Canon IP3000 broad smears at page end

[yuyakay]

Grandad, I read all the way through the thread albeit quickly. If I understand correctly, Trigger's last thoughts about the ultimate cause of the evenly split Cyan band, was that it had to do with poor electrical contact between the printhead and the carriage. The idea of coating the contacts with tin was discussed (not very practical for me), and the idea of using an electrical lubricant was also discussed (more practical) though which lubricant and how to apply it was never determined.

Unless I got the gist of the thread wrong, I thought that nozzle clogging was eventually concluded to be not likely to be the problem. And the disconnecting and reconnecting of the electrical ribbons, which can only be achieved when the printer is disassembled (not suitable for me) was in any case also ruled out, as the problem later returned. Please correct me if I misunderstood.

 

[Grandad35]

Unless I got the gist of the thread wrong, I thought that nozzle clogging was eventually concluded to be not likely to be the problem. And the disconnecting and reconnecting of the electrical ribbons, which can only be achieved when the printer is disassembled (not suitable for me) was in any case also ruled out, as the problem later returned. Please correct me if I misunderstood.

IIRC, there was no clear-cut solution, only that it seemed to be an intermittent electrical problem and not a clog. Perhaps Trigger37 could chime in if he reads this. You could always PM him (click on "E-mail" under his name in any of his posts) and ask him to reply in case he isn't following this thread.

Since you're not into tearing into your printer, a new printer may be the best choice. Beware of the printers that use a "3-in-1" color cart (C/M/Y in one cart), as you must replace the cartridge when any of the inks runs out. Be sure to include your future ink costs when comparing printers.

 

[Ron350]

Dan_uk_1984 wrote

I believe the ip3000 printhead has 6 rows of nozels, two for each colour that are offset with each other, hence enabling bi-pass printing without getting stripes. Anyway, I would say that half of them on your Cyan have packed up.

Yes there is one row of black nozzles separate from the five rows of color nozzles.

The color nozzles are lined up.

Cyan row #1
Magenta row #1
Yellow
Magenta row #2
Cyan row #2

Can a clog in a feed tube to one of the 2 separate Cyan nozzle rows be causing the problem?

.

 

[dan_uk_1984]

I agree with Grandad - be carefull when shopping for your replacement printer. Stick with Canon, I'm shopping for an A3 but I only want one that takes the bci6/3's rather than the newer chipped carts.

I'm a great believer in eBay, have a look, see if there is an ip4000/5000 they are good printers and use an extra black for better contrasts in photo's...

I would also try cleaning the copper contacts on the back of the head with some alcohol wipes...

 

[Grandad35]

Can a clog in a feed tube to one of the 2 separate Cyan nozzle rows be causing the problem?

This post shows a photomicrograph of a similar printer that uses two different nozzle sizes to get light and dark cyan from a single ink supply (third photo from the bottom on that post). Note that a single ink channel feeds both the large and small nozzles. Since the light cyan nozzle check is normal, both cyan ink channels are feeding properly.

 

[yuyakay]

Well I got another Cyan cartridge today. The previous one on Sunday gave the "out of ink" message. First thing I tried was to wipe the contacts on the back of the printhead with alcohol, and also I gently wiped the contacts in the carriage with a paper towel wet with alcohol. I then did a printhead alignment and one cycle of cleaning. The result however was the same. What is supposed to be the dark Cyan band is split perfectly down the middle, the lower half being light Cyan. And the bottom half of the letters are red rather than black.

As any other electrical contacts are probably too deep in the printer for me to clean, I suppose I can try various printhead cleaning methods. It seems unlikely that clogging .is the problem as the perfect symmetry seems to deny a blockage problem, however I don't know what else to try. What do you experts think of the method of blowing compressed air from the inktank side of the printhead, and out the port side of the printhead? This method is espoused by Neil Slade whose link is on this page.

BTW, I looked into ip3k,4k and 5k printers on ebay. Not many. They're selling used printers for 70% money than I bought my new ip3000 for. ... a sure sign that Canon decided they couldn't make any money selling low end printers that use #6 inktanks.

At target I saw an Epson CX4400 for $49. It uses 4 inktanks. Target sells a box of 1 each of the 3 colored tanks for $28. Not too bad, but not as cheap as $4/per either.
The printer also scans & copies and it does Windows too. ... but it doesn't do the dishes.

 

[Grandad35]

What do you experts think of the method of blowing compressed air from the inktank side of the printhead, and out the port side of the printhead?

1. Since your problem isn't a clog, compressed air won't help.
2. I have used compressed air. Be sure to regulate the pressure down to 5-10 psi to avoid over pressuring any internal print head seals. Also be careful not to blow off one of the rubber grommets that seal the carts to the ink pickups (they're hard to find on the garage floor). Obviously, be prepared for any potential mess caused by spraying ink.

 

[Ron350]

yuyakay

Where are you located?

An easy way to test would be to put your printhead in another iP3000.

 

[yuyakay]

AZ, just a few letters from AL. I don't know anyone who has an IP3000 ... not that I haven't recommended them to my friends. I found this interesting post about an i560.
Looks like this problem is VERY common. Perhaps an issue of planned obsolescence with the printhead ?

 

[dan_uk_1984]

The price of used canons is always much higher than an HP or the like, due to their running costs. Be carefull with the Epson cart's they too are chipped, but more than likely the chips can be reset, alternatively you can get autoresetting chips.

Canon have been making good chipless printers for a long time now, but unfortunately people will refill their carts' and use compatibles which is exactly where canon make thir money! Not that i'm any different, I don't want to pay 60 for a set of inks!

But it is the consumer that has pushed canon in this direction, but at least they were the last manufacturer to go that way and we got some good printers out of them.

At the end of the day a print head is classed as a consumable, it only has a finite life. Although saying that mine is coming up on 3 years old, and probably has higher than average use, although in the last 6 months I have probably only printed 20 pages off! I did a nozzel check last night was perfectMy mums Epson R300 chews through cart's because she's always having to do head cleans and she prints at least once a week.