Canon Pixma MP830 - Light cyan not printing during nozzle check

[jhoulden]

Well I cleaned everything last night and then went to bed. This morning I got up and did another round of windex then printed the nozzle pattern. And YES ! the light cyan is back, albeit very light and streaky but its there. I will continue with another 4-5 rounds of windex today. In the meantime I have a few questions...

1) PGBK - I have been keeping track of the lines (horizontal ones, ignoring the vertical ones) in the PGBK pattern and the clogged nozzles seem to be in different places on print pattern. I get about 3-5 clogged heads on each print out. Should I be doing the windex cleaning until there are 0 clogged heads? If the clogged heads are not always in the same place does it mean they are just miss firing?

2) How often should I be doing the Windex drops on the screens and the purge pads? (Can I assume that it doesn't really hurt anything to do it regularly to keep the printhead clean)

3) Should regular maintenance include the Canon Alcohol Cleaning too or just do that if I see problems in the nozzle check?

4) embguy had asked previously if I was using OEM cartridges. Generally yes however I do buy some of the cartridges that do not have the chip and I switch over the chip. (currently they are all OEM except for magenta). Is there another thread that details the cheapest and best way to refill ink?

Thank you so much for your assistance. I posted in a number of forums and this is by far the most knowledgeable (others said buy new printhead).

 

[embguy]

1. The cleaning process is removing old ink from the nozzle walls which may clog the nozzles which were OK before. They will eventually clear on repeated cleaning.
2. I usually put some Windex on the purge pads once per month to keep the purge system working smoothly. No need to put Windex on the inlet screens because it will dilute the color. Instead, I do a nozzle check at least once per week just to fire all nozzles to keep them clean.
3. No
4. Some compatible cartridges cause ink flow problem. Always use OEM cartridge to refill. Search "German method" on this forum on how to refill cartridge.

 

[JimDemers]

I'm having precisely the same problem with a Pixma MX700: images are lacking in cyan, and the test page is identical to the one posted here, with the "rich cyan" stripe very pale and the "light cyan" stripe missing entirely. I have thoroughly cleaned the printhead and jets, to the extent of flushing alcohol through them until no ink remained, then installing three new OEM ink carts. Blotting on a paper towel shows five stripes (one yellow, two red, two cyan), so ink is flowing smoothly across the board, but the problem persists.
I will try installing a new print head, and hope that the fault lies there. If not, I'll be stumped, and any advice on how to proceed from there (other than buying another printer) would be very much welcomed. (Out of curiosity, where does all that Windex go to, if you floods the pads on a regular basis?)

 

[ghwellsjr]

The Windex goes to the same place the ink used during purging and cleaning goes, down to an absorbent pad that stretches along the bottom of the printer.

 

[Trigger 37]

jhoulden,...As you can tell from reading on this forum, there are many ways to clean a printhead that has become cogged. However, I would suggest that you start refilling your own ink and using the best quality ink for it. Start by using only Canon OEM carts and modify them for refilling. There a dozens of techniques that others have used, but I only have confidence in one format, which I have used for almost 3 years on 22 different printers. Yes I repair printers for others and that is why I have experience with so many different models. In doing this you will become much more alert and aware of the condition of your machine and you will take much better care of it. It will NEVER get clogged again and you will always be able to depend on it.

The refilling process I use is simple. I remove the plastic ball that Canon inserts in the top front of the ink cart just after they fill it that way. I use only ink from Image Specialist which I get from PrecisionColors.com. I use a Stainless Steel screw with a rubber gromlet to seal the hole air tight once I have filled it. I also have pruchased a chip resetter which allows me to contiue to use the same ink cart over and over and to continue to use the Canon Status Monitor.

