GMG Epson 9900 Not passing verification or calibration, Max delta E won't drop

Nickpre123

New member
Hello, So I'm having a bit of trouble getting my 9900 to calibrate and pass verification, and I was hoping someone might have an idea on how I could solve the problem. I'm running GMG ColorProof 5, using a Epson 9900 with Epson ink, and using GMG ProofPaper semiMatte 250.

So last week my proofs started failing verification with the MaxDelta E failing just above 6.0. I assumed it was a change in environment so I began an AutoCali but could not calibration to pass either, again it was the MaxDelta E that was too high.
First things first I ran a head check and a cleaning, no luck. Our 9900 has a ILS20 spectro proofer so I took that off and cleaned the whole thing for dust, examined the lens and made sure the calibration tile was clean, still no luck.
At this point I worked though the GMG "Tips and tricks for x900 checklist" the steps are as followed.
1. shake up ink
2. clean white tile
3. printhead cleaning
4. nozzle check
5.print head alignment uni-directional
6. print head alignment bidirectional
7. determine roll tension
8. determine paper feed adjustment.

I also tried putting in a new roll of paper hoping maybe the old one was defective.

I worked through all of those steps and adjusted the roll tension and paper feed and was hoping to have success but basically got the same exact results that I was already having.
I did realize that if I increased the duration of the power drying from 30secs to 2mins I could get a GRACoL Verification to pass with a Max delta E between 5.5 and 6. SWOP still won't drop below 6.5.
The auto Calibrations settings had a power drying time of 2mins and still kept failing on the Max delta E for Color so I tried changing that to an Air dry for 10min but still had no luck.
I also lowered the tolerance of the AVG Delta E for color form 3 to 2 hoping to get things tightened up a bit. no luck.
I've attached a screen shot of my last attempt at calibrating so you can see the range of numbers I'm getting.

It should also be noted that I am running a 4880 right next to the 9900 and it is having no problems so I have a feeling it's not a change in temp or humidity.
I make no claim so be a printing expert so if it looks like I'm doing something that does not make any sense please call me out.
Anyone got any suggestions?
 

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First, you mentioned you did a nozzle check. Are you getting completely clear nozzle checks? Or are there any broken lines? Even the slightest break could result in failed calibrations. It could be an unrecoverable nozzle, in which case the print head would need to be replaced.

Finding which patches you are getting the high dE on may help you determine the source of the issue. When calibrating, if you click "Details" and sort by dE, you can see which colors are failing. It may be isolated to specific colors.

I'm surprised GMG didn't suggest to reset the calibration. I would try that first:

How to reset a printer calibration
  1. Click the Output button on the navigation panel on the left of the main window.
  2. Under Available Printer Calibrations, right-click a calibration set to bring up the context menu.
  3. Click Reset Calibration.
  4. You will be asked whether you want to reset the calibration or not. Click Yes if you want to use the initial calibration file as a new starting point.
If that fails, and you cannot figure out how to fix the problem you could use the following work around:
Create a new MX4 for GRACoL and SWOP. Iterate each until you achieve an acceptable dE. As long as your Epson is consistently printing in this new manner, the new MX4s should be valid for the current print condition.
 
NathanD thanks so much for getting back to me. So I ran another nozzle check and looked at it with a loop and it looks perfect so I don't believe it is a broken nozzle. Resetting the calibration seems like a pretty obvious thing to do not that I'm aware of it! thanks I'm going to reset it back to the baseline and see if I get better results. I also noticed that the current Calibration set for our 9900 is "GMG Driver 8c photoblack 720 dpi bidirec" I didn't set up our system so I'm a little confused why we would be using a 8c calibration set when the 9900 can use 10c...or so that's what I think i'm understanding from reading the GMG manual. Do you think that is anything to be concerned about or could it be adding to the problem?
 
success! After switching the calibration set to the 10c and going through pre-linearization I got a successful calibration. I then had to readjust the roll tension and paper feed adjustment and I'm now getting verifications on both GRACoL and SWOP proofs. thanks for the help.
 

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