Ringing or ghosting: echoes and ripples on the walls

Likely causes

In order: the most frequent cause comes first.

1. 01Mechanical vibration: the head or bed oscillates after braking
2. 02Acceleration too high for the frame's stiffness
3. 03Slack belts or bearings with play
4. 04The printer resting on a resonant surface, such as a light table or a shelf
5. 05Excessive moving mass, typical of heavy direct-drive extruders

How to fix it

Apply one fix at a time and reprint the same test part. Changing three settings at once tells you nothing about which one worked.

1. 01

   Lower acceleration and jerk

   Easy

   It is the immediate fix and costs nothing. Halve the acceleration in the slicer or firmware and reprint the same part to compare. You lose some speed, but you will see straight away whether the problem is dynamic.

2. 02

   Tension the belts and check the bearings

   Medium

   A slack belt lets the head keep oscillating after braking. Tension it until it sounds like a low guitar string, without overdoing it, because excess tension wears bearings and motors. Also check there is no lateral play in the carriages.

3. 03

   Put the printer on a heavy, stable base

   Medium

   A concrete paver, a thick board or a granite slab on anti-vibration feet absorbs much of the oscillation. Never leave it on a hanging shelf or on a table that moves when you lean on it.

4. 04

   Enable resonance compensation if your machine has it

   Hard

   Modern printers running Klipper or equivalent firmware include input shaping, which measures the machine's resonant frequencies and compensates the motion to cancel them. It is the definitive fix and lets you recover the speed you gave up.

How to prevent it

• —Do not leave the printer on light or vibrating furniture
• —Check belt tension periodically
• —Raise speed gradually and check quality at each step
• —Keep separate profiles for speed and for finish

Sources

1. [1]Ghosting | Prusa Knowledge BasePrusa Research · Manufacturer · accessed July 27, 2026