Epson 3800 - what are these ink marks at edge of paper (not head strikes)?

[AFairley]

I am intermittently getting lines of black ink laid down at the edge of the paper, about 3/16" thick by 1/2" long.  (See attached photos.)  They are very different from head strikes, which I have had in the past and fixed.

I believe they started when I changed the photo black cartridge (genune Epson from B&H) and had to do some head cleanings to fix some nozzle in the black.  I have removed and reseated the photo black cartridge, but they are still happening, although intermittently.  I can make 3 prints fine, and then they reappear on a print, then the next one or two or three is fine, and then they are back, and so on.  They are usually at the edge of the print that first comes out of the printer, but sometimes will appear some inches further back on the print.  The maintenance cartridge was about 98% full when this was happening (I have just replaced it, but have not printed since), though I don't see how that would affect anything.

I'm printing on Epson Exhibition Fiber, driver settings are paper thickness .3, platen gap wide, super fine mode, single direction printing with a drying time value of 20 between passes.  Paper is fed through rear sheet feeder.

Anyone know what causes these and what the fix is?

Thanks for any help.

[madmanchan]

I'm guessing you have something (maybe some fuzz, debris, etc.) clinging to the print head which is dragging of the surface at the edge. 

[Farmer]

I agree with Eric. 

They could also still be head strikes so you need to check that the media is absolutely flat.  But more likely it's the result of previous head strikes or general build up of detritus as Eric suggests.

[AFairley]

Thanks for the replies.  Are either of you aware of a photo or video tutorial for exposing and manually cleaning the 3800 printhead?  I can find written descriptions for the windex pad clog cleaning method, but no photos, and I am reluctant to just start rooting around without a clearer picture of what to do.

[jrsforums]

I had a problem with my 3800 which resulted in it's premature death....at least I think this was the reason.

I noticed some weird black streaking.  After a lot of checking, I found the cause was some of the foam pieces on the areas under where the printhead goes back and forth were out of position...some of them were raised up and had, apparently struck the head and gotten residual ink on them.  I am guessing that this caused pieces of ink or foam to adher to parts of the head...causing the streaks.

I was easily able to reposition the foam.  However, shortly thereafter I had pretty severe hear cleaning problems.  Most of the head colors cleared easily, but the magenta "ports" continued to be clogged.  No amount of cleaning would clear them....and I got pretty aggressive as I went along.

Fixing the 3800 was almost expensive as getting a new 3880.  With the rebates on the 4900, I got that, which I love.

John

[AFairley]

Just to update the thread, if anyone has had similar problems, the same problem popped up in a thread on dpreview, though the ink marks were further in from the edge of the paper.  The person had the printer repaired for $500, there was a damaged ink pump and damaged damper panel.  Here's the thread http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1003&message=41898572

I ended up abandoning the 3800 and buying a 3880 -- with a $300 rebate on the 3880 and the $500 or so worth of ink that came with it, I figured I risked up spending more to get the old printer fixed (to end up with an old fixed printer) than my net cost to upgrade would be.  Looks like I made a good decison