Hello everyone

I own an Epson SX435 and, a week or two ago, I managed to get a perfectly good pair of earphones ingested by said printer. I thought I had solved the problem and freed the printer of the earphones (though I had to execute them in the process), but, since then, the print heads have been misaligned (I think). Here's what my print-outs look like, nicely exemplified by a Turkish couscous recipe.

http://i42.tinypic.com/16lfwps.jpg

I have tried the print head realignment option, but it has actually just made the problem worse. Here is what print-outs now look like after realigning the print heads.

http://i41.tinypic.com/2urqj3t.jpg

Can anyone help me out, or am I going to have to give up and shell out £100 for a new one? I'd really rather not; I've already had to pay for new earphones

Thanks!Looks like its losing its position on the 2nd pass. Inkjets lay down a first pass of dots and then a 2nd pass to define the print BETTER. The print head and ink cartridges that ride on a metal rod are losing position and causing this offset that you see.

The last time I saw a similar issue it was dry ink on the linear guide rod that the print head moves back and forth on which the print head was getting hung up on. But in your case it may be a chipped gear tooth that is causing it to sometimes stay aligned and other times jump a tooth and lose its home position and cause the 2nd pass per line offset.

If you can see the metal rod, with power off, verify that the printers guide rod is free of any grime or dry ink. I ended up WIPING the rod down with rubbing alcohol to remove the dry ink that was causing a printer to bind. But yours may have to be replaced due to a chipped plastic gear tooth. (* Also if you tip the printer, be careful to do this over news paper or something to catch any ink as for I have heard of people tipping inkjets and ink dripping out on their hands and carpet that just happened to be beige. There is a small pad inside that the printer uses when it performs a print head cleaning and purges dry ink etc, and over a period of time this pad is super saturated and cant hold additional ink, so the ink pools. The most drastic heavily used ink jet I ever seen actually had a stalagmite of dry ink in this waste compartment extending up from the sponge.)

* UPDATE: I found a picture of your printers print head assy and I'd also check the tractor belt for damaged or missing teeth. This is the belt that is looped that the print head is driven by.

[RECOVERING disk space, attachment deleted by admin]Sorry 'bout your headphones...you need a new printer.