer (C82). I had bought it because of the purported quality and longevity of the Durabright inks. Unfortunately, the C82 also has a design flaw. While changing cartridges, there is a vacuum hose on the head cleaner that can dislodge causing it to eventually stop printing black. Well, that happened and it sat around for 1.5 months until I figured out the problem (after buying another expensive black ink cartridge). After much finagling, I reconnected the hose. No black printing and very streaky color printing. Hmmm.

Another bit of research found that Durabright inks can seriously clog up the print head if you don't print frequently enough. Evidently, the 1.5 months was too long. I went through four or five cycles of head cleaning, but only got marginal improvement. Print head replacement must be done by Epson service centers and, although I didn't research it, I'm sure it would be a significant percentage of the price of a new printer.

After a bit of research, and a very shallow wallet, I bought a Canon Pixma i4000 (or something like that). It was $99 after rebates, does duplexing, uses cheaper ink (that uses a simple optical system for detecting ink levels, none of those "smart cartridges" that can get reset and think they're out of ink when they're not) and it has a user replaceable print head.

I did not research the estimated longevity of the prints, but I can go to a service printer if I want longer lasting prints. As is, the Canon produces beautiful prints, up to 8.5x11" borderless and is a very fast, very high quality b/w printer and the duplexing is nice since my wife and I wind up printing a lot of text (she's a teacher).

The only other contender in my research (since I wasn't going to get an Epson this go around) was one of the new HP's that have a grey ink cartridge that produces high-quality, untinted BW prints, but after looking at the ink costs, I went with the Canon.

 

Spend another $45 for QImage (http://www.ddisoftware.com) and get the absolute best from your prints.