Canon iX4000 will no longer print with black

[gumpy]

Hi all,

Running a Canon iX4000 A3+ QY6-0064 printhead PGBK5 and CLI-8CMY cartridges.

Hoping someone can shed some light on this problem.
The situation started out when I was printing some flyers consisting black text and some coloured vector drawings. I started out with a new PGBK5 cartridge and after it had emptied (all was fine),
I proceeded to refill using Durchstich method and reset and resumed printing. Then it started missing parts of the text, stopped replaced that cartridge with another new one still no improvement,
tried deep cleaning etc and other refilled cartridges still no improvement and eventually no black was coming down at all meantime CMY cartridges were printing fine. Proceeding to work on the printhead soaked and flushed out with windex still no black. Okay printhead stuffed (it was only replaced 3 months ago) ordered a new one came today same problem no black.
Have uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers, I'm out of ideas and thinking it its somewhere in the printer itself and can't even print out a EEPROM info print.
There was never any error codes come up you can send anything to the printer it will procees it with no black and CMY are fine.

HELP!

Regards
Geoff

 

[ghwellsjr]

Sounds like it may be your purge system for the pigment black. What type of ink are you refilling with?

You need to confirm that you purge system is working, otherwise, your cleanings won't do anything as it uses the purge system to do the cleanings. And until you get your nozzles working, you shouldn't print anything except nozzle checks or you risk permanently burning out your nozzles.

Start by doing a nozzle check. Then open the printer cover and after the print head stops in the middle, take a flashlight and shine it off to the right where the print head parks. Look for the two black pads that the print head parks on. Take some window cleaner like Windex and using a syringe, eye dropper, or a pinched straw, deposit some window cleaner on the two pads. Make sure the liquid appear shiny and remains on the pads. Then do a head cleaning. When it is done, look at the two pads and see if there is shiny liquid still on them or if they appear dull and somewhat dry.

Let us know what you determine for further instructions.

 

[gumpy]

Ok we may be on to something.

Did the nozzle check and then put the windex on the pads, after the head clean the windex on the small pad for the CMY had been used but the pad for the black was still there.
So it looks like the purge system in blocked, where do we go from here.

The black ink is a bulk litre bottle I bought on ebay its a no name ink, so there more than likely is where my problems have originated, the CMY are much the same.
I have puchased the Hobbicolors UW8's and will be switching over to them for a fresh start after I sort this out.

Thanks for helping.
Regards
Geoff

 

[ghwellsjr]

Your black purge pad is going to be saturated with thick black ink. It may look like foam rubber but it is a hard porous material that may be brittle so be careful with it. You need to remove it and clean it.

Here's how to do this:

Open the printer cover and wait for the print head to stop in the middle.
Unplug the power cord from the printer.
Move the print head as far left as it will go.
Be very careful of the thin, almost invisible timing strip that goes along the width of the printer and through the back of the print head. You don't want to touch it if at all possible and you don't want to get ink on it.
Now you're going to lift the purge pad out of the rubber tray that it sits in. You can do this with tools such as twizzers, long nose pliers, or any long narrow object. After you get it out of the tray, if you can grab it with a tool, that would be best, but you can also put on thin rubber gloves and just grab it with your fingers. Try not to let it fall down inside the printer. Watch out for that timing strip.
After you get it out of the printer, rinse it in warm water until no more ink comes out of it.
Soak it for a couple hours in a shallow pool of Windex or other window cleaner or soapy water.
Rinse it some more.
Put it to your lips and see if you can suck air through it easily.
If not, keep repeating the above steps until it is clear.

While you are waiting for the purge pad to soak, you can go back to your printer and clean out the rubber tray.
Use a cotton swab to dab up all the residual ink. I have some Kelly clamps that let me extend the reach of a cotton swab.
Use a syringe, eye dropper or pinched straw to deposit some Windex or other window cleaner (or just plain water) in the rubber tray and clean it out with more cotton swaps.
Repeat until the cotton swabs show no more evidence of residual ink.

Next, you want to run some more cleaning cycles to see if liquid that you put in the rubber tray will get sucked away. If it doesn't, clean it out with cotton swabs. Repeat as long as you are getting more ink out of the tray. If the clog hasn't dissolved, leave some liquid in the rubber tray, plug in the printer, turn it off normally and let it sit overnight and then keep repeating this whole process for several more days.

If this doesn't get the purge system working, then let us know for more instruction.

