Canon ip4300 missing bar in nozzle check pattern.

[309carpug]

My trouble is with a Canon pixma ip4300 (approx 21 months old & around 1500 sheets). The magenta ink is not printing properly, the nozzle check pattern has only the top magenta bar thats also a bit pale and a couple of the side blocks are wrong, there is a ghosting of the bottom bar that also drifts off outside the right hand end of it.

I have tried the printers cleaning cycle a few times plus deep cleaning 2 times before removing print head and soaking in changes of distilled water for a few hours. Dried head overnight, replaced on printer ran nozzle check -no change ran cleaning 2x then deep clean -no change. Nozzle pattern same if initiated by printer as from printer driver. I am using refilled cartridges, topped them up - no change, tried another refilled cartridge no difference.

I contacted Canon, reply suggested printhead problem or internal mechanical, but I would like to know what the problem is before forking out hard cash for a new printhead that may be needed or may not solve the problem, or a chemical cleaning could work on a stubborn clog and avoid high costs.
Has anyone tried Mr Muscle window & glass cleaner or ether, as Ive got these handy.

 

[Trigger 37]

309carpug,... The printhead is made up of many banks of nozzles. Nozzles come in pairs or banks. Look at your Cyan and Photo Cyan prints. The darker is the Cyan with 5 picoliter ink drops and the faint one or the Photo Cyan is made up of 1 picoliter ink drops. Looking at your magenta, it seems your Photo Magenta or 1 picoliter nozzles are not working. What could be the problem???? First I don't believe it has anything to do with your ink carts. You may have done some external cleaning but it didin't seem to do the job. It could be an electrical contact on the back of the printhead since you have lost one complete bank of nozzles. My suggestion is to forget any "Super X" cleaning solution. Nothing works better than "Warm Water". So you need to try two things and you can do them both at the same step.

Remove the ink carts and the printhead. Take the printhead to the laundry room sink and turn on the sink faucet to hot water but no hotter than you can stand to put your hands under. Focus the stream a water onto all the filter screens and wash all of the ink out of the printhead. Then turn the printhead over and focus the stream onto the nozzles. If you know which bank of nozzles contain the Magenta, focu longer on that one. Turn the head over without get water on the filter screens. Look to see if there was colored ink on each screen, matching the color positions. If there is wet ink there, this is telling you that you are getting water to flow backwards through the nozzles. Keep flushing the head on both sides until you don't see any more ink. Wet paper towel folded to 1/4 size with hot water and place it in a dish. Add about 1/4" of hot water to the dish. Place the printhead on the towel and let it set this way for a couple of hours. After the first hour squeeze out the water and replace it withsome more hot water. You are hoping to see some Magenta ink come out on the paper towel.

Once you've done this a couple of time, take the printhead back to the sink and focus the hot faucet directly onto the clogged Magenta nozzles. Check the other side to see if any majenta color is coming out. If you see any ink turn it over and focus more water. If you have a hand sprayer on the faucet use it to focus the stream directly onto the nozzles.

Once you are satisfied there is not more ink to come out, dry the printhead with compressed air. I use my air compressor in the garage about about 60-70 PSI. If you don't have one, use your hair dryer. Make sure you get every part of the head dry, especially the back where the eeprom is located. You may have to let it set over night to make sure it is dry.

The next part is to make sure the contacts on the back of the printhead and inside the carriage holder are clean. Use a tissue and some Isopropyl Alcohol to clean the contacts. The contacts in the carriage are spring loaded and should only be wiped in a downward motion. When you have this done, replace the printhead and the ink carts and do one deep cleaning cycles on the head and several others on the color section. Now you can print a new nozzle check to see if you have corrected the problem.

If you did not fix the problem, it could still be a VERY BAD Clogged head, or a bad printhead driver, or cable wire,or eeprom selection diode, etc. The only other test you can do is to replace the printhead. IF you still think it is a clogged Magenta printhead, there is one more cleaning step you can try. Get an old Magenta ink cart, and make it re-fillable by drilling out the plug in the top. Fill it with the hottest water you can get out of your sink and tape the fill hole closed. Put it into the printer and remove the other ink carts. Just run deep cleaning cycles on the color section. Don't try and print anything. You may have to put some empty or dummy ink carts in the other positions. After you have done about 10 Deep cycles, pull out the cleaning cart and replace all the good carts. Do a new cleaning cycle followed by a nozzle check. Hopefully you have fixed your problem.

 

[309carpug]

To Trigger 37 & all,
Thanks for the response, since my posting and after further browsing of this site, I tried washing under tap & cleaning elec contacts on back of printhead - No Change. But after washing I dropped ink onto magenta filter in head and dabbed head onto tissue, I got two splotchy lines, which suggest to me that the printhead is not blocked. Perhaps I should also say that the problem came on quite quickly within 10 pages of a4 picture printing on plain paper.

 

[websnail]

Can I just ask... are you using any non-OEM cartridges or systems to deliver the ink?

It's just that the symptoms match issues I see a lot in badly configured CIS kits where either air bubbles or incorrect (negative or positive) pressure has slowed the ink delivery rate to the printhead.

 

[309carpug]

To websnail & all,
The 2 cartridges I tried were both refilled canon originals, I even eased the refill plug on one until I got a couple of drops out the bottom before retrying test, and I'm not using any CIS. I just ran the test again after leaving alone for a few days - no change.