AAAGh - the injet gods demand a sacrifice

[Roy Sletcher]

GRRRR - I knew this would happen at some time despite my care and constant nozzle checks..

Have got a bad nozzle check. Can some of our guru's tell me if there is any hope with the attached nozzle check.

Have bumped up the saturation and contrast to improve visibility.

This is the result after two deep cleanings and the the yellow is still not good.

Is there any point in soaking the nozzles in Windex, or should I go straight to ebay for a replacement.

Hopefully this is not the indicator of a circuit board malfunction and I need a new printer.

Any advice appreciated.


Roy

 

[mikling]

I know you flushed your carts fairly recently. Can you confirm that you had the printer working fine right after the flush and refill? At that point I would go for a soak and then try again. If it shows exactly the same pattern then the next step is to go for a cleaning cart. Fill it with windex with ammonia or the dollarama stuff. Then do a head cleaning or two to make sure that the windex gets down to the nozzles and then let it sit for a day. Thereafter replace the cleaning cart with a yellow and see if there is any change.

 

[Grandad35]

It looks like yellow is starved for ink. Have you tried a different yellow cart?

 

[Roy Sletcher]

I know you flushed your carts fairly recently. Can you confirm that you had the printer working fine right after the flush and refill? At that point I would go for a soak and then try again. If it shows exactly the same pattern then the next step is to go for a cleaning cart. Fill it with windex with ammonia or the dollarama stuff. Then do a head cleaning or two to make sure that the windex gets down to the nozzles and then let it sit for a day. Thereafter replace the cleaning cart with a yellow and see if there is any change.

Hi Mike,

Yes, flushed and purged just as your video shows to get absorbent clean sponges. Definitely worked OK up till noon today. In last 24 hours have printed 10 letter size colour prints and Couple 13 x 19 colour and B&W with no problem.

Changed to refilled new yellow cart - same effect. Tried double Deep clean - same effect.

Currently soaking nozzles in Windex. Will go to a retailer tomorrow and buy an OEM Yellow - $30.00 in Canada ``OUCH - thats why I refill``. But it will indicate if it is a cart related problem.

One other slight possibility - I was away for 5 weeks End of Aug till 28th September. Just switched the printer off and hoped for the best. On return first nozzle check was OK so just continued printing. Wondering if any subtle changes in t he print-head such as ink thickening or being less liquid due to not being used, and I could have missed some subtle indications all was not well.

Worst case will get another head. Lots on eBay around C$70. After 1,500 sheets printing my savings will more than pay for it.

Will follow you advice on previous message before ordering another unit.

Thanks for the information.

RS

 

[Roy Sletcher]

It looks like yellow is starved for ink. Have you tried a different yellow cart?

Hi Grandad,

Agree - even with my limited knowledge.

I ran in to the CL42 yellow problem last year long before it was reported in these forums. Symptoms were very similar to this incident.

Fortunately identified it quicker than this time, and installed a OEM cart which then ran perfectly and probably cleared any gunky yellow residue in the print head.

This time I had printed half a 13 x 19 sheet before I realised there was a problem and may have damaged the print head in the process.

Tomorrow morning will get an OEM cart and hope it solves the problem. if not will start to escalate to more radical procedures.

Looks like a new printhead may be in my future.

Thanks for the information.

RS

 

[mikling]

I don't think it is the away part but check to make sure that the rubber seals on the printhead are nicely flat and not crushed or compressed. I still have a theory of why sometimes the ink flow is compromised after the printer sits. It is an unsolved mystery that has bugged me for years and I am still trying to find out why. I have a suspicion that those black washers sometimes does not seal and the ink thickens around the inlet of the printer. The soaking should clear that up. What you can also do is put the printhead on some paper towels and drip the windex onto the inlet and have it exit the nozzles. Do this till it comes out the color of windex and then install. At that point you know there are no blockages. If there are any precipitated particles left from a year ago, the windex drip will clear it up as well.

