problem with epson 3880

[sramiro]

hello Iam having a problem with my epson 3880, its contaminating mostly the yellow ink with other colors or black, im always use epson original inks, had happen to anybody the same problem? I took it to a technician but dont know how to solve the problem.
Please copy the link to this pictures and check to see how its printing.
The first one its a print of whats supose to be a yellow page but you can see the black strikes img687 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Then the second picture its a print of the 8 colors and it shows how at the start of the print contaminate some colors but then corrected and only contaminate the yellow wich supose to be the last color. img687 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Any ideas of whats causing it?
Also leaving big drops of ink on the paper.

[UnlimitedBT]

Hmmm, interesting. I do service laser printers mostly but would think that it is could be 3 things:
Ink cleaning station.
PrintHead.
Logic board.
1---Try to turn off your printer with printhead not being in the home position, like send a test page and once it starts to print - unplug the printer. With a flashlight, look if anything seems out of place or if there is any old ink build-up. As far as bad printhead or logic, I could imagine that board commands the head to print in the manner you have in your pictures and push so much black ink that it drips.
In any case it does not seem as easy fix and I would strongly recommend to show it to someone proficient in Epson printer repair. The only other thing I would consider, is getting a nice used 4880
They seem to be in 500 to 1000 range but this should be based on repair cost estimate. I know for a fact that electronic boards always were expensive, in case if your printer needs one.

[sramiro]

Hi, I ask about how much it cost a printhead just in case that thats the problem and well they cost about $650.00 dollars, ouch.

[UnlimitedBT]

Just about as much. LOL. Yeah they last long but soooo expensive.
I remember I had to change a printhead on my Epson 10000. Just parts cost me $870 as to a dealer. Well since I am a tech, I did the job myself but cant imagine the size of bill including labor. My point was to get nice 4880 where we don't need a head....
But it cost nearly $550 for that printer....