Don't snap off the bits. They're so low tech that I would place them at the bottom of the suspects list. Unless you can see that the plastic bits aren't ever moving, or that they have magically transformed into transparent material, they aren't your problem.

What I find remarkable is that the replacement SWII has the same problem. That might suggest that your problem lies elsewhere. It's possible, of course, that you happen to have two printers that have failed in identical ways (for example, maybe this is a common problem for that printer -- although I've never heard of it), but you may wish to look beyond the printer itself as the source of the problem. Try a different cable, sacrifice a chicken, that sort of thing.