I was wondering if you owned a boat??? The Lexmark X5470 would make a great anchor but it's not much good for anything else.
As a computer technician for 23 years I've seen some sorry printers in my time, but this model Lexmark beats tham all. The biggest problem is that it will not feed paper after a short time of use. Cleaning the feed rollers with alcohol or carburetor cleaner only works for a few feeds and then the same problem arises.
I suppose it's good for home use if you don't do much printing. The scanner is adequate, the fax works well, but as a printer it doesn't make the grade no matter how inexpensive it is.
Your carriage problem sounds as if you may have moved the cartridge holder to one side or the other when you were changing ink cartridges. That would put the alignment out of whack and cause it to do a number of noisy things. Try centering the cartridge holder manually when in the ink change mode.
Bob Wesley
July 2008