Epson 3800 printing the dark side

<p>I am very frustrated. My Epson 3800 Pro suddenly started to print very dark, even though I've changed nothing.</p>

<p><strong>I try to print a previously printed color image</strong>. It always printed perfect, but not anymore:</p>

<p>I print from the same Photoshop on the same PC and I didn't change anything.<br /> My printer settings identical to previous settings (see Patrick's checklist for color printing),<br /> Printer set to no color management<br /> I use the same type of paper, the same batch of paper.<br /> Paper profile is the same,<br /> The file is in 8 bit,<br /> My monitor is calibrated,<br /> I only use genuine Epson inks,<br /> The printer produces a perfect nozzle check pattern,<br /> My lowest ink cartrige is 10% full,<br /> The maintenance cartridge is 29% full.</p>

<p>Also, other images are printing equally DARK.</p>

<p>Does anybody have any idea? I am completely lost.</p>

<p>Thank you,</p>

<p>GS</p>

<p>If the cartridges have been sitting in the printer for some time it may be worth removing them and giving them a gentle shake (about 10 to 12 sideways oscillations) to redistribute the pigment. Not sure if that would cause dark prints but its something to try and worth doing anyway if the printer gets infrequent use.</p>

<p>Press the ink cover button on the printer for 3 secs and open the ink cover. Remove each cartridge in turn as you would if you were replacing cartridges. Put a scrunched up tissue over the exit hole so you don't get any ink flying about (never happened to me but my idea of a gentle shake may be more gentle than yours). Don't let any tissue plug up the hole of course and do it for all of the installed cartridges re-inserting into the printer after each one. Print a nozzle check pattern afterwards to make sure all is still okay. You won't reset the ink usage monitoring by doing this, it will just go back to where it previously was so no harm done even if it still prints dark, (DON'T TOUCH THE GREEN CHIP on any of the cartridges).</p>

<p>Other than that even though I recognise you state nothing has changed just go back over everything from your Print with Preview settings, the Print-Properties-Epson Stylus Pro 3800 Properties dialogue and even Color Settings in Photoshop (location may vary depending on CS version) to make sure no alterations have occurred. It's very easy to glance at things and say "Yes that's not been changed" and miss the small detail that's causing you grief.</p>

<p>You should of course, if you are not, be saving your print settings with an individual name so that you can be pretty sure nothing changes when you use the same paper type/paper size/ink type selections. The name will be selectable in the drop-down at the top of the Epson Stylus Pro 3800 Properties dialogue and will pre-select everything for you for the rest of the dialogue. You will still need to select the appropriate paper profile in Print with Preview prior to calling up the Print dialogue and to make sure your Document Source Space matches your open file, e.g Adoge RGB or ProPhoto RGB. You should have your color settings set up to warn you of any mismatch occurring when you open a file.</p>

<p>i think i read somewhere that something was wrong with some epson and windows after a system update?... driver update maybe could fix it?</p>

<p>Output a reference image (<a href="http://digitaldog.net/files/Printer%20Test%20file.jpg">Printer Test File</a>). Still dark? Then we know it isn’t the RGB values going to the printer from the source data. If all heads are firing cleanly, then I’d take Patrick’s suggestion and reinstall the driver, making sure you download it from Epson (not some 3rd party or OS update). On the Mac, the system update that handles Epson drivers is the kiss of death, maybe the same on Windows. </p>

<p>Good, we are getting somewhere.</p>

<p>Mac, I forgot to mention that I did shake all the cartridges, but I’ll do it again. Unfortunately, all my print settings are the same as always. I rechecked them against my printed out records and again they are the same.</p>

<p>Patrick and Andrew, you might have got it. It might have been a system update glitch. I am going to go through everything tonight.</p>

<p>I will also try to print from my old XP box (a separate PC) and see if I have the same problem. Probably not!</p>

<p>I just want to mention that I’ve had strange things happening under Windows 7 Pro. For I while everything was okay then the prints started fading out at the last 1/2” to paper white. I tricked my machine and started to print under the XP mode (a virtual XP computer w/in W7) and for a while all was well.<br>

