Bands most noticeable at bottom of page on Canon ip8500

[Correzpond]

d86cfv - In my case before the head failed completely on R & G channels I became almost certain that the banding was due to a partial blockage because as the blockage was reduced, then so was the banding.

I read your post as saying that you have had 2 x different machines and 2 x different print heads? If so then the problem cannot be a blockage (i.e this would basically be unique to given print head) & yet a major design fault of this nature on such a big seller for Canon also seems very unlikely.

I note that the banding in the case of your print seems to align with particularly bright colours further down the print and I wonder if colours could be streaking if the printhead and paper are too closely aligned. Perhaps trying different papers? Turning on 'Prevent Paper Abrasion'?

 

[fotofreek]

Canon's web site FAQ's had an answer to banding near the trailing edge of borderless prints. They said it was due to a curve in the paper and advised running the paper over the edge of a table to reverse the curve. That would require individual manipulation of each sheet of paper. I noticed that when I left paper in the feed area for some days between print runs the pqper "sagged" and took on a slight curve. I found that storing all photo paper flat and not leaving it in the printer feed area between print runs solved the problem for me on my i960. Prior to that time I turned on the software item in the maintenance section for abrasion prevention. That worked also, but it was a pain in the neck as a dialogue box came up for each print telling me that this setting was on. BTW, I also had a few prints, prior to removing all photo paper between print runs, that had a dark ink smear at the trailing edge - apparently the print head touched the paper at the end of the print. That problem was also cured with proper paper storaage.

 

[d86cfv]

I find that general print quality with photos is pretty poor with the reduced paper abrassion setting enabled. Not nearly as good as on standard setting.

I've just bought the Canon Powershot S80 and coupled with just the 3 colour inks in the 760 I get AWSOME prints, with the exceptoin of the trailing edge.

 

[d86cfv]

Panos,

Its an 11mb orig so i've scaled it down a bit to host it, will probably only print as a 4x6, let me know if you need the true origional and i could e-mail it direct.

Regs,

Dan

 

[fotofreek]

Great picture! Where did you take it?

 

[d86cfv]

Its a standard net one, all i know is its vancouver, it looks great on a matt paper, soft like its been done with pastels.

Regs,

Dan

 

[Correzpond]

You say

I find that general print quality with photos is pretty poor with the reduced paper abrassion setting enabled.

but didn't indicate if the banding was still present on this setting ? Have you tried a lighter gauge paper ?

 

[panos]

OK, I tried it. And I have results comparable to Dan.

Considering Canon's response to Dan, one could think that non OEM paper would bend at the end of the print and cause a non-flat printing surface under the printhead. Therefore I also tried Canon's original photo paper plus glossy as well as a compatible photo paper. The results are practically the same (in regards to the problem -- Canon's photo paper produces better overall quality). I also tried the following settings: Borderless, non borderless, with and without abrasion prevention, auto color, manual color to decrease magenta, photo paper pro, photo paper plus glossy, with image optimizer and without image optimizer. No success.

I asked Dan's photo because I remember I also had the same problem with this photo and they share a common color... cerulean blue. I was not even aware of this problem until I had printed this photo of Winnie. I immediately ran a nozzle check after the printing was made and it came out perfect. So it's not the nozzles. There is a small possibility that using OEM ink would solve the problem but I think that its a problem in printer design resulting from a change in the printhead driving strength when the paper is near to its margin.

So, if my prints contain lots of cerrulean blue, my printshop will yield much better results.

 

[d86cfv]

I found that half the problem went away with the prevent paper abrassion setting enabled, i still had a small section of banding, the more pronounced bit on my photo i but only about 1cm wide, rather thnat he whole 3-4 cm of the end of the page.

Its only noticible on blue, however looking through all my previous photo's it is there! But you just cant see it as clearly.

Also worth pointing out i'm using genuine canon's at the moment that came with the replacement printer. The banding is on both though.

I think its only through the Cyan part of the head as deep reds, blacks and yellows there is no banding, with greens there are yellow streaks (where ts missing the blue) and purples there are red streaks.

 

[Correzpond]

Just thought that I should wrap up my issue that commenced this post. Canon graciously replaced the print-head under warranty (no questions asked) and the resulting print using Hobbicolors carts was flawless:

Lessons learnt:

(1) End of page banding MAY be due to a print-head blockage (it appeared to be so in my case)

(2) Mixing inks from different manufacturers in successive carts without thorough purging of the print-head in-between probably isn't a good idea. Even if the inks individually are OK, nozzle-blocking precipitates may be forming when the different ink matrices mix within the print-head.

(3) Robust cleaning of the print-head should be used circumspectly & overnight soaking only as a last resort.

(4) The value of the nifty-stuff.com intelligence when trouble-shooting printer issues is second to none.

Thanks to everyone who assisted the troubleshooting of my problem!