At my wits end! 3880 is suddenly not printing right.

[One Frame at a Time]

4 hours ago I started on a project I thought would take an hour.  My previously reliable 3880 is suddenly not printing colors correctly.  I have no idea why.
I have checked my settings umpteen times.  My Epson 1400 prints fine.  But this project is for a fine art auction so would like to use pigment ink.

Gamma is all wrong and colors are washed out.  Blacks are not black.
Some colors are just all wrong.  Grey is light blue.  Orange is Hot pink.

I uninstalled the drivers and printer 4 times.  Once letting windows select the driver from the net.
I have no idea what is wrong but the nozzel check works fine.

Any help would be appreciated!!

Paul

[Jim Kasson]

I have no idea what is wrong but the nozzle check works fine.

What app? What Windows version? Printer controlling colors or app/color management system controlling colors? Try swapping the control source in the last sentence and see what happens. If the app/CMS is controlling colors, is the color management in the printer turned off? I know these are basic things, but we have to start somewhere.

Jim

[One Frame at a Time]

Thanks Jim!  Once again pilot error seems to be the culprit! 
I just ran an Auto Nozzle check instead of the manual check I usually run.
The black was completely blocked.  almost 100 pct.  I didn't notice it because my brain saw the light black and light light black.
I did not realize the Photo Black was completely missing against the far left side of the page.....

I ran some prints 2 weeks ago on this machine.  Perfect - stunning as usual. 
 I have never had a clog, even when its been stored for 6 months at a time (literally).
But, when I saw bad results and got what I thought was an OK nozzle check, I wasted a ton of time looking for bad
software.  Posting so if this happens to someone else they should run the Auto Check, not the manual one.

[pluton]

Almost the same thing happened to me about a week ago with my 3800.....bad color, no banding patterns, no explanation....sure enough: nozzle clogged.  Unclogged with one cleaning, everything fine again.

[JayWPage]

If your problem is just with the black channel, you could switch blacks (PK -> MK) and back again rather than a full cleaning. That will probably unclog the black channel and use less ink overall.