Used 3880 Issues

1

I recently purchased a used 3880 for printing digital negatives. I’ve got a few issues that are troubling me, and I’m not sure what direction to go in…

  1. Banding. The images all seem to have banding problems regardless of how much I clean the print head, or run a power clean cycle.
  2. Nozzle check test pattern breaks. Every nozzle check shows breaks in lines. Grrr.
  3. Black printing as gray. I just printed the HSL test pattern from EDN, and the black border around the pattern is gray instead of black. Both MK & PK have sufficient ink.
  4. Leaks. I’ll occasionally get leaks on the edge of the prints. I don’t think it’s the same problem but figured I’d post it here.

Steps I’ve taken to correct:

  1. Wide format cleaning. I purchased a kit with piezo flush, and have cleaned out the interior of the printer (wipe arm?), and the print head.
  2. Power cleaning.
  3. Cartridge replacement. There are still a few older cartridges in use, but the blacks have been replaced along with a few others.

Is the next step to flush the system with Piezoflush? If so, do I need to purchase the kit for the entire array of cartridges, or can I simply do a black?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!