Here is my suggestions on how to keep your printer in top condition.
1. Never turn the printer off. Each time you turn it OFF and back ON, it will do a cleaning cycle and it will dump 10 times more ink than it takes to print a nozzle check. Not only are you saving ink, but if you print a nozzle check each day, or at least something each day you are keeping fresh ink in the head at all times.
2. Don't EVER let any ink cart get close to dry. If you do you run the risk of burning out one or more of the 1000's of nozzles or at the minimum overheating them. When the nozzles are low on ink and you print something the head is firing each nozzle with very high temperature to create a "Bubble of ink". The bubble is the size of a Pico LIter. If the head continues to FIRE for the width of a page or more with little or no ink in the nozzle, the least damage it will do is to DRY up the small amount of ink in the nozzle and this will lead to a clog. The more you do this the bigger the clog. Once the clog develops, no new ink can get into the head because the action of the Bubble of ink being expelled to the paper is exactly the process that sucks the new ink into the head. The result is everything get progressively worse.
3. Keep some old ink carts around and make a cleaning ink cart out of them. Right now you have your Photo Cyan back to printing a little bit, but not all the way. So this is telling you that there is still some clogs. The best way to get rid of them is to use the engineering designed into the printer. The purge unit is the 2nd most importand device in the printer. IT IS THE DEVICE THAT SUCKS THE INK OUT OF THE INK CARTS AND PRIMES THE PRINTHEAD. Without this you could never print anything. If you remove the head and clean it some other way, like flusing it with water or windex, the ONLY WAY TO GET NEW INK BACK INTO THE PRINTHEAD SO IT WILL PRINT ANYTHING IS TO RUN A CLEANING CLYCLE. IT IS ABSOLUTLY NECESSARY.

So with an old ink cart, modify it for refilling and fill it with hot water and install it right away in the printer. Run a cleaing cycle and then print a nozzle check.
run another cleaning cycle and run another nozzle check. Once you see you are getting about 50% of the nozzles printing, print a test image of the color your are checking. There are 3, 4, and 6 color test images availale on the net and you can edit and crop any of these to give you one specific color. Now print a 4x6 image(no larger) of that color on plain paper. Now print a nozzle check to see if you are getting some improvement. Keep this up printer even larger images once you see improvement. There will have been sufficient ink color left in the cart to mix with the water such that the image on the paper is still the color you are trying to fix. If you have to, add 1 ml of color ink to the cart with new hot water and continue the process.

4. Print a nozzle check everyday, or some other test pattern. Print a test image of the 4, or 6 colors in your printer every couple of weeks. This is necessary because ink carts get old and as they do they begin to get clogged at the exit port. The way to test this and make sure it is not happening is to print a full page of your color test image. If you are having a problem it will NOT show up in a nozzle check, as there is sufficient ink in the WELL of the printhead to print 30 nozzle patterns without one mistake. However, when you print a page of solid color bars, if you see streaking there this is called ink starvation. Basically, the ink cart can not sustain the required ink flow into the head to print the image.

If you choose not to make some cleaning ink carts, then I suggest that you use the purge unit cleaning cycle on the colors only until you get them all correct. Then if you follow my suggestions, you should not ever have to use them again. I have been using the same ink carts on my iP6600d since the day I got the printer in late 2006. I have only used the best ink.

If you want to know more about how to maintain and repair ANY CANON PRINTER, just send me an email and I will provide you more information.

 

[jhoulden]

@Trigger37 thanks for all the details. I have a few clarification questions...

REFILLING
1. OEM Carts - How do you tell an OEM cart from a compatible? is the only way to ensure its a OEM cart is to buy a Canon cart that is still in packaging?

2. Refill Carts - I have seen these 'refill carts' that have plugs or seals in them are they the same as an OEM cart? (I am assuming no but want to double check before I buy 5 new OEM carts)



CLEANING
1. Cleaning Carts - I am assuming that when you make a cleaning cart as you described you want 1 cleaning cart per color so no colors get mixed. Does it matter if the cleaning carts are OEM?

2. Dry Ink Carts - when you say "don't let the ink cart get close to dry" do you mean refill it before it goes empty or do you just mean don't leave it in the printer after you have been prompted that you are low on ink?

 

[stratman]

I think your purge system is working. Are you using Canon OEM cartridge?

Now you need to do the cleaning.
1. Open the cover.
2. Take out the cyan cartridge. Put some Windex on the inlet screen at the cyan slot. Reinstall the cyan cartridge.
3. Optional step: Continue to put Windex on the right square pad (color) for next few cleaning cycles. This is to do more cleaning on the purge system.
4. Close the cover.
5. Do a cleaning cycle and then a nozzle check. You can initiate color only cleaning cycle from your computer to save your black ink. If you start the cleaning from the printer keypad, it will do the black and color cleaning.
6. Repeat step 1 - 5 until cyan comes back. I usually do 5 to 10 cycles per day. Before calling for the day, repeat step 1 - 4 and let the Windex do the work until next day.

