Epson 3880 Printer problem

My much loved 3880 is giving me a real problem and I hope someone here knows the cause. I am getting random blobs of black ink on the surface of prints. This happens on most prints and these are not streaks or head strikes. These are actual blobs of liquid ink and always black. I am hoping this is a problem with one of the black ink cartridges and have new ones on order. I hope it is not a print head problem but I don't know to tell and the owners manual is of little help. Any  one experience this before? TIA

Should have added that nozzel checks print just fine.

Could be a leak in the black ink line or the head. Or perhaps something mechanical with the head cleaning apparatus, or the capping station, that's supposed to direct waste ink into the maintenance tank. Unless you're handy disassembling the printer to clean it under the guidance of procedures found in the 3880 service manual (which you'd have to obtain somewhere) you likely need a servicing by Epson.

There are some DIY cleaning procedures you can do, e.g. inserting a cleaning sheet soaked in various solutions into the printer and moving the head over it, and such. But if there's a mechanical breakdown, simply cleaning the dripping ink won't stop more of it from coming out. If a simple visual inspection of the head and ink lines doesn't seem to provide any clues and you don't want to go the service manual route yourself, I'd suggest contacting Epson service.

Alan,

There was an extensive discussion of a problem sounding similar to yours (but for a 3800) at dpreview recently. Maybe, this can give you some ideas.

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/52637677

Good luck. Joerg

Alan,

How long have you owned the printer?

Douglas

Thanks for your replies guys.

Doug, I've owned the printer a little over three years.

Alan,
I teach photography at a small college and maintain the graphics lab. We had two 3800 printers that began leaving the ink blobs that you've described. I tried many of the fixes described in the dpreview thread and was able to keep them running for about a year. Eventually I had a printer tech attempt to repair them with no success. Both printers lasted about four years of heavy use and in some cases misuse. Basically the heads were leaking ink and I felt the cost of repair was too much for the age of the printers.

Douglas

Cooner wrote:Alan,
I teach photography at a small college and maintain the graphics lab.  We had two 3800 printers that began leaving the ink blobs that you've described.  I tried many of the fixes described in the dpreview thread and was able to keep them running for about a year. Eventually I had a printer tech attempt to repair them with no success.  Both printers lasted about four years of heavy use and in some cases misuse.  Basically the heads were leaking ink and I felt the cost of repair was too much for the age of the printers.

Douglas

My concern is also about the value of trying to get it repaired. The problem only occurs with Photo Black ink so for now I have switched to Matte Black and the appropriate papers. At least I'll get my Christmas cards printed on time!

Thanks