Epson--Troubleshooting a bad printer?

[ScreenFoo]

OK, I'm starting to suspect the 1430 here is going bad.  Running FM3, printer is not too old, but over a year.

Positives will 'skip', but not the whole thing--as if one or two jets is a half inch out from where all the others are laying down the image.
It usually does this for a half inch or an inch, and then resets, sometimes it's just a little weird on the whole thing, sometimes it's just crazy.
Occasionally it shifts across the feed direction, but usually in the print head direction.

When I use the stock driver for text, there will be what appears to be scan lines in the text, as if a few jets of print just crapped out.

Anyone else dealt with similar issues? 
FWIW, ports are set up proper, and Inkman's great post on the FILE: issue helped me with that.
The bad parts look very similar to what happens when the stock driver and FM start fighting. 

[mimosatexas]

My 1400 is still going strong after something like 6 years.  The only thing I have noticed recently is a sort of 45 degree angle faint grid pattern in my films.  It only is noticeable in large fields of halftones because it seems to make some of the halftones smaller and some larger on the actual film.  The grid has maybe 1/4 inch wide squares.

I'm assuming you've run all the cleaning and alignment stuff in the driver software?

[ScreenFoo]

Yep, the only thing I can get it to screw up on the stock driver is lines of text or graphics sometimes look like they have little pixel lines shifted, or 'missed'.  They aren't very noticeable, however.

In fact, it's so hard to see issues with stuff printed with the stock driver, that at first I was guessing it was just FM--it's very noticeable on some films, others I need a loupe to see them, but none are 'perfect' the way they were initially.

[Sbrem]

It sounds a little like a head alignment... you can fix that within the Epson printer utility, if that's it

Steve

[ScreenFoo]

^^Yep, when it's consistent it's usually alignment--this is for a half inch or an inch (random,) then it resets and lines up right.

Have been trying to eliminate the USB cable/port as a possibility, I've been able to replicate it between two systems/ports/cables, but it's intermittent, so that's always fun...

Right now it's working, so I'm gonna shut up and print for now.  Thanks guys.

[blue moon]

4800's are getting to be pretty cheap now. There is a nice condition one available for $400 in IN if you are interested.

pierre

[ScreenFoo]

^^If I was in IN, I would take you up on that.

For future reference, if you think you may have a bad printer, check your cables, change hubs, take out hubs, etc.
Bad port on the production box (and a bad hub on the spare) managed to look like the same problem on two different computers.

Not much out there that's more fun to troubleshoot than intermittent serial connections...