 

[Grandad35]

One other slight possibility - I was away for 5 weeks End of Aug till 28th September. Just switched the printer off and hoped for the best. On return first nozzle check was OK so just continued printing. Wondering if any subtle changes in t he print-head such as ink thickening or being less liquid due to not being used, and I could have missed some subtle indications all was not well.

In this post, I related how I recently experienced ink starvation in the PC channel which turned out to be in the body of the print head, not the nozzles.

As luck would have it I was also subsequently away for 4 weeks, during which time the printer was turned off. Just like you, the nozzle checks were perfect after returning and I printed a number of perfect prints. Somewhere after about sixty 4x6 prints, banding suddenly appeared in prints with sky, and it was found that the clog in the PC channel in the print head body had suddenly returned. Some work with a syringe cleared it again and everything is now OK again.

Apparently there is a glob of something floating around in the PC channel, and this weekend I am going to boil the body to try to break it up. Perhaps the "yellow problem" can manifest itself in other colors, but at a much lower level.

 

[mikling]

Roy, the reinsertion of the yellow OEM carts carries with it some risk. Knowing that only when the OEM yellow is diluted suffuciently low, then a precipation effect occurs, it is not wise to reintroduce the Canon CLI-42Y if you will be refilling in the future. Once the system is clear of the OEM ink, then you should keep that far away from the printer. Simply test that the refilled cartridge will drip ink with the plug out at a rate similar to the other cartridges is 99% proof that it is flowing properly. In your case, you had alternated between refill and OEM twice, this might have left enough residue to cause problems. Others who had done the switch in one go have not had problems.
If you did not dissolve the precipitate with windex with ammonia before then that might be the cause of the poor flow. Use the drip till clear procedure as previous to chase it out.

 

[Roy Sletcher]

I don't think it is the away part but check to make sure that the rubber seals on the printhead are nicely flat and not crushed or compressed. I still have a theory of why sometimes the ink flow is compromised after the printer sits. It is an unsolved mystery that has bugged me for years and I am still trying to find out why. I have a suspicion that those black washers sometimes does not seal and the ink thickens around the inlet of the printer. The soaking should clear that up. What you can also do is put the printhead on some paper towels and drip the windex onto the inlet and have it exit the nozzles. Do this till it comes out the color of windex and then install. At that point you know there are no blockages. If there are any precipitated particles left from a year ago, the windex drip will clear it up as well.

Thanks for additional info. The little black washers you refer to have a slight indentation of the cart outlet but it does not look severely disported.

Currently following you advice to drip windex through the nozzles until it is pure colour.
Yellow (Third from left) definitely seems much slower to drip, probably indicating a blockage.

Roy

 

[Roy Sletcher]

Roy, the reinsertion of the yellow OEM carts carries with it some risk. Knowing that only when the OEM yellow is diluted suffuciently low, then a precipation effect occurs, it is not wise to reintroduce the Canon CLI-42Y if you will be refilling in the future. Once the system is clear of the OEM ink, then you should keep that far away from the printer. Simply test that the refilled cartridge will drip ink with the plug out at a rate similar to the other cartridges is 99% proof that it is flowing properly. In your case, you had alternated between refill and OEM twice, this might have left enough residue to cause problems. Others who had done the switch in one go have not had problems.
If you did not dissolve the precipitate with windex with ammonia before then that might be the cause of the poor flow. Use the drip till clear procedure as previous to chase it out.

OK Will NOT purchase new OEM yellow based on your advice. Last time I used OEM yellow was over a year ago so pretty sure any residue has passed through the system.

Eve though my symptoms point to ink starvation I have always been meticulous in verifying ink flow when replacing cartridges. Both squeezing sides gently so a few drops exit, AND then a gently blow through the top front air channel to also squeeze out a couple of drops. I am pretty sure the cartridges have good inkflow.

Suspect there may be some other unsuspected variable occurring to cause these situation that seem to appear out of the blue.

Roy