Any hope for my print head (Pixma Pro-1)?

[Pipur]

Hello all - fresh newbie here.

I've really tried to do my homework regarding this, but I believe I need your hands on experience.

Bought a used printer some years ago, but never got around unpacking it even (yeah, I know...).

But after some serious reading I decided to buy a set of third party ink for the cleaning cycles that awaited to see if there was any life left in the printer.

I removed the original carts that was all reported as empty and plugged in the new ones and did the first nozzle checks.

A lot of clogging, as expected. I actually thought it was doomed.

However, after a series of cleaning iterations, including two rounds of system cleaning, it actually looked ok (I think?).

But - not the PBK.

It was all white all the time, so I thought that was that.

After a week though, after a couple of checks and maybe one targeted cleaning per day, I suddenly actually saw traces of PBK ink on the paper!

It hasn't been consistent though since - at first it immediately started to fade again.

I then let the printer rest for a couple of days without running any cleaning cycles, and just now PBK got back to "the best yet".

So - is it a false positive? Is the head fried for good?

Or could it be worth continuing even though I might have to buy new carts, just for cleaning, at least for "group one"?

I'm attaching some scans of the printouts, hoping that you can give me some guidance

I could live with buying one more set for group one if that will get it going.

But can't help thinking that maybe it's still better to buy a new print head right away, even if I could unclog the old. Is it difficult to swap it myself?

Or should I have a go at getting the head out for some serious cleaning attempts (though I've read here that that's a dead end for this printer)?

I haven't tried any manual cleaning, in any way, with cleaning solutions.

Really hoping for some feedback.

Peter

 

[The Hat]

Hi Pipur and welcome, you have certainly given this printer a good clean out, and the PBK clog is still proven very hard to shift, you have done just about everything you can do to get it working again and have a perfect nozzle print.

The worry now is your waste ink cartridge, it would be very painful to get the printer back to full health only to find you get the waste cartridge full message.

The best thing to do at this stage is to remove the print head and clean it externally, this will cost a loss of some ink, but you’ll know one way or the other whether the Photo Black will print properly.

The print head is most unusual in this printer and you’ll need some help removing it, so I will assist you in that operation, in the meantime you’ll need a complete set of cartridges which are at least 60% full for this procedure...
PM on its way...

 

[Pipur]

Hi Hat! (well, that came out rather amusing.. )

Wow, what a swift reply, big thanks!

While I, in eager suspense , wait for your PM I might as well take the opportunity to ask for a quick assessment regarding the ink levels, if that's ok?

Ink levels as we speak:

The blacks and greys are all too low, I gather?

But the others - any chance that they will cover the re-installation of the print head plus nozzle checks?

They look to me as if they have more than 60% left, but I don't know how reliable the indicators are (Windows 10, latest driver and firmware).

It would be such a waste buying them too if the PBK won't print again - especially since I've come to understand that some PBK is used even on matt paper?

Which is not my favourite anyway, coming from many years spent in darkrooms together with air dried baryta papers...

In the end all this might sadly boil down to if the printer can be made good enough to sell I suspect...

Especially since it seems impossible to print on fine art paper larger (or rather longer) than A3+ (the driver won't let me create a custom size when selecting fine art paper ).

Cheers from a freezing, but sunny, Stockholm

 

[kdsdata]

I just posted a reply on a print head clogging issue.
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/i-fear-ive-killed-my-pixma-ip4950.12271/#post-105759
In this forum.
It might help.
Good luck.

 

[The Hat]

@Pipur, The problem you’ll have when you remove your print head is, you won’t know if you have enough ink to allow the machine to do the final purge and if it doesn’t then other problems may arise, this beast is very fussy and can do just about anything.

Next time you have a problem try not to waste all your ink on a system flush, instead concentrate on normal head cleans, Ink Quality maintenance and 1 deep head clean on the effect ink group every 18 hours or so, you can run as many nozzles checks as you like but don’t print any other test prints till the situation is normal.

You have all that lovely ice and snow and plenty of sun too, sure what more could a man ask for...

 

[turbguy]

If you have traces if the PBK segments showing, your print head is working. The ink channels in the head are probably clogged with PBK ink that has solidified. A careful external cleaning program may unclog it.

Another possibilty is the purge system for PBK is also clogged, IF there is a dedicated purge sysyem for PBK ink (which for your printer, I doubt).