Raw & Post Processing, Printing > Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks

Epson 3880 not printing blacks

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mbaginy:
Suddenly my Epson 3880 is printing black poorly, it seems blueish.  I've attached a black & white example, but color prints are similar - black not printing properly.  Greys seem okay.

I've run a few cycles of print head cleaning and have also done so myself mechanically, but to no avail.  I've exchanged all black (and grey) cartridges, but that didn't seem to help.

Has anyone encountered this situation before?  Can anyone offer advice or a fix?

Mark D Segal:
More info would be helpful to try to understand the problem:

You don't mention whether you did nozzle check prints between the cleaning cycles to see what the cleaning did or didn't accomplish. Did you?
Did you run a Black channel purge print between cleaning cycles?
Did you let the printer sit overnight after running several cycles before trying again?
Also, I don't understand what you mean by "done so myself mechanically". Could you elaborate?
How long was the printer sitting unused since you first encountered this problem?
What room humidity is it sitting in?

Depending on the answers to these questions, with that printer, if several cleaning cycles don't clear a channel, it could signal a head problem.

mbaginy:
Mark, the cleaning I performed myself was similar to what is shown in these two videos: cleaning video 1 and cleaning video 2.

I'd been printing one or two nights a week for the past months without problems.  Humidity is currently low (heating in winter).

I had performed some cleaning cycles yesterday and again today, also one power cleaning cycle (which really runs through ink!).

I have run a nozzle check after each cleaning operation.  Each check shows that black ink is not printing (at all) and all other inks a printing fine.

How do I purge the black ink?  I haven't found that in the manual (or did I miss it?).

I've recently updated the print driver, but have printed properly since then.

mbaginy:
Mark, I found a link explaining the purging of colors.  I've downloaded two files and will purge light black and photo/matt black to see what happens.

This is the first time I've heard of purging a color of a printer.  Makes sense.  I'll let you know if this purging helps.

Mark D Segal:
I suggest you run three successive cycles of "Black ink purge print-powerclean-nozzle check". If that fails, leave the printer over night the next morning do a nozzle check, and if needed try the same cycles again, leave overnight and next morning do a nozzle check. If still clogged, call Epson, as it would likely be a head defect.

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