Hi folks,
I have an ImageWriter II that's been in the family since it was bought
new in 1988. I hope this is fair game for the list. I used to use it
with my Mac Plus, purchased simultaneously in 1988.
It's been in storage, and I recently got it out to use with my Apple
IIgs.
Please bear with me here as it'll take a few paragraphs to accurately
explain the problem.
Somewhere along the line, it has developed a problem where it
occasionally skips a horizontal "scanline". This is manifested by what
looks like very thin white horizontal streaks randomly throughout the
printed page. These transverse the entire width of the paper, and are
only one "pixel" high. This happens very randomly, sometimes it can
print a whole page without a problem whereas the following page will
have many of these anomalies.
Printing text with a black ink ribbon, my first thought was that I
needed a new ink ribbon. New ink ribbon installed = darker text, but
the problem remains and is almost more apparent because the surrounding
text is darker making for a bigger contrast. So my next thought was
that there is something wrong with the tractor feed causing the feed to
"overshoot" and advance the paper slightly farther than it should,
randomly.
That was until I stuck in a (brand new) color ribbon to print a banner
from Print Shop. With a color ribbon, the problem is far worse. What
actually appears to be happening is that the printer is OCCASIONALLY
raising the ribbon higher than it should. Those of you who have
experience with these printers know that magenta (red?) is below the
yellow band on the printer ribbon. When printing an image that should
have been solid yellow, instead of the missed streaks, I got random
bands of red throughout.
I am aware of the ribbon "height" adjuster, but I don't think this is
an adjustment issue. Because, as I indicated earlier, the printer can
go as much as a whole page without problems and just randomly spits
these out at me. A red stripe in the middle of a yellow image is hard
to miss, no matter how you look at it.
I lubricated the hinges with machine oil that appear to pivot when the
printer needs to change the ribbon height, but this had absolutely zero
effect on the problem.
Anyone else had this problem? What's the solution? I'd really like to
restore this printer to perfect (wishful thinking?) working order
again, since cosmetically, it's beautiful.
--
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