Canon i9950: New Print Head, New Purge Unit or Something Else?

NeoSonic

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Hi all,

Trying to get a i9950 working after replacing the print head due to a 5 amber light error code, printer has been sat in a box for probably 8 or 9 years.

I have fitted a replacement print head that I grabbed from Amazon for £34 & some 3rd party cartridges.

The print head looked fine but had a strong stagnant water smell so I assume its been washed out before or something?

There were also some little orange balls like mould around a couple of the nozzles so cleaned them off with some cotton buds.

I have run a basic head alignment & printed out the suggested test page, only 3 out of the 8 of the columns were faintly visible.

After proceeding the printer failed the automatic part of the alignment so I held the reset button next to the power button as instructed by the status monitor.

I then ran the clean operation 3 times, the deep clean once & printed another test page, which came out faint & streaky with only the same 3 colours visible.

After running a few more clean operations I'm not getting anything at all from a test page.

I managed to get the printer open & have had a look at the underside of the purge unit & it doesn't look like the 2 black tubes have become disconnected.

There are 2 sort of white nozzles? on the back of the motor looking thing near the purge unit with a small amount of ink in them but I don't know if that's related?

While the printer was open I decided to rinse out the 2 filters that sit on top of the purge unit & clean the little fins at the top of the purge unit.

After loosely putting it back together I'm still not getting anything on the test page.

If I look inside the printer I can see that one of the pads on top of the purge unit has a small amount of ink in it & one has quite a large amount in it after that last test page.

Should I return the print head or does it sound like a purge unit issue or is it something else?

If anyone has some suggestions or ideas I'd really appreciate it, would hate to have to throw this beast of a printer away after all these years.

I have attached some images below to help illustrate some of my points.

Thanks



Print Head Mould.jpg Print Head Underside.jpgPurge Pipes.jpgPurge Pipes 2.jpgPurge Pads.jpgAlignment Test Page.jpgTest Page.jpg
 
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Artur5

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Don't waste more time or money. Canon discontinued the printhead for the i9950 long ago, so genuine new printheads are unavailable. Everything offered on Amazon/eBay/Ali Express are refurbished units pulled from discarded printers. The vast majority of those printheads are defective, as the one you got.
 

NeoSonic

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Fair enough, that's a shame, cheers for the replies. Guess it's time for a trip down to the dump :hit

Do you guys have any recommendations for a A3 photo printer for around £150 or so second hand?
 

pharmacist

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Epson XP-15000 is something you are looking for: A3+ photo printer with 6 cartridges: PK, C, M, Y, Gray and Red.
 
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