Best way to align 3880?

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

Repairing my 3880 has been a bit of an adventure, both with learning more about how the printer function, as well as some associated issues. Such as the best way to align the print head.

I have used the “Auto Align” option from the printer menu, as well as the “Manual align” — when the Auto Align program runs, once it finishes, there is no feedback about the head alignment — so I’ve never been sure how well it works. When I ran the Manual option, I changed the selections for all 3 numbers - they were all 5 at before, and I changed the values to 6,7,7.
With the adjustment wizard program, the Check Alignment option instructions are a bit obscure — It says check printout for symptoms of misalignment — and if any are seen, run a cleaning cycle. I’m not certain if this part of the program is checking alignment or nozzle function. ANYWAY, does anyone have any information on what I should look for with the printout in terms of problems? Also, what do the numbers on the printout mean — see the scan of my printout — does this indicate that everything is in alignment (note that there is a lot of scanner artifact in this copy)?

The wizard program also has an option “Auto Bi-D Adjustment” which seems to be a more extensive auto alignment program. Should I run this option rather than the options from above or from the print menu?

Thanks for any information or insight you can provide.

BRN3C2AF41B30D8_001157

2

Very curious what you find out. I have a condition on one 3880 where there is a “misregistration of dots” that shows up as a 3-5 pixel overlap at the trailing edge (end of travel) of the image area. This has gotten slightly better as I have done more prints and more head alignments.

3

Hi, does “end of travel’ mean travel left right or top bottom?
Have you tried manual alignment or the auto alignment?
I’m not quite certain what you are describing — could you post an image?

4

It is the last part printed before the paper is ejected. Just a few pixels that do not align, creating a slight blur and not a sharp border line. Have used both methods of alignment and, like you, do not know which is most effective.

5

In the image below you can see where the yellow stops, forming a vertical border, but there are magenta pixels continuing to print beyond that edge. Paper travel starts at the left, ends at the right. Since this image was made I would say the condition has gotten about 50% better, but still there. I am planning to continue to run a head alignment before printing and see if this problem disappears.

1_color_image_3880.tif (1.2 MB)