Epson 3880 not printing black

[Jeff-Grant]

My 3880 sat for two months while I was travelling. On my return, a quick head clean resurrected it. I have printed a few images over the last month which were fine. Today, I tried to print with weird results. Having just upgraded to El Cap, I assumed that I must have a driver issue. That was wrong.

I am not getting any black. The occasional nozzle check shows two or three segments but mostly it's zero. My suspicion is that I must have air in the lines. Both PK and MK were very low. I have changed PK so far but nothing changed.

My assumption is that it's not the ink changing solenoid as I'm not getting PK or MK. I don't think that I have a clog, so I'm left with air. I'm hoping that someone has solved this before. and can comment.

[howardm]

have you done the Windex clean?  The wiper/purge pad clean?    (youtube, look for 'jtoolman')

I would think that if it's just air in the lines, repeated printing of real images on bond paper (or something like a TV test chart that is B/W) to exercise those inks.  Repeated consecutive cleanings, esp power cleans are quite bad for the health of the head.

[BillK]

Check out this forum thread.
http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=99549.msg815190;topicseen#msg815190

The 3880 has been know to leak black ink and run dry while the printer still shows ink in the cartridge.
Its related to a stuck PK/MK change over valve.
Did you do a cleaning or 2 after putting the new PK in. This would be needed to purge the air out of the lines.
You could also try to print a page or 2 of solid black.

[howardm]

If you think the valve is leaking, then weigh the black carts.  A fully empty cart is somewhere between 65-70 grams (a full cart is 150g)

It has not been my experience that a cleaning or 2 is required after a cart swap.

[BillK]

It has not been my experience that a cleaning or 2 is required after a cart swap.

In this case it would be because the cartridge was run dry. This never happens normally.

[howardm]

the cart cannot run dry.  there is extra in it to prevent exactly that.  The printer declares a cart full empty even though it actually has about 10mL remaining and the motivated student could harvest it.

[BobShaw]

Hi Jeff, from recent experience, if the changeover is not working then you will see it on the display. You will see what the selected ink is and you will see it change.
In fact doing everything from the display eliminates any software issues.
Do a power clean in the maintenance menu.
Also, if any ink is low then you can't do a clean.
If it is the changeover then I just spent $600 plus and they used about $300 of ink doing a replacement ink delivery system. I would have been better off to buy a new P800.
If you know how to do it yourself then you can get the parts on eBay.
Good luck. Bob

[Jeff-Grant]

Gents,

Many thanks for your posts. To answer your questions:

1. The 3880 is clean. I am currently maintaining a 3880 with OEM, and a 1430 and 2000 with Piezography inks. I did a head clean with Piezoflush under the head, and also let the head stand on the capping station with flush in it.
2. The carts are not empty. My three carts which are close to empty are VLM 79.3gm, PK 82.2gm, MK 88.2gm.
3. I did a number of cleans and swaps but there was no black.

Having read your responses this morning, I did a power clean which has cleared the problem. Both blacks now look good on a nozzle check. I have printed purge patterns with both inks and they show no banding. I have no idea what has happened really. My assumption is that air has got in somewhere while I was away. I will cross my fingers and hope that it is now going to continue working.

Now I am left to battle with Sydney humidity as I try to print Museo artist cards.

[mfryd]

the cart cannot run dry.  there is extra in it to prevent exactly that.  The printer declares a cart full empty even though it actually has about 10mL remaining and the motivated student could harvest it.

Actually, when the printer malfunctions, the cart can go dry.

The printer has no way of measuring how much ink is in the cartridge.  It knows how much ink the cart starts with, and tracks how much ink it has tried to print.  It declares a cart empty when it has requested the rated 80ml.

When the black valve malfunctions, black ink leaks out without the printer knowing.  The cart can be physically empty, while the printer still thinks that it is mostly full.

This is a common failure mode of the 3880.  The symptom is no black.    To verify, weigh the black cart.  If it really is empty, you have a stuck valve. 

You can try to get the valve unstuck by switching to the other black and back.  If you are lucky, this (and a new black cart) will get you back up and running until it starts leaking black again.  If that doesn't work, buy a new printer.

The other failure that I frequently see with the 3880 is the failure of the networking port.  While it doesn't make economic sense to fix the port, you can use and external print server as a work-around.

[BillK]

Actually, when the printer malfunctions, the cart can go dry.

The printer has no way of measuring how much ink is in the cartridge.  It knows how much ink the cart starts with, and tracks how much ink it has tried to print.  It declares a cart empty when it has requested the rated 80ml.

When the black valve malfunctions, black ink leaks out with the printer knowing.  The cart can be physically empty, while the printer still thinks that it is mostly full.

This is a common failure mode of the 3880.  The symptom is no black.    To verify, weigh the black cart.  If it really is empty, you have a stuck valve. 

You can try to get the valve unstuck by switching to the other black and back.  If you are lucky, this (and a new black cart) will get you back up and running until it starts leaking black again.  If that doesn't work, buy a new printer.

The other failure that I frequently see with the 3880 is the failure of the networking port.  While it doesn't make economic sense to fix the port, you can use and external print server as a work-around.

Thanks for explaining it fully. This exact thing has happened to me on 2 different 3880's. Both fixed by a new cartridge and a cleaning cycle, also a black switch and back to free the valve.
Never had to resort to a power clean. I should have taken time to explain it further before. The black cartridge CAN go dry if this situation occurs.

[howardm]

that is a viable yet unfortunate possible scenario.