iP3000 Print Problem

[laserguy]

I have an 1p3000 that I've had for some time. It sat unused for several months and when I turned it back on, the black wasn't printing properly. I did a nozzle check and the results showed missing pattern in the black. All colors looked good. I did a couple of cleanings to no avail and finally a deep cleaning with the same result. I then pulled the printhead, ran it under warm tap water until no more ink appeared an then sat it aside to dry for a couple of days.

When I re-installed it, ran it through another clean cycle to get the ink flowing and the black printed perfect as did all the other colors. I did some printing and then turned the printer off. The next day I turned it back on and ran a nozzle check to make sure everything still looked good and discovered the yellow was no longer printing. I did a cleaning and another nozzle check and everything was good again.

Here's the problem. The printer works great until I turn it off for the day. The next day, the yellow has stopped again. I do a cleaning and it works again until I turn it off. Next day same thing. I've changed cartridges (Canon oems), same result. I pulled the printhead again, cleaned the yellow port again with distilled water from a syringe and then blew compressed air through it. Let it dry, reinstalled, prints great until I again turn off the printer.

This is driving me crazy. I can't figure out why it prints perfect after a cleaning cycle and continues to print perfect until I turn off the printer. Anybody have any ideas as to what to try. I've thought about letting the printhead soak 24 hours in Windex but not sure that a clog is the problem.

 

[qwertydude]

This sounds like you've got a faulty seal on the printer purge unit/park pad. It's where the printhead rests when it is off. There's an area with a porous looking pad and a rubber seal where the printhead goes. It needs to seal properly so the ink doesn't dry on the printhead. Try placing a few drops of windex on the pads and also gently wiping the rubber seal with a q-tip dipped in windex to get any crud that may be breaking the seal it makes with the printhead.

 

[ghwellsjr]

What happens if you leave your printer on overnight? Will the problem go away?

 

[laserguy]

Sorry for the delay in response. I got up yesterday morning to the sound of water running in my master bath. Needless to say I spent a great deal of the day and a whole lot of money getting the broken pipe fixed.

I cleaned the purge area including the park pad last night. There was a lot of ink and it took about 30 q-tips before it finally looked fairly clean. Today I turned on the printer, did a nozzle check and not only is there no yellow, the area of the test where the yellow is supposed to be is magenta now. I immediately pulled the yellow cart and discovered that the outlet is contaminated with magenta ink. Looking inside the printhead, there's no sign of any leaking of any carts, so I assume the contamination came from inside the printhead or from the park pads from my having stirred up a lot of ink goop.

Tonight I pulled the printhead, washed it throughly and it's now in a bowl of windex for the night. I also went back to the purge unit and discovered that those black looking porus pads were removable so I pulled them and washed them and discovered that they are not black, they're white. They're now sitting out drying. I then put windex into the indentations where the pads were, let it soak, removed the now black windex with a syringe. I've repeated that several times and now the windex is blue.

I'll post back in a couple of days with the results of all of this. One last note. Am I wrong in assuming that if the printhead wasn't sealing on the bottom due to gunk, wouldn't that affect all three colors and not just the yellow. The black nozzles are seperate and on a different park pad, but the printhead nozzles for the three colors are tiny and very close together. It's hard for me to imagine that one could be kept from sealing and not the other two as well. I'm wondering if maybe the seal problem might be at the top where the cart outlet seats into the printhead?

Haven't tried the 'leave on all night' yet. Waiting to see it I can actually get it to print correctly again first and then if yellow again dies overnight, I'll try that idea.

Thanks for the help.

 

[ghwellsjr]

While your two purge pads are out of the printer, put them to your lips and see if you can freely blow and suck air through them. If not, soak them some more in Windex until they pass air. If they are white, they probably are OK.

After you put the print head back in the printer (let it dry for two days before you do) you can put Windex in the two rubber trays where the purge pads go and do a cleaning cycle (without the cartridges installed) to see if the Windex gets sucked away. If not, you will have to take the printer apart to clear the purge pump tubing.

When you do put the pads back, the notch in one corner goes in the rear left side of the tray.

When you get cross contamination, it could be from a leak inside the print head or it could be from ink going up from the purge pad into the other nozzles. After you get everything clean and put back together, let's see how it works and then we'll see what you need to do next.

One last question: when you remove power from your printer, do you do it from the on/off switch on the printer or do you do it from a power switch?

 

[laserguy]

The 'put to my lips and blow through' to see if there was free air movement was almost a gimme. They work fine. I have a question about notch orientation as you mentioned. You say it goes in rear left side. Is that to the actual rear of the printer? Since the printer is backwards to me, that would put the notch to the top right corner correct? Finally, like all my other computer stuff, it's plugged into a large APC uninterruptible power supply. I always turn off the printer using the printer on/off switch.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Yes, you want the notch to go to the actual rear left corner of the printer, closest to the power cord.

 

[laserguy]

Hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th (for those here in the US of course). Got back to business Sat. I put the print head back in and began testing the purge unit with windex. Initially the black emptied fine but the color side seemed to have a bit of a problem and only pulled about half of the windex out. I put the printer into service mode and ran a deep clean cycle. Same result. Ran another deep clean and this time it sucked out all of the windex. Did the same thing several more times just to make sure there was no more problem.

Let the printer set overnight and ran one more cleaning cycle yesterday and all windex was pulled away. Re-installed the carts and ran a nozzle check. All colors printed great. Did some additional printing and then turned the printer off. Turned it back on today and ran a nozzle test. Yellow is still printing perfect but now no magenta. Ran a cleaning cycle and all colors printing normal. The problem affecting the yellow is now affecting the magenta. This SUCKS!

I'm ready to toss this printer in the trash. The only reason I bought it when I did was the ability to print on CD (which I have set-up) and the fact that back then, the cli-6 carts were some of the easiest to refill since they didn't have chips. I'm beginning to wonder if the problem isn't an electrical one. I'm definately not sure if I want to spend $50 on a new print head to find out.

I actually have two other Canon printers sitting new in boxes that have never been opened. An ip4200 and an ip6600D. I've never bothered with them as to get them where my ip3000 is would require a whole new investment in cd tray, additional oem carts for refilling, a chip resetter, service and repair manuals etc.

In any case, the print head is out again and soaking in windex for the night. I'll go through the cleaning and drying process again in the next couple of days and see what happens. If I continue to have problems, I'll have to decide which way to go.

On a more upscale note. Over the past couple of days, I did my first german method refilling on 8 cli-6 carts. I'm sorry that I waited so long to try it. What a breeze compare to top filling. I used a tiny nail just slightly larger than the 21g needles I have, heated it on my gas stove burner and melted a hole where require. Used my exacto knife to trim off the burr. Used a 3" 21g sharp needle to make the refill path and it went easily right to the prism on all carts. Didn't get a drop of ink anywhere. When I was done, I placed a small piece of aluminum tape over the hole even though some say that's not necessary. Shame if it ends up I can't use the printer these go in!

 

[ghwellsjr]

First off, let's make sure that when you say CLI-6 you mean BCI-6, correct?

I'm still wondering if you leave your printer on instead of turning it off each night, will the problem of yellow then magenta not printing occur?

 

[laserguy]

Yep, bci-6 is correct. I had cli on the brain as I was looking up the details on the other two unused printers I have. I let the printhead soak all last night in windex. I'm removing it now and rinsing it in distilled water. Will let it set and dry for the next two days. I will then put everything back together and see what happens. If everything works as it should, I will turn the printer off again and let it set overnight to see if the problem re-occurs. If it does, I will run a cleaning cycle to get it printing properly again and then leave it on for 24 hours to see if that makes a difference.