Looks like my PC cooked up revenge and now suddenly prints dark.<br>

As a test I also printed from W7 straight and got the same dark prints in addition to the good ol’ image cut-off.</p>

<p>Just a heads up for those who are having ink-cutoff problems in Windows 7:</p>

<p>Regardless what I did, reload drivers, etc., the last 1/2” of the image area faded to zero. I could print correctly from an XP computer, but not from W7. Since nobody had an answer, I started to print from my XP mode within W7. There is no problem there. Otherwise, I have the same result.<br>

By the way, it had nothing to do with the type or size of paper.</p>

<p>I reinstalled the printer driver a few times and the cut-off just wouldn’t go away w/in W7.</p>

<p>I’ll try to do a few things and will let you know what happened.</p>

<p>Thanks all of you,</p>

<p>GS</p>

<p>Step 1</p>

<p>Before doing anything, I printed from my old XP box = perfect print. Of course.</p>

<p>Step 2</p>

<p>I got irritated with the new system changes in XP7 (I don’t know how they happened, because I always monitor as what is updating) so I restored my computer to last month’s backup. (It is good to have a server).<br>

All seem to be I order. I’ll try printing tonight, but I expect everything to be okay (except the image cut-off from the W7 part). XP Mode rocks, but my question; Why W7 is so finicky? Microsoft had quite a long time to fix it.</p>

<p>If anyone is still watching.</p>

<p>Status report:<br>

Printing from old XP box is perfect, but I never had any problems there.</p>

<p>I restored the PC to a few weeks back and reinstalled the printer and now I can print normally as before in the XP_Mode. It looks like the so-called updates corrupted the drivers.</p>

<p>I haven’t tried to print from W7 straight, since none of my previous attempts were able to fix my cut off problem. I’ve given up on that.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Before doing anything, I printed from my old XP box = perfect print. Of course.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Again, I surmise this is a driver issue assuming you did everything the same way in XP. And just reinstalling the newer (or older) driver may not be the entire fix. Don’t know on Windows, but on Mac, there is a process of giving the OS a driver enema, then reinstalling the correct driver from Epson. That usually fixes this issue. I don’t know the processing under Windows. </p>

<p>Nothing much to add other than to say I'm glad you can at least print successfully if a trifle convoluted. But I'm mystified by the image cut off in W7, I have the 3800 and have used it on W7 Home Premium 32 bit and 64 bit with none of the cut off problems. (I think I recall a cut off problem once within XP but can't remember how I solved it exactly)</p>

<p>Perhaps there's some difference between Pro and Home Premium causing it or maybe it's updates doing it. My W7 computer isn't connected to the internet on a daily basis and apart from the original instal and Windows activation I think I've only connected once to do a Windows update but that was a long time back. Maybe a subsequent update could be responsible for the erratic behaviour. I'm not too keen on trying an update to test that theory for you though as mine is working alright in the printing department.<br>

(Firmware update for the 3800?)</p>

<p>Andrew,</p>

<p>The original driver (the one that came w/ the printer) always worked in old XP, Windows 7 and Windows 7’s XP-Mode.</p>

<p>About 6-8 weeks ago the image cutoff problem appeared out of the blue and nothing seemed to fix it (even new drivers from Epson, etc.)<br /> I haven’t tried the uninstall-reinstall. Next time I’ll do that.</p>

<p>Then a week or so ago I had this “Dark Print” problem in Windows 7 and also in the Windows 7’s XP-Mode.</p>

<p>I went back a few weeks w/ the restore, reinstalled the driver from the old CD and now all is well. EXCEPT I haven’t tried for the image cut-off in Windows 7. Out of curiosity I will, but I am sick of it.</p>

<p>Mac,</p>

<p>I didn’t have image cutoff problem for a long time. It might have been caused by an update, although I am very careful what I let to install. Something must have snuck by.</p>

<p>Have a nice weekend, GS</p>