stylus pro 3800 black printing mystery

[tse]

My stylus pro 3800 refuses to print black ink (either one) on documents, photos, everything, but the test page prints fine. This started abruptly after I did a nozzle check due to some minor banding. The test page prints correctly (see attached) but a nozzle check shows no black at all, and a head cleaning stops after four passes and gives error messages "Print Head Cleaning Failure/Solve the problem on the product" and "Communication Failure/Solve the problem on the product." It then spits out the partially completed head cleaning page with some green where the black should be, but declining to nothing on the fourth pass (see attached).

Because the test page prints correctly I am convinced that the black nozzles are not clogged.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the driver (10.90).

I am baffled.

Epson support says my next step is a power clean. I don't think I have enough ink for that, I would have to buy at least four new cartridges for that, and since I'm convinced the black nozzles are not clogged, a power clean will not work and they will say send it in. At that point I'm into unknown $000's for shipping and repair and I suspect I'll get it back without any inks and I will need to spend another $6-700 for inks.

 

[stratman]

Welcome to the forum, tse.

Are the border and text in the Printer Test Page supposed to be green? Or is this supposed to be Black, possibly a composite black? You can see significant banding in the text and maybe an occasional hint of Magenta (or maybe it is some subpixel anti-aliasing artifact on my screen?).

 

[robwignell]

I bought an Epson 3800 that had been sitting unused for more than 5 years. It's nozzle check print was worse than yours and wouldn't complete the nozzle print either. I forget the error number but it wasn't relevant. Unlike you, I couldn't get any good prints. My research lead me to the conclusion that the dampers, that filter the ink before it goes through the print head, were blocked. I found some replacement dampers on eBay and they were relatively inexpensive, but were difficult to replace. In my case, I damaged the switch on the head that controls whether you are using MK or PK ink. The solution was to buy a complete replacement kit which includes dampers, ink lines, the switch, and the ink cartridge housing. It cost me about A$150 from an Epson parts supplier, plus a Service Manual. The kit is identified as Part 511 on page 6 of the attached parts manual STYPRO3800.pdf. I tried to upload the Service Manual, but at 14.1 MB it is too large. Email me at rob_wignell@hotmail.com and I will give you a dropbox link for it.

The Epson Manual notes that the dampers should be replaced every two years, presumably because they can get filled up, especially with heavy use. I expect that the heavy ink you are using could add to the problem.

I recall reading that the "running out of ink after printing some pages" is a feature of partially blocked dampers. The theory is that cleaning process you describe has the effect of charging up the ink in the damper and the short distance into the print head. Subsequent printing appears to work initially but gets progressively worse because the ink can't get through the damper quickly enough.

I noticed that a used kit is available on eBay, see: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/284191261904.

My printer worked as good as new after I had replaced the buffer kit. It seemed overkill to replace all these parts but ink lines can get blocked too, especially bigger printers with longer lines when they are left unused. Your printer sounds like it gets substantial and regular use so it is most likely that the buffers are filling with impurities in the ink and need to be replaced.

I suspect that a lot of Epson 38xx printers have been sent to the tip because the dampers are full and they have been wrongly diagnosed as needing a head replacement.