Epson R320 "General Error"

My printer has worked fine since I got it about 4 years ago but it recently decided to stop working.

Whenever I turn it on, it goes through the start up process and at the end makes a horrible scratching noise and an error appears on the screen that says: "General Error. See your printer documentation..."

When I look inside, it looks like there is some black ink that sort of splattered around where the ink usually rests when not in use. The little foam pad is soaked with ink and will come off on your fingers if you touch it.

It's not a high end printer so I'm not really willing to spend money for a technician to fix it (I also can't really afford to buy a new one at the moment) but I am willing to try myself if its possible. If it's dead what could it hurt!? I am not afraid of opening it up and doing surgery if necessary.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Any suggestions?

Turn the printer off. Open up the cover and check for any obstructions inside the printer. Double check if the ink cartridges are properly plugged in and the tray cover is closed. Turn the printer back on. If you still see the error message, it means that you are having a hardware issue. Then try to contact Technical Support.

General Error can be caused of Dirty FW Sensor. Fw is located below head carriage.