Canon Pixma MP830 - Light cyan not printing during nozzle check

[embguy]

I measured the power usage after my Canon printer went to sleep, it uses only 2-3W. It will use 1Kwh electricity after 14 days. I pay 7 cents per KWh. I have three printers/AIO on my networks. The printer that I want to print on may not next to my desktop or laptop. It will be inconvenient to run upstairs or downstairs to turn on the printer before printing.

 

[Trigger 37]

OK,.. now it is time to bring out the heavy guns,... Being an Electrical Egineer at IBM, one of my early challenges was to design an 8 bit microprocessor. This was 6 years before Intel came out with their first 8 bit processor, the intel 8088. I received 5 patents on that design. Part of our goal in design was to insure the procuct would have a minimum life time of 5 years, and since my processor was made out of multiple chips, it was very critical that we understand the life cycle of chips. This is an ongoing science but the absolute first thing you learn about integrated circuits is that the most destructive thing you can do to any electronic circuit, especially integrated circuits is to turn the power on and off everyday. Each power cycle shortens the life. The major fatigue factor in any chip is the power on heat cycle where the chips (and the tiny contacts) warm up. This heating process causes the chip pads to expand, and this is all about the "Coeficent of Expansion" of dissimilar materials. Each time a pad heats up it expands and each time it cools off it contracts. This constant heating and cooling produces significant fatigue in the chip contacts. Eventually the pads fracture and disconnect,.. and you have a failure. This process is the "NUMBER ONE FAILURE MECHANISM" OF VIRTUALLY ALL ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS.

I really have never wanted to go into this on this forum since I didn't think people would get it, but since we are on the subject of printers and the power on/off cycle (and all of this also goes for your computers) this is another reason I have always recommended to leave the power on.

This is only a RECOMMENDATION,... You have to make up your own mind on what you want to do.

 

[JimDemers]

Folowing up on my earlier post: I got a new printhead ($35 on eBay), and all problems are solved.
I may have damaged or irretrievably blocked some of the inkjets, but it's hard to imagine how that would happen only to the "light" cyan jets while leaving the "dark" cyan jets intact. I suspect an electrical problem.

Trigger: I have taken an empty ink cart, flushed it clean of ink, and filled it with Windex. At the next sign of trouble, I'll pop in this "cleaning cart" and run a cleaning cycle. Seems to me this would be a quick and non-messy way to go about the whole business. Any thoughts on this? Also, where does one get a chip re-setter? I refill my carts often (kits from Carrot Ink), and being able to use Canon's monitoring software would be sweet.

 

[iP4XXX]

Also, where does one get a chip re-setter? I refill my carts often (kits from Carrot Ink), and being able to use Canon's monitoring software would be sweet.

I got mine off ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-RESETTER-...oner?hash=item33559a9afd&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14