Printer Acts Like It's Printing But Pages Are Blank - Help

[brian_ellis19]

<p>I have an Epson 3800 printer that has functioned perfectly for six years with my PC (Dell) and Photoshop CS5. Tonight it decided to stop printing anything - no photos, no documents, no emails, no nozzle check patterns, no nothing. The printer acts like it's printing - the paper feeds normally, the usual printing sounds are made, the usual print progress window shows up on the computer monitor, the printer says it's ready, etc. etc. Everything acts and sounds normal except that when the paper comes out of the printer there's nothing on it.</p>

<p>I've turned the computer and printer off and on, I've downloaded the most current drivers from the Epson site, I've uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers and software (several times), I'm nowhere close to being out of any of the inks, I've removed and replaced the USB connection from computer to printer, but no matter what I do I still get blank sheets of paper.</p>

<p>Before I embark on the adventures of dealing with Epson support I thought I'd ask whether anyone here has any suggestions that might fix this problem. I'm at a complete loss.</p>

 

[dhbebb]

<p>How long since you last used it? It would be unusual for all the cartridges to dry up. but it could happen. How heavily have you used the printer? 6 years of medium to heavy use would be close to full service life.</p>

[geoff_portas]

<p>I'm not familiar with the 3800, but on the 1270 you can run a nozzle check directly from the printer without it being connected to a PC.<br>

With the printer off you press and hold the Paper Feed button and press the Power On button.<br>

Details are in the handbook.<br>

If the 3800 has a similar option it would tell you whether the problem is the printer or the PC/driver/usb.</p>

 

[brian_ellis19]

<p>Thanks for the responses. I've used the printer within the last week or so and just installed one new light magenta cartridge to make sure the one in the printer that was low (but no low ink warning) wasn't creating the problem. I don't use the printer very much, it shouldn't be at the end of its life and I wouldn't think all the ink has gone dry. I'll give Geoff's suggestion a try if I can do it on the 3800 and see what happens. Thanks again.</p>

<p> </p>

[steven_.]

<p>Sounds like the ink pump has failed. It would be very unusual for all the ink jets to dry up at once.</p>

[dhbebb]

<p><em>Sounds like the ink pump has failed.</em><br>

Plausible! As the 3800 counts as pro equipment, Epson will probably offer an economic repair service. With their consumer stuff, repair quotes are always so close to the cost of a new unit as to put people off!</p>

[frank_skomial]

<p>I had similar case for a different model printer. The blank pages were produced much faster.<br>

The problem was with my computer system, somehow the spool job got emtied by unknown reason.<br>

I reinstalled the software, perhaps used a different port, and all came back printing OK.</p>

<p>Perhaps try to print from a different application, or on a different computer ?, before you spend your $$$ for Epson service that could not be necessary. .</p>

[mouna_rashid]

Dear Brian

I'm running into exact same problem with my epson4880

Did you find out was was the problem?