Canon MP730 vertical head alignment problem

[sxd]

Hi,
Please help me. My MP730 having a major vertical head alignment problem. It started after I forgot to close the lever on the print head after replacing cartriges and closed the printer. It tried to move the print head and stuck. The noise was terrible! Here are the scans of the nozzle check and the vertical head alignment.




Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[Trigger 37]

sxd,... By now you know that you don't have to open the locking lever just to change the ink carts. It should only be opened when you are going to take out the printhead. But now you know to keep it closed. As a rule, when ever I take out the printhead, I unplug the power so the carriage is dead and moveable. I always take the opportunity to move the carriage to the far left so I can examine the purge station and possibly clean out some excess ink.

Ok, now that you have the problem, what are the other symptoms. I would assume that the printing from left to right does not match or line up with the printing from right to left. Head alinment is only meant to take care of microinches, and it looks like you caused the drive belt to skip about 1/8". The bad news is that you can't get at the drive belt without taking the printer apart. If you've seen some of my other posts on this web site then you know that this is a very difficult job. The Service manual says the carriage position is initially determined when the carriage is driven against the right wall or stop. This is where the photo cell in the Carriage asm detects the large black dot. This is home. Once home is found, all horizontal position is measure or determined by the timing strip.

You just missed my MP730 Repair Manual sale on eBay. This manual is a do it yourself guide on how to disassemble and repair just about everything inside the MP730, or most other Canon printers. This is done with high resolution digital photos of each and every step and since the Manual is in PDF format you can enlarge the Digital images to 500% and see all the details very close. I also include the Canon Service Manuals, Parts Catalogs, Software & Drivers, Color test print images, and instruction on how to modify your ink carts for refilling, cleaning printheads, etc. I think it is a great bargain at $25 plus shipping.

Now back to your problem. The drive belt is easy to take off and re-position the carriage, but you have to get the entire carriage asm out of the case. There is a photo dot on the Film timing strip that passes through the back of the Carriage Asm, and this dot locates home for the carriage. Normally there is no alignment since the carriage positions itself via the timing strip. So I'm thinking something must be bent. Obviously the printer still prints OK for things like the nozzle check so that says the timing strip is still working. I'm sorry to say I have not seen this problem.

If you know how to go into Service Mode, do that and print the Service test print. This has alignment marks that can tell us what else may be wrong. Search this forum for "Service TEst Mode" and you should find the instructions. If you have any kind of test chart, print that and upload the data. This will show us more information on what is happening.

 

[lin]

Trigger37, the drive belt you spoke of is it the white belt or the brownish zig-saw belt or the brownish translucent belt? I am also having slight problem with the alignment after the carriage move itself on it's own before I had a chance to lock the lever. It was too fast. I think there was a timing where the carriage will return itself to the right to park itself during inactivity. Wasn't aware that it will cause any problem as such I didn't inspect thoroughly whether the carriage sit properly etc. During printing, I also heard a loud grinding sound and the printer immediately throw me carriage error light alert.

 

[Trigger 37]

lin,.. After you turn the power on and open the top cover to change inks, the carriage on all Canon printers will return to the right side and park after 55 seconds. They do this to help prevent drying out of the printhead. So as I said in my previous post. anytime you move the carriage to the center of the printer and remove the ink carts, you should un-plug the power cord to stop all the automatic actions of the printer.

There is no "White Belt". The drive belt is the brownish zig-zaw belt. It doesn't matter since you can't get at it to do anything until you have taken the entire printer apart. Don't try and adjust the belt until you have the printer apart. You will only make it worse.

You did not do a good job in telling us what the other symptoms are of the printer right now. What is it doing as far as printing documents.??????????????????????????????????????????????????/

 

[sxd]

Thanks Trigger37. I guess I'm screwed. Wouldn't be nice if Canon implement some 'fool proofing' to avoid it? Anyway, I tried to find the 'Service Test Mode' post and so far no luck. Could you be so kind to give me a link since I'm pretty sure you know everything about it.
Appreciate your help.

 

[Trigger 37]

sxd,... Well it is too late tonight and too many glasses of red wine. I'll be back with you tomorrow night when my brain is in gear again. You know when you get retired like I am, and you play golf all day, and come home and have a drink and then dinner with a glass of red wine,... well,... sometimes it's time to take a rest. You won't understand until you are retired.

 

[sxd]

Good night then. Talk to you tomorrow.

 

[lin]

lin,.. After you turn the power on and open the top cover to change inks, the carriage on all Canon printers will return to the right side and park after 55 seconds. They do this to help prevent drying out of the printhead. So as I said in my previous post. anytime you move the carriage to the center of the printer and remove the ink carts, you should un-plug the power cord to stop all the automatic actions of the printer.

There is no "White Belt". The drive belt is the brownish zig-zaw belt. It doesn't matter since you can't get at it to do anything until you have taken the entire printer apart. Don't try and adjust the belt until you have the printer apart. You will only make it worse.

You did not do a good job in telling us what the other symptoms are of the printer right now. What is it doing as far as printing documents.??????????????????????????????????????????????????/

Sometime accidents do happened that I forgot to switch of the main power source to the printer (I wouldn't advice un-plug the power cord. All it takes is to switch from the power socket. Not referring the printer on/off button though). As I normally do disconnect the power so I didn't take note that I hadn't done so. Therefore I wasn't mindful that lever was up and hasn't been locked yet. Just when I was going to lock the lever after putting in the printhead & cartridges, the carriage moved to the parking zone so fast before I could do anything and it slammed real hard when it hit the roof which the automatically locked the lever. I closed the printer cover since the lever was locked by this incident.

I should have opened up the printer again and ensure that the carriage do sit properly before I start printing. The printer produces loud grinding noise when I was doing printing and throw the carriage unit error alert. I resit the carriage unit thereafter, however since then, the printing was always out of alignment.

Didn't think you will reply, I thought the drive belt was the brownish transluscent belt as there was 2 black dots at both ends which I initially thought it might have some role to play in regards to the alignment.

Well, my printer has been left unused/unable to use for 2 weeks as the oversea seller had shipped out wrong items and had gone missing and unresponsive to any form of contact to resolve the wrong shipment. Now I can't do any printing further to diagnoise and resolve it further. So below is a drawing illustration of the printhead misalignment for the moment from what I recalled from printout which I threw away already. Quite like what the thread starter, sxd is experiencing.


The top block depict the printout from the head alignment. The bottom text depict how text appeared during normal printing.

But like what you said, can't do anything to it as it requires the removal of the printer assembly to adjust the driver belt.

 

[Grandad35]

This could be caused by a damaged/dirty timing strip, as mentioned in post 2 of this thread. Also see (http://nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=15610#p15610).

A damaged/dirty timing strip can cause the printer carriage to sense a different position in each direction, and to therefore offset the printing when the carriage is moving in reverse. Note that your nozzle check patterns (which are printed in a single direction) do not show the problem.

 

[Trigger 37]

lin,... Grandad35 could be correct. However, the bad news is that to get at the timing strip, you have to take the printer apart. There is just no way you can get your hands or any tools inside the small opening of the cover. You could open the cover and pull the power cord and then move the PH out of the way and look to your far right with a flashlight at the timing strip and see if there is any ink on it. It does not seem logical that this could happen at the same time you forgot to close the ph locking level. It seems you are doomed to take the printer apart.