My best EPSON PRO 3800 seems to have died!

[astecno]

I just finished reassembling the bitch and everything is working now... except the prints are still coming completely blank :/

I disassembled almost everything and I double checked every single connector, tube, flat cable and so on. I inspected carefully the board and the power board. With the printer almost totally disassembled I sent a few jobs to the printer just to observe how things work but could not find anything wrong (evidently I'm far from being an expert in anything, specially with printers, so you know...).

@jtoolman, the Service Manual makes things much more complicated than they really are. Access to the board is very easy, with the job being done almost in the back of the printer. After disassembling the covers (top and sides) I gained immediate access to the back enclosure where resides the circuit board and the power board. It probably took 5 minutes to get in there. Even the print head is very accessible.

But I am not sure the problem is the board. As mentioned before I couldn't see anything wrong with the board. All the capacitors are OK, the fuse is OK, the soldering doesn't seems old or cracked. The circuit board seems like new and everything in the printer seems to be working as expected except for the print head. And that is were I think is the problem. This is reinforced by the Service Manual which mentions a service life of just 5 years for the print head. My printer is 8 or 9 years old so the print head already lived enough which is a shame because the printer received no more than 600 print jobs during all this time.

 

[akramjef]

I know one guy in Epson service dept. I asked him about this weird problem , he sent copy of the service manual and advised to check( page NO. 82 ) and follow its instruction.the sequence of parts to be checked . for my question regarding the possibility of damaging the print head or mother board during this minor movement . he said it is impossible as far as it is disconnected from the main electricity. he mention that all electronics and machines suffer a lot of vibration , shacking and bad handling during its journey from the factory to the costumers ,but rarely they fail when they work for the first time, he insist to check 3 things loose FFC , print head sensor and ink pressurizing mechanism,before doing any replacements.
Note: I have copy of the service manual if you want it i will post it here.
good luck

 

[astecno]

Thanks @akramjef! I'm going to check everything mentioned in this page.

In case someone need it, I have two different copies of the Service Manual for the Epson Pro 3800. One version has 286 pages (14MB) and another has 306 pages (25mb). The bigger version has a bit more information (specially in the disassembling section) and a better board schematics at the end. Not sure I can share links here, please, let me know. So meanwhile if someone need them, just send me a PM.

One thing I'm still looking for is a working version of NVRAM.exe. I got a working copy of Epson Adjustment Wizard 2 for the 3800 but it is missing the NVRAM.exe. So, I copied the NVRAM from the Adj Wizard for the 4880 but it never worked. As seen below, the Printer Port box is empty so I can't do anything regarding NVRAM:

(Please, send me a PM if someone need a copy of the Adjustment Wizard 2 for these printers).

Finally, and this is of a special concern for you @jtoolman because in order to replace the board you will need to run a few adjustment from this tool: since I upgraded to Windows 10, Epson Adjustment Wizard 2 stopped working. It detects the printer but as soon as I click in the Start button, an error message is shown:

 

[stratman]

since I upgraded to Windows 10, Epson Adjustment Wizard 2 stopped working. It detects the printer but as soon as I click in the Start button, an error message is shown

Maybe you need to run the tool in Administrator mode. Try right clicking on the executable file (or the desktop icon or the Start Menu listing) that starts the tool and select "Run As Administrator".

You could also try running the tool in Compatibility Mode and select the operating system you had when the tool worked.

 

[PeterBJ]

If running the program as an administrator or in compatibility mode doesn't work, then you could try to borrow a laptop running an older Windows version that the program works with. Maybe a friend or a family member has an old Win XP or Vista laptop you can have for free?

 

[akramjef]

I have epson pro 3800 wizard 2 but unable to upload here because it is 20.5 MB in RAR format . it showed

Run under Windows XP.

Change PC date to October 20, 2008 before run the program.

 

[astecno]

You could also try running the tool in Compatibility Mode and select the operating system you had when the tool worked.

This did the trick, thanks!

 

[astecno]

I have epson pro 3800 wizard 2 but unable to upload here because it is 20.5 MB in RAR format . it showed

Run under Windows XP.

Change PC date to October 20, 2008 before run the program.

Do you have a working NVRAM.exe, by any chance?

 

[stratman]

This did the trick, thanks!

Great! YW.