Magenta printing black

[genecampbell]

I have an epson stylus pro 3800 printer. The magenta is printing black (mixed with the magenta) on nozzle check. Any idea what is wrong? Thanks

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Can you please provide some more information - since when do you observe the problem ? Are you printing regularly ? Does the problem go away after some prints ? Are the black and magenta inks adjacent to each other in the printhead ? Any additional information which might help - like an image of the nozzle check.

 

[genecampbell]

Can you please provide some more information - since when do you observe the problem ? Are you printing regularly ? Does the problem go away after some prints ? Are the black and magenta inks adjacent to each other in the printhead ? Any additional information which might help - li

Can you please provide some more information - since when do you observe the problem ? Are you printing regularly ? Does the problem go away after some prints ? Are the black and magenta inks adjacent to each other in the printhead ? Any additional information which might help - like an image of the nozzle check.

See attached. I have run several clean cycles. I cleaned the print head with cleaning solution (unplugged printer and put paper towel down) overnight. When I ran the nozzle check this morning the first print looked pretty good (see attached) than ran a second check (see attached). The magenta is between the cyan and light cyan. I ran a print (see attached) and still printing dark especially the magenta. I have also attached a pic of photo taken from the computer screen for comparison (what it should look like). I do not use the printer every day but try to print at least once a week. I have had the epson 3800 for probably 12 - 15 years and it sat for a spell (3-4 years) several years ago. I started using it again about a year ago. Cleaned it and had it looked over (installed a new black ink damper). It was printing very good up till recently and now this has happened. Any hel

 

[genecampbell]

Not sure this went through the first time...See attached. I have run several clean cycles. I cleaned the print head with cleaning solution (unplugged printer and put paper towel down) overnight. When I ran the nozzle check this morning the first print looked pretty good (see attached) than ran a second check (see attached). The magenta is between the cyan and light cyan. I ran a print (see attached) and still printing dark especially the magenta. I have also attached a pic of photo taken from the computer screen for comparison (what it should look like). I do not use the printer every day but try to print at least once a week. I have had the epson 3800 for probably 12 - 15 years and it sat for a spell (3-4 years) several years ago. I started using it again about a year ago. Cleaned it and had it looked over (installed a new black ink damper). It was printing very good up till recently and now this has happened. Any help would be much appreciated! Would you recommend buying a refurbished epson 3880 for $600?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

There is a possibility of a cross channel contamination - a barrier between adjacent ink channels in the printhead broke, it is a failure mode of older printheads, there are traces of some elastic glue which may harden out over time, this could be a problem with your printer, a mix of magenta and cyan gets you an almost black ink. You can confirm that by filling yellow ink into the magenta cartridge instead of magenta , and a mix of cyan and yellow should result in some type of green. This would be the ultimate proof, or you use a cleaning fluid and print with it until the maganta disappears and cyan should print instead.

The sample printout is not that clear for me, is is not clear how it was printed - paper - driver settings - icm profile ? - brightness settings - a printout before the problem occurs

A printhead with such failure would need to be replaced - repair is not possible, do you have any details what was done as part of the refurbishing action - e.g. replacing the waste ink pads - replacing the black ink switch - replacing the dampers and more ....? I only would take such printer at all with some kind of warranty - no - not really - but that's your decision, a 3880 still has the black ink switch

 

[genecampbell]

I thought if I cleaned the pump cap pad it might help. I cleaned the pump cap ink pad and now the print head will not seat…get error code 1127. Did I jiggle the pad to the point it is misaligned and will not seat …cam this be realigned?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Did I jiggle the pad to the point it is misaligned and will not seat …cam this be realigned?

Probably - but you have reached a point where I rather yould like to have a look into the machine and compare the status there before and after your action - I wouldn't know how to proceed from here w/o that information - sorry .
A service manual might help in this case and can be found here

https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...-here-compliments-of-peterbj.5071/post-107957