Epson Pro 3800 & 3880 leaving drops of black ink on paper.

Hello all!

It's been a while since I have updated the blog, and will try to add some useful information on a more regular basis!

Today I wanted to explain a common problem that I am seeing come into the store with the Epson Pro 3800 & 3880 printers.  We have seen a increase in the numbers of this printer coming in with black drops of ink on the paper, most of the time on the left side as the paper is exiting the printer.

This problem will also cause a few other symptoms that you might be encountering, including:

• Drops of black ink dropping onto the paper during print operations, these usually are not small drops, but large black drops of ink.
• The yellow color will sometimes not appear yellow anymore, it is instead darker then usual, and sometimes almost a grey shade.  This is caused by the leaking black ink which is located right next to the yellow color on the bottom of the printhead, and the yellow ink is getting tainted with the black ink during prints.
• Eventually the Photo black ink will stop printing completely.  You may be able to print with the Matte black ink, but when in Photo black mode and you do a nozzle check, a very small section if any at all will appear on the page.

All of these problems are caused by a faulty part inside the unit.  The real verification (for those that have had the problem long enough) is to open the ink bay on top of the unit, where you install your ink cartridges.  Remove the Photo black ink and give it a shake.  In most cases that ink cartridge is empty.  The black ink has slowly leaked from the bottom of the printhead, and only stops when the Photo black ink cartridge is empty.  Of course if you reinstall the ink cartridge, and check the amount of ink the printer says is left in the cartridge, it will say there is ink still there.  The printer doesn't realize that the ink has leaked out of the cartridge.  Replacing the ink cartridge will only allow the new Photo black ink to leak out, until that new cartridge is also empty.

The Ink System Assembly needs to be replaced to resolve this issue.  You can contact us at the store for more information, and a quote on service prices.

I love the Epson Pro 3800 & 3880, but we have seen enough of these printers with similar problems to know that sometime during the life of the unit, you will typically encounter this problem.