Epson 3880 printing problems

[Bruce Pollock]

Make sure the nozzle check you run prints the large rectangles. I have seen many cases where most of the rectangle is fine but has small gaps, and thus indicates the need for further head cleaning.

Thanks for this as well. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for in the output from the nozzle check. There was definitely some gapping in one of the blacks in the early sections of the printout, but by the end of it things looked OK to my unknowing eye. Maybe I'll agitate the cartridges and try one more nozzle check .

[Ken Lee]

Maybe I'll agitate the cartridges and try one more nozzle check .

If we had nine cans of house paint sitting around for a long time, we would be reluctant to use them until they had been stirred

[Andrew O'Neill]

If you remove the cartridges from the printer, the chips have to be reset, do they not? My 4000 rejects the cartridges unless I reset them with a chip resetter.

[Greg Miller]

If you remove the cartridges from the printer, the chips have to be reset, do they not? My 4000 rejects the cartridges unless I reset them with a chip resetter.

That should not happen. I have routinely removed cartridges and then put them back in with no problem. The only time you should need a re-setter is to correct the ink level amount (if you had refilled the cartridge yourself).

[Bruce Pollock]

Success.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their input and particularly Ken's advice about the cartridge agitation. That solved my problem. I note that the Epson manual says that you should never replace the cartridges with the printer turned off, otherwise you get ink reporting errors. After agitating and reinserting the cartridges (and replacing one altogether) the ink levels are reporting accurately and the colour is back to normal.

Now, if I just had an image worth printing.....