iP4200 BK disappeared

[elenhil]

View attachment 9386 hereView attachment 9387

Guys, the most surprising thing happened. After months of forced dye-only printing, I decided to print the test sheet just in case (I just refilled the inks), and the PGBK part was back and perfectly OK!

 

[The Hat]

the PGBK part was back and perfectly OK!

Congratulations on your surprising success..

 

[elenhil]

The story continues...

A year later the miraculously revived PGBK began to show signs of apparent clogged nozzles. Namely, printed plain text had some of the lines partially missing. Surprisingly, the nozzle check looked OK.

OK, I though, I'll soak the printing head just in case (this time doing it the right way, just as Mr stratman taught me). Couple of days later (I did take care to dry it properly) I inserted it back - and the old 'PGBK missing problem' this thread was originally dedicated to was back!

So, I've a printer+head who first stopped printing PGBK, then completely out of the blue resumed to do so, and now stopped doing it again.

 

[stratman]

printed plain text had some of the lines partially missing. Surprisingly, the nozzle check looked OK.

This sounds like it could be due to ink flow problems. If the printer has been sitting for enough time to allow ink to filter down through the sponge towards the bottom by the ink exit port then a nozzle check and printing proceed appropriately. But when printing continues long enough to use up the ink supply at the bottom of the sponge, such as printing a document, then missing ink becomes apparent.

What I would not expect is printing a document, suffering missing ink, and THEN immediately printing a nozzle check and it is OK.

If you are using refilled cartridges then flush and refill. If you are using an aftermarket cartridge that you refill then flush it or get a new one.

If the issue occurs with an old never-refilled cartridge then consider getting a new one.

The 4200 is a great printer, the last of the Cadillac builds. Print heads are as rare as hen's teeth. You would have to be luckier than our fearless Moderator @The Hat, who has the luck of the Irish, to find one. So don't be miserly with what you feed the printer.

And, print often, every week, even if it is a nozzle check. A used printer is a happy printer!

 

[elenhil]

Well, I've the same bottle of InkTec's PGBK and the same cartridge (the one that seemingly misbehaved in a similar way a year ago), so I could try to flush and refill. I also have an ages-old original cartridge that I kept in a plastic bag. The sponge hasn't dried. I could turn it into a refillable one they way I did the current one. Which will you recommend?

BUT I forgot to mention that before soaking the head I topped the cartridge up 'just in case' (it wasn't empty, though). It didn't help with the issue. And I suppose I owe you the picture of the issue. Note the partially missing lines. And the picture of the nozzle check pattern (I had tried half a dozen, all but one were perfect; the post-soaking ones have a blank space for PGBK, just as a year ago).

 

[The Hat]

Well, I've the same bottle of InkTec's PGBK and the same cartridge (the one that seemingly misbehaved in a similar way a year ago)

Buy a new Black cart and retry..

 

[stratman]

The text document shows the funnel shaped loss of ink that typically means ink starvation. The narrow end of the ink loss becomes wider as the print heads traverses across the page. If you count the lines you will see a pattern indicating the direction of print head travel in the horizontal plane. The lines in between loss of ink demonstrate there is enough time for ink to migrate down the sponge to the ink exit port of the cartridge and therefore not show any loss of ink. Eventually, ink cannot migrate through the sponge properly, fast enough, and the widening funnel shape of lost ink appears again.

As the oracle of the forum, Moderator @The Hat, has recommended -- buy a new cartridge. Don't screw around with old and potentially contaminated (microbial or fungus) or dried and caked on ink sponges.

 

[elenhil]

Bought an original PGI-5BK, inserted it, waited couple of hours just in case. No change.

 

[stratman]

Bought an original PGI-5BK, inserted it, waited couple of hours just in case. No change.

There is no need to wait to print after inserting a new cartridge. The printer should do all the required priming to the print head with the new cartridge.

Waiting is useful if there is a ink flow issue within the cartridge, or there is a clog in the print head that is resolvable with exposure to (and flow of) ink (or some other fluid).

I would try printing a nozzle check and if perfect then try a document. If you want, you could run a regular cleaning cycle on the PGBK ink cartridge.

For clarity... is the issue occurring only when trying to print on Plain Paper? Or, did it occur when using a different paper setting?

With Plain Paper setting, text is printed using the Pigment Black cartridge (unless the text is contained within an image). For any Photo Paper setting, text will be printed using the Dye-based ink cartridges and NOT the Pigment Black cartridge.

If you were using a Photo Paper setting then the issues with text was not due to the PGBK cartridge since it is the Dye-based cartridges used for the black text.

 

[elenhil]

I am printing on Plain Paper setting, so it definitely is PGBK that's acting up. (I had been printing on Photo Paper setting the last time I thought my PGBK nozzles died completely (as documented earlier in this thread), and still so do from time to time now that they're once again not responding).

Regular cleaning didn't help.