Ip4500 Stopped Printing Pgbk Ink

[turbguy]

Looks like your refurbished print head is bad. Perhaps a service test print would be better for diagnosis

Can anyone tell him how to print one?

Wayne

 

[Tudor]

I don't think it's an inkflow problem and, except for the 5-6 nozzles on pgbk, the nozzles seem to work ok, too. Look at the bars on the 5pl cyan: grey, even if it's too light, but it's gray. The "C" is magenta... The same on the other dyes. If I remember correctly all the bars are made up from CMY, except the pgbk and bk. The nozzles work and they have ink, but something should have told them to spit some C and Y ink on the lettering and... it didn't. That "something" is at fault.

@Igor Gefter : do you still have the old printhead? Can you replace it and do another nozzle check with the old one?

 

[stratman]

If the new cartridge is working properly then it is either the logic board assay of the new refurbished print head. You might want to give a simple software commanded cleaning and then print another nozzle check. Please upload the nozzle checks here for all to see as a picture may be worth a thousand words.

Unless you did something to cause an electrical malfunction that affected the logic board assay between the time you were using your former print head and the new refurbished print head, then the problem is the new refurbished print head. Could it be the new refurbished print head caused the latest malfunction -- possibly.

What other explanations do we have? And what other reason for the 5 or so missing hash bars in the PGBK grid in your nozzle check?

Contact the seller of your refurbished print head and explain your dilema.

 

[PeterBJ]

Looks like your refurbished print head is bad. Perhaps a service test print would be better for diagnosis

Can anyone tell him how to print one?

Wayne

The procedure for printing the service test print from service mode is found in the service manual linked to in post #5, see pages 15 and 16 in the service manual. But like many other service manuals for PGI-5/CLI-8 printers this manual has an error. An important step is missing from the procedure for service mode operations. See this post before attempting service mode operations: http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/warning-error-in-some-canon-service-manuals.6388/

 

[Ron350]

See if this works.
With the printer powered off, hold down the "Resume Button" and press the "Power Button".

While holding down the "Power Button", release the “Resume Button" and press the "Resume Button" twice in succession. Now release the "Power Button".

The indicator will blink in green and remain lit in green.

Select one of the following service mode functions by pressing the “Resume Button” the specified number of times.

1 time = Service test print.
2 times = EEPROM information print.
3 times = EEPROM initialization (reset)
4 times = Waste ink counter resetting
5 times = Destination settings
6 times = Print head deep cleaning

Then press the “Power Button” one time to perform selected function.

If you press the "Power Button" two times it will take you out of service mode.

 

[Igor Gefter]

Hi folks,
I have completed the service mode diagnosis.
Here are the two scans from that process.
How do they look to you?
What can you tell from these?

 

[PeterBJ]

Sadly the service test print tells that exactly half of the nozzles for the dye colours are missing, causing the unsaturated print. This is an electronic defect in the print head, and no amount of cleaning will clear this error

The service manual for the iP4500 is simplified and does not have all info about the test prints. Here is a part of the test print from the regular manual for the iP5300, that uses the same print head, note the difference:

 

[martin0reg]

The total missing of pgbk and the fine stripes on the first printhead could be an electrical damage .. but I had this once in a while and it turned out fine after changing the carts.
IMO it COULD be an ink flow problem ... electrical damage usually looks often more "geometrical" with bizarre patterns.
Electrical damage of the short-circuit on the smalll printhead board can result in damaging the printer board - which then can electrical damage also new printheads...

To prevent burned nozzles while cleaning or repairing:
- never print regular before the nozzle check is totally flawless

(after reading the whole thread I have to admit: "it was all said - but not by all")

 

[PeterBJ]

The total missing of pgbk and the fine stripes on the first printhead doesn't mean there is a electrical damage. I had this once in a while and it turned out fine after changing the carts.
IMO it COULD be an ink flow problem ... electrical damage looks more "geometrical".
And by the way, burned nozzles on canon printheads are also not an electrical damage .. what means short-circuit on the smalll printhead board, which can result in damaging the printer board (which then can electrical damage also new printheads)
To prevent burned nozzles while cleaning or repairing:
- never print regular before the nozzle check is totally flawless

In my opinion the old print head most likely suffers from an electronic damage with all PGBK nozzles missing. But the pigment black might be totally clogged instead. But note that the normal and medium cyan are divided at a centre line with the upper half being lighter than the lower half. This also indicates an electronic failure to me. I think that a service test print for the old print head would show that the grid patterns for normal and medium cyan would show a picket fence pattern for the upper half and a normal pattern for the lower half of the pattern.

In my opinion the service test print submitted by Igor Gefter, for the "new" print head looks very geometrical, clearly indicating an electronic failure:

In this case the normal nozzle check from the maintenance tab only shows that something is wrong by the colours being too weak, the service test print clearly shows that half of the dye colour nozzles are missing. Clogged nozzles would show a much more random distribution, as opposed to this geometrical pattern.

 

[The Hat]

What I can see is you’ve got some weird problems going on and nothing is making any sense, the outside vertical bars look to be correct but some of the inner bars not all are missing Cyan and Magenta, YET the C C C M M M Y BK are all missing Cyan and Yellow.

There are two way you can go from here, (1) is to let the printer rest for 24 hours and then ONLY print out a few nozzle checks, NO photos and if there is no change to the one you posted on here then the print head is suffering from some sort of voltage problem (2) and will need to be replaced again.

P.S. in the last line of the Service print out the temp. in one half of the print head is far too high which would suggest electrical problems.