Using OEM Canon cartridges with Mikling's Precision Colors ink in my MP830. Developed a sudden loss of Yellow ink. Nozzle check showed no Yellow. Did 2 cleanings followed by another nozzle check and then one deep cleaning. Repeat nozzle check showed return of the full Yellow stripe. But the celebration was short lived. A few minutes later I printed a webpage of mixed text and color with images and the Yellow was in stripes horizontally across the images and color areas.

Couple more cleanings and a nozzle check showed two horizontal bars of Yellow, one at the top edge and the other at the bottom edge of the nozzle check rectangular pattern. Repeated cleanings, deep cleanings and nozzle checks resulted in minor changes in the vertical diameter of each stripe but otherwise the middle area remained missing.

After reading your instructions, and others comments, I started flooding the park pads using a very dilute ammonia water mixture I use for cleaning windows. Each time I opened the cover, the fluid was gone. If I did a cleaning before opening the cover there would be stripes of color on the park pad. I took that as meaning my purge unit is working.

I have also tried squiriting the ammonia water on the ink inlet of the print head after removing the cartridge from the print head, but there was no success.

I took out the print head and wiped off some thickish ink from one edge (where ink exits the print head?) but otherwise things seemed clean and intact, though i don't know for sure about that.

I have also tried another OEM Canon cartridge freshly refilled with Yellow ink. No joy either, so I'm thinking this is not a cartridge problem.

After about 6 times of flooding the park pads I have stopped for the night - I flooded the pads one last time before stopping.

Any suggestions? Is my print head clogged, burned up, or is this a purge unit issue?

Thanks.

 

[jhoulden]

I have by no means as much experience as the guys here who helped me get my cyan working again. Buts heres what worked for me:

It took a few days of trying about 5 cycles of: taking out the cartridge, putting a few drops of windex on the circular filter in the slot, Place ink cart back, run normal cleaning, then nozzle check, wait 5 min, rinse and repeat. I did 3 cycles of those maybe 2 times a day. I found that mine slowly came back a little more each day.

I think you should also read through Trigger37's advice above, he describes a good technique if you have extra carts laying around. And do not try the deep cleaning as it will just waste ink.

 

[Trigger 37]

Stratman,...The first thing I would do would be to remove all the ink carts and then the printhead and take the head to the laundry room sink and clean it. This is done by turning on the faucet to full force and medium hot water. Hold the head under the water and focus the stream at the filter screens on the ink cart side. Turn the head over and focus the stream directly on the nozzles. Turn the head back over without getting water on the top side and observe the filter screens and see if they are wet with colored ink. If so this proves to you that the water is moving backwards through the head and getting to the screen. If there was no color, then this suggests that that color path is clogged. Keep rinsing the head back and forth and both sides until you see no more ink coming out. Blot the head with a paper towel and then take it to your Air compressor in the Garage. Use about 40 psi air pressure and blow dry all parts of the head, especially the logic board on the back of the head. If you don't have an air compressor, use your wife's hair dryer and set it at low temp and high air flow.

Clean the contacts on the back of the head using Isopropyl Alcohol, and also clean the contacts inside the carriage unit in the printer. Since you are refilling your own ink carts, what process do you use to refill the ink carts. By any chance do you use the German method???? Re-install the ink carts and do a regular cleaning cycle and then print a nozzle check,...but nothing more. If this process does not work you may have to modify one of your old ink carts and make a cleaning ink cart as I have outlined above and clean the printhead that way.

 

[stratman]

jholden:

Thanks for the response. That's what I thought I would do next.



Trigger37:

I will follow your advice tomorrow and then post back what happens.

1) Any length of time I should wait after blowing out the head with air before I put the print head back in the printer?

2) Any part of the print head to NOT get wet? If so, how do you recommend I keep those areas from getting wet?

Yes, I do use the German method for refilling. It's fantastic.

Planned on flushing all my cartridges as they became empty even before this Yellow printing issue occured. So, I can have a flushed cartridge for every color to use as a hot water cartridge for cleaning as you suggested in an earlier post. Hope flushing the printhead works first before going the hot water cartridge route.

Thank you for the help.