Ink pooling under printhead

[mccoady]

I have a Canon ip4300 I bought new on eBay 2-3 years ago to replace my ip4000. I refill my cartridges using the German Refill method with Precision Ink. Here's the deal I've been having a problem periodically with the Black PGI-5BK where it is pooling under the printhead just black no other color.

I've cleaned the printhead more than once over the last couple of years and even resulted to using Canon's OEM PGI-5BK to see if that helped but not really. Yesterday I cleaned the printhead again and then after I had printed text a few times the pooling is right back with black ink smearing on my paper.

To be clear the PGI-5BK does print text but I'm assuming the smearing is from the pooling under the printhead.

Any idea what is causing this?

I do have a couple of NEW printheads if I need to replace the old one.

 

[The Hat]

I reckon you need to give the purge unit a good wash and clean and that might help stop the black ink smearing all of your paper again.

Just move the print head to the centre of the carriageway and pull the power plug then you’ll have good access to the purge unit, you can use water/alcohol mix or some Windex, just splash it around the general area and clean up with cloths or paper towels.

Before finishing pool some of the liquid on the top of the purge pads and see if it drains off by itself and if not, then close the top lid and power on the printer, now wait a minute and open the lid again and check to see if the pooled liquid has all gone, if so then your purge unit is working properly.

If you are only printing text all the time then set your print quality to standard use this will also help stop the excessive build up of ink on the underside of the print head..

 

[mccoady]

Ok I used a syringe to squirt Windex 3 different times on the pads (and purged) and the long narrow pad always had black ink on it but the square pad was clean. What does this mean?

I may have a bigger problem now though because after the last time doing this procedure my printer is giving me 4 yellow flashes... also none of the cartridges are lit up. Do I have a major issue?

 

[PeterBJ]

The number of flashes is a code telling the which error the printer has encountered. So what is the pattern of the flashes?

You can read more about the error codes in the simplified service manual, page 9: http://www.gondack.com.ar/media/useruploads/files/ip4300-ssm.pdf

 

[mccoady]

Alternating green to yellow 4 times but I finally got it to solid green.

It appears to me that the pads are soaking up the windex but it also seems that there is still black ink pooled off of the pads. I suppose it still could be the leftover ink I wasn't able to get with a Kleenex and paper towels and I did flood the pads pretty good with windex.

Anyway I won't be able to mess with it anymore today but I'll report back in the morning whether it helped or not.

 

[The Hat]

The 4 Amber lights mean that your cartridges are not being recognised by your printer.
Just remove them all and turn off the printer for a minute (Unplug), then turn the printer on again and install only one cartridge, close the lid and repeat till all are installed and working again, the 4300 is known to do that occasionally..

 

[mccoady]

Sorry I didn't get back sooner I followed your suggestions and so far it's printing like normal. Many Thanks!

 

[The Hat]

Right on @mccoady and thank you for coming back to let us know..