lc@pbhyd.PacBell.COM (Larry Colton) (05/10/88)
A friend has problems with his ImageWriter II: alternate lines
print lightly. He will get one line nice and dark, the next
line light, then dark, then light, etc. The problem cropped
up rather suddenly and happens in all text print modes (draft, nlq).
He has tried new ribbons, different paper, cleaning the printer,
and adjusting the paper thickness setting. While the new ribbons
made some improvement, nothing has totally fixed the problem.
A preliminary check with a dealer drew the response "it will be
about $200 and we should be able to fix it." Yea sure, $200 and
they don't even know what the problem is!
Has anyone had a similar problem with the ImageWriter II and been
able to fix it? Any suggestions will be most welcome.
Thanks in advance.
--
Larry Colton {att,bellcore,sun,ames,pyramid}!pacbell!lctsang@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Donald Tsang) (05/10/88)
In article <1163@pbhyd.PacBell.COM> lc@pbhyd.PacBell.COM (Larry Colton) writes: > >A friend has problems with his ImageWriter II: alternate lines >print lightly. He will get one line nice and dark, the next >line light, then dark, then light, etc. The problem cropped >up rather suddenly and happens in all text print modes (draft, nlq). > >He has tried new ribbons, different paper, cleaning the printer, >and adjusting the paper thickness setting. While the new ribbons >made some improvement, nothing has totally fixed the problem. > >A preliminary check with a dealer drew the response "it will be >about $200 and we should be able to fix it." Yea sure, $200 and >they don't even know what the problem is! > >Has anyone had a similar problem with the ImageWriter II and been >able to fix it? Any suggestions will be most welcome. Sounds like your friend has a printer head alignment problem, or something similar. You see, the Imagewriter II uses a fairly wide ribbon (which is also why it can use 4 colors), and strikes each of the four "rows" in turn. If, for some reason, the head were aligned such that it didn't strike the (say) bottom row as hard (like if it were to far away), the text that was printed from the bottom part of the ribbon would be lighter. Simple, eh? (of course, your mileage may differ, depending...) On a similar subject... Does anyone know how much an Imagewriter II print head costs? I think the bottom pin in mine is a little worn. I took it out and looked, and sure enough, the bottom one doesn't stick out as far. Donald Tsang tsang@cory.Berkeley.EDU || ...!ucbvax!cory!tsang