Canon i550 does not print black on paper only

[d86cfv]

As explained earlia, with a canon printer to print black whilst on the plain paper setting it uses the ink from your BCi-3eBK.

When printing black on ANY other SETTING (note setting, regardless of what paper is Actually in the printer) the printer mixes CMY to make what looks like black.

So if your printer wont print a normal document whilst on the plain paper setting, but will print black when on another paper setting this means that the ink from the BCi-3eBK cartridge is not getting to the paper.

You've changed the cartridge so that rules out a dodgey cartridge. You say you've run a head clean - this does litle more than wipe a rubber pad over the head, it tries to push ink out, but with no more force than it would if you were printing.

What i would suggest you do is actually physically clean the head, so take it out of the printer and either soak it in one of the many solutions mentioned in other posts or flush the head through, again, the how to's are mentioned in other posts.

Regs,

Dan

 

[dejudicibus]

Can you please add a link to any post explaining which home-made solution I can use? My understanding is that most special chemicals are just expensive version of stuff that can be found in any supermarket, in home-cleaning products shelves.

 

[Osage]

There are numerous threads on printhead cleaning on this forum. But you are in troubleshooting mode now.
Do a noozle check first---that tells you what is printing and what is not---If the BCI-3ebk is not showing you need to determine if its your cartridge or the printhead. Most likely spot on the printhead to get clogged is the part that mates with inkoutlet hole---there some windex and a can of compressed air may be the ticket.-------take it step by step--don't change more than one variable at a time. You will get to whats wrong if you work at it step by step.

 

[dejudicibus]

I did some test: it's black only and it is NOT the cartdrige. So it is printhead.

What should I try first? Wet cleaning or compressed air? And how? I do not want to damage printhead. I am sure somebody already posted some hits, but I cannot find them. Do you have a link to posts?

 

[Katana]

I have the exact same problem as dejudicibus, only that i have a Canon I865, with two black cartridges 6bk and 3ebk

 

[dejudicibus]

Both cartridge do NOT work????

 

[OMSchwep]

I had the same problem with two (!) Canon printers that use the same black printhead (3e Black): a Canon i560 and an MP730 multifunctional. In bothe cases the black (mostly text) first started showing banding (white striping).
I then did a deep cleaning procedure.
After this, they both refused to brint black. A few smudges on the first sheet, then nothing. Even with brand new cartridges (original Canon). I tested them with two different laptops, one with Win XP SP1 and one with Win XP SP2. De-installed the printers, then re-installed the drivers. Same result. No black text.
The only conclusion I can arrive at is that the DEEP CLEANING actually clogs up the print head instead of cleaning it. !!!
Indeed they still print graphics, meaning the colour heads work and they will combine colours to arrive at what appears to be black (or a very dark grey).
So here is a warning: do NOT use the deep cleaning procedure, it may ruin your print head.

 

[MarcellaL]

I am sorry for posting in this old thread but I just saw a great solution for this problem in a tech support site. It seems like you can easily clean it without working to hard... here is the page for the solution - Can't print in Black ink

Hope it will help

Good luck

mary