Citizen Printer

my print carriage is slamming hard against the opposide side of printer..never did that before?

pror to this it was jamming and saying no connection. the printer wheel would just spin and then it would say it was jammed. I looked where you put the paper and there was a flat ribbon of plastic and only one end was connected to anything and one freefloating and not connected to anything.. I don't know if it has anything to do with the carriage slamming or if it is supposed to be connected at both ends..what could be wrong, expensive? Printer is dell 725 and less than 4 months old but I think not under warrenty so any advice would be appprecated.

Public Comments

1. Time for a new printer. I just bought a new one when mine started to do that.
2. This ribbon of plastic is in fact optically coded to tell the print head where it is. it should be connected at both ends, and slip through a slot in the print head. Try reconnecting the ribbon so its through the slot and taught, make sure its clean, wipe very gently with tissue. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, good luck.
3. The ribbon you see there is called the encoder strip. If thats broken then the carriage would slam. There is nothing you could do unless you know a printers technician who can put a new one in there. Contact technical support. Printers have a 1 year warranty and the printer would be replaced. Call: 1-800-624-9896 for Technical Support for DELL.