Suddenly my Epson 3880 has started to refuse to take paper from the sheet feeder. When i send the file to the printer I simply get the usual Paper Error Message on the lcd. The down arrow button which is supposed to load the paper is completely dead and does nothing. At first cancelling the print job cleared the error message and a second try would succeed, but now it simply gives the error message all of the time. The strange, and to my mind rather worrying thing, is that the printer makes no effort to load the paper i.e. it doesn't start to load the paper and then provide the error message. The error message comes before the printer starts to attempt to take the paper from the feeder. I send the file to the printer and there is no noise from the printer as it would normally start to load the paper and then encounter an error. There is just complete silence and the error message.
Presumably there is some kind of sensor attached to the sheet feeder? But why is it engaged before the printer tries to load the paper? I fear the worst. But at least it prints happily from the rear feeder. I don't mind using the rear feeder for A3 and above (and indeed would only use it for A2) but it is a bit of a pain with A4 sheets.
Anyone with any similar experience or suggestions? The printer is probably 2 1/2 years old, out of warranty, has been relatively lightly used and has performed flawlessly from new. Is this a sign of the end of it?