If you do get it working, you will need to return the purge pad back to its rubber tray. You will note that one corner of the pad is notched out. This goes toward the left rear of the printer. Use your tools and/or fingers to get the pad back where it belongs. There are four small rubber shoulders on the inside of the tray to keep the pad in place. Make sure the pad is below these shoulders.

If you have gotten this far, you can go ahead and do a cleaning cycle followed by a nozzle check to see if everything is back to normal.

 

[gumpy]

Hi George,

back again have no success in unblocking the system with soaking and cleaning.
Will wait for your next instructions.

Regards
Geoff

 

[ghwellsjr]

I have managed to unclog the purge tubing in an MP780 which is fairly easy to dismantle. In my first attempt, I removed the print engine from the plastic housing it sits in. In this condition I cannot control it because the controls are on the scanning unit which has no support without the housing. So I attempted to clear the tubing by putting blunt needles into the two holes in the rubber purge pad tray and injecting Windex into them. All it did was squirt back up. I also tried injecting Windex into the two exit tubes on the bottom but they also would not receive any liquid.

I already had a plastic base unit from another similar printer that I had cut a hole in to extend the two purge unit tubes out the bottom of the printer to make an external waste ink tank. I took this base and put the print engine with the clogged purge unit on it. I had already extended the tubes with three feet of tubing hanging from the bottom of the printer (off the edge of a table). I assembled the rest of the printer so that I could now power it and control it.

Now I did some cleaning cycles while injecting Windex in the exit tube for the pigment black ink (the one that was clogged). It would not receive any Windex but the Windex in the tube would go up and down (I could see by bubbles in the tubing) as the purge unit was attempting to pump. This indicated to me that the problem was not in the purge unit itself but between the purge pad tray and the purge pump.

I finally decided to simply apply as much pressure as I could from the syringe attached to the bottom of the tubing and inject Windex as forcibly as I could. Well it finally went in and came out in the rubber tray. I put lots of Windex on the tray and ran many cleaning cycles until the liquid came out clear.

Now from this experience I think I could have cleaned the purge unit the first time I tried if I had only applied more force and watched for the liquid to come out in the rubber tray.

I don't know what your print engine looks like when you remove it from its housing (or even how you remove it). But assuming you can figure this out, I would suggest that you get some tubing that will make a snug fit with the purge unit exit tubing and hook up a syringe to it and force some Windex into it until you see it come out the rubber tray. I used tubing that would not fit over the existing tubing until I stretched out the opening of one end of the tubing by holding it under hot flowing water while prying it open with needle nose pliers. If you do it just right it will make a very good fit to the purge tubing.

You can see some work I did on the MP780 printer here and here. I also highly recommend that if you decide to go through with this process that you buy some new ink absorber pads from Canon and replace the dirty ones in your printer. Here is the process for the MP780.

If you replace your pads, you should find out how to reset the waste tank counter. I don't know how to do it on your printer.

 

[faten183]

Hi, I googled this subject and came across this forum- I have tried everything you have mentioned here and with no success- it's the same issue. I came back from a 2 week holiday and it seems like since this rest, my ix4000 printer has decided not to print black ink. Is there any solution? Please help!

 

[ghwellsjr]

If you have taken apart your printer, replaced the waste ink absorbent pads, cleaned out the purge pump tubing, cleaned the purge pads, verified that the purge unit is working, and you still cannot get any pigment black ink to print, then you have to determine if the problem is in your print head. It could be a bad cartridge, or an ink clog inside the print head or it could be an electrical problem in the print head or the printer. If you don't want to waste any time, you could just go ahead and buy a new cartrige and then a print head if that doesn't work. But if you want to determine which is the problem, you can do the following:

First, make sure your large black pigment cartridge can emit ink. Put a paper towel against the outlet port and see if you get a lot of black ink on it. If not, replace the cartridge with a new one.

If that doesn't work, take the print head out of the printer and put some Windex on a paper towel folded in half twice. Place the print head on the soaked paper towel and look at the little round screens where the ink goes into the print head as you press down on the print head. You should see the ink show up on the screens when you do this, at least on the smaller ones for the dye inks that are not clogged. If you see the same thing happening on the large round screen for the pigment black ink, then you know that the problem is not an ink clog but instead is an electrical problem and will require a new print head. If you don't see any ink after several tries, use a syringe or eye-dropper to put a couple drops of Windex on the large screen and try again. If you can never see any evidence of ink movement on the large screen then the problem is probably an ink clog inside the print head. If this is the situation, post another response for more instructions.