Help with bad nozzle on Pro9500 - Head less than a year old

[astrono_me]

Hello all.

First post here. Been lurking around for long. There is a wealth of information in the past threads. The problems I am currently facing has been discussed many times in the past. But after having tried the usual solutions such as a deep cleaning using ammonia, I have some specific questions which I have asked below.

Background:

Owned the Canon Pixma Pro9500 since 2008. 95% of my prints have been photographs on archival media from Red River, Ilford and Museo. The remaining 5% have been documents and CD/DVDs. Printer worked great always, except that it has been very ink-hungry. Never tried third-party inks. There have been times when the printer was left idle for long periods of time. But it always gave me good prints after doing a self-clean (and drinking lot of ink in the process).

In May 2012 the Gray and Magenta tanks would print only half, in the nozzle check. Called up Canon and they replaced the head. My understanding from reading past threads is that when the nozzle check prints exactly half the color, the problem is not a clog but an electrical one. Changing the head resolved the problem. The engineer who changed the head, also checked the ink absorbing pads and said they are fine. It didn't hurt me to buy a new head because the printer had served me great for 4 years. And where I live (India), buying a new printer off craiglist is not an option.

Current problem:
When I printed a few images last week, I noticed banding in the upper half of the paper. Ran a nozzle check and noticed that the Photo Magenta color was printing half again. One half was fine, and the other was faint. Again, the problem was exactly midway on the printed block. In spite of this, I was able to print about 20 photos in 13x19" size on matte paper. The printer does not use Photo Magenta on matte paper.

After I ran out of matte paper, I tried a little troubleshooting of my own. I tried deep cleaning. Since that did not work, I removed the head, and cleaned it with ammonia + water. That didn't work either. So I guess I have a failed print head. I am yet to contact Canon for a replacement.

My questions:

- The service manual for the Pro9500 says that faint prints in a nozzle check indicates a problem in any of these components: Ink Tank, Print Head, Purge Unit or Logic Assembly.. I changed the PM cartridge so that leaves me with either a failed print head, logic assembly or purge unit. I understand that when colors don't print well in exact halves, the problem is of electrical nature. Using this symptom for diagnosis, I can suspect either a failed head or logic assembly. The purge unit doesn't seem to have any electrical function. Can I assume that the logic assembly is fine, because I have never had any other problem (like a misprint).

- Can a failing purge unit kill a new print head? I understand that the purge unit is where the print head rests. So if the purge unit is not doing its job, maybe the print head dies a premature death.

- I find it unusual that the print head would die within 1 year. My usage over the past year has been normal. Is there a bigger problem leading to failed heads? Power fluctuations, maybe? I tend to leave the printer on (with the blue light) for several days on end.

- If the problem turns out to be a failed purge unit or logic assembly, will I still need to replace the print head?

- How much would it cost to replace the logic assembly?

Needless to say, at this point in time I am worried about the amount of money I am spending on this printer. Photography is just a hobby of mine. I'm hoping to find an inexpensive fix to this problem, so I can sell the printer.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[The Hat]

Welcome Astrono_me I will try to answer some of you questions for you.

Normally when you only have half an image on your nozzle check it is usually an electrical problem in the print head and those nozzles are not firing properly (Burned out).

The purge unit consists of positions (1) and (2) so if youre having a problem with either side of it some of the other colours will have problems also not just one.

A failed purge unit can indeed kill a print head and is noticeable by several of your colours printing faint or not at all despite running several cleaning cycles but in your case this is not so.

Your first print head failure was on both sides of your purge unit (Grey/Magenta)
so it could have been suspect back then but it has been working perfectly for the past twelve months.

The chances of having a logic board failure are very slim and if it did happened then other problems would also be happening but you are still managing to print so that should rule out that possibility and leaving the printer switched on for days wont do it either.

The only thing I could suggest you do now is to get a replacement head yourself and not go through Canon Services if that is at all possible which would save you considerably.

Print head failures are rare so could it have been a bad cartridge, or did you forget to give the cartridge a good shake before installing it into the printer, poor ink flow is usually the cause of nearly all premature print head failures.

So to help prevent any further problems occurring with the new print head
or any ink flow issues try this procedure below on start up.

When you turn on your printer first of all try running a nozzle check to start with
and if its perfect then carry on with your normal print work if not run the Ink Quality Maintenance procedure followed by a normal cleaning cycle and only start to print after you've gotten a good nozzle check.

All of you old empty PGI-9 cartridges are worth something if you sell them on EBay.

 

[astrono_me]

Thanks for a very clear explanation, The Hat. It may take a few days or weeks to obtain a new head. I'll report back how it goes.

 

[Grandad35]

Have you looked at the quality of the power being supplied to the printer? Do you have a surge protector or a UPS on your power line? Power spikes could be involved in your two print head electrical failures.

 

[astrono_me]

Have you looked at the quality of the power being supplied to the printer? Do you have a surge protector or a UPS on your power line? Power spikes could be involved in your two print head electrical failures.

I don't have a surge protector or UPS for the printer.

My APC UPS manual said I shouldn't be connecting a printer to the UPS. I read this years back when I first bought the UPS. I never bothered to check again, when I purchased a new UPS recently.

 

[Grandad35]

Printers aren't normally thought of as needing a UPS and some of the older printers consumed a lot of power, so this may be why may be why your ups manual says this. The Pro9500 specifications list the power consumption as 14 watts (1.2 in standby), so the added load on your ups won't be an issue for this printer.

The reason that I mentioned a ups is that a continuous ups is the ultimate surge suppressor, and that a lot of the low cost "power strip suppressors" aren't really up to the job if you have dirty power. A single print head failure could have been a random event, but with two heads burning out in the fashion described, a likely cause is that an over voltage is reaching the head. I have no idea of the quality of your power, but given your location I would start looking there.