Canon i850 won't print color at all

[DrNick]

I have a Canon i850 that will not print color at all. I have tried numerous ink cartridges and two separate print heads to no avail. Black prints fine.

There are 3 ribbon cables that go to the print head assembly - I have re-seated them on both ends.

I am out of ideas. Any ideas for what to try next?

 

[Smile]

Perhaps printer board is damaged?

 

[ghwellsjr]

Maybe your color purge/prime unit is clogged. Open the cover and wait until the head moves to the center. Use a syringe or a straw to put some Windex with ammonia (or just plain water) on the two pads where the printhead parks, and cycle power and then do a nozzle check. Repeat this many times until the color starts printing or until you give up.

 

[tyamada]

One way to check if the logic board is fried is to print in the plain paper mode. Then print in any photo paper mode.
If you get color in either one the logic board is fried.

 

[DrNick]

I tried cleaning the color purge/prime unit and saw no improvement.

I tried printing in photo paper mode and that did the trick - instant color. Since this printer does not have different inks for photos I am not sure why this worked. Can you give me a short explanation of this phenomena?

I have two of these i850s and I'm sure I can get ONE working unit out of the parts but cannot figure out how to disassemble it. I can get the top off just fine but cannot seem to get the works out of the case. I found two screws in the back but cannot find anything holding in the front. Can anyone help with this? One of these i850's is FILLED with ink and needs cleaned out desperately.

Thanks,

RICK

 

[tyamada]

The reason the printer printed in color in the photo paper mode is because the logic board uses a different section to print in the photo mode.
I had a friend's i950 do the opposite, it would print in color in the plain paper mode and nothing in the photo paper mode. He had it repaired at a Canon repair station. He was informed they replaced the logic board.

Are both printers doing the same thing?

 

[DrNick]

Thanks for the explanation.

i850 #1 wouldn't print color at all but was otherwise in good shape.

i850 #2 has been used a lot more. It has worn rollers (problems feeding paper) and is FULL of ink. Ink has overflowed all over the inside. I can't figure out how to get it apart to clean it.

I took the logic board out of #2 and put it in #1 and now it is printing color again but I think the print head is damaged. Color printing has lines running through it all over the place. I did an alignment and the alignment page doesn't have a single solid block on the whole page (as I remember). It all looks like this "!! !! !! !! !!" (it that makes sense). I'm going to try another print head to see if that works.

Thanks for the help.

 

[tyamada]

Take the print head from Printer #1 and put it in Printer #2. You should end up with one good printer.
To clean the print head do a search on the on the forum, there are numerous post on how to clean them.