IP4300 - PGBK not printing: Clogged head or what?

[Sherden]

It's good to know that your print head is functional!

Any faint printing proves it so. It probably is a purge system issue, but something could also be disturbing delivery of ink from the cart to the inlet screen, such as non-contact between the sponge outlet and screened inlet...
My suspicion is that your purge unit has a problem not uncovered by "my" tests. Such problems would include anything that prevents a good seal between the bottom of the print head nozzle plate and the parking pad. Causes such as a distorted sealing gasket around the ceramic insert, or something in the purge unit mechanism that doesn't permit a full seating between the gasket and print head, like a missing spring (the pad seats against the printhead with a spring suspension).

I have the same feeling about the purge unit.
The only thing I still didn't do is inspect the black rubber gasket around the parking pad(s) for distortion.

After reading your today post in an another thread (MP500 again - Purge Problem? http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/mp500-again-purge-problem.9028/page-3#post-73981) I gave a deeper look at the pictures I took of the printhead bottom before cleaning. (I "photoshopped" to enhance contrast)




(N.B. the pictures are taken in two different times)


Could be the same issue here also? Is not clear to me what "they should not intersect" means

I see also some imprints (e.g. left of second picture) from the the small lips to hold the porous plates, should they be there or not??

 

[Sherden]

Finally yesterday after dinner I found the time to make a cleaning of the parking pad area:

For first I removed the top cover, it is pretty easy, you just need a flat screwdriver to unlock the six plugs that keep the cover in place, two on the side, two on the back, two on the bottom (Please note that the ones on the bottom are not so easy to find, while the others are clearly pointed out by an arrow.




ah, remember to remove the lower paper tray before .

The parking pad area was pretty dirty as you can see from the picture, ink everywhere



With some Q-Tips, warm distilled water and a lot of patience I managed to get it clean. You have to be careful to not dirty the timing strip




The first nozzle check was encouraging



it showed an improvement upon the previous attempts before this cleaning, but the following prints keep worsening, the missing PGBK ink area was increasing and even the writing "PGBK" began to disappear



Then I did an head cleaning and got a little improvement (the writing PGBK was back in part )



It was too late to continue, I waited till this morning to see if anything changed overnight but no way! This morning nozzle test was pretty much the same, even a further PGBK ink head cleaning had no effect.

As suggested by @turbguy I have also checked the sealing gasket for any distortion but it seemed fine, and checked also if there could be a missing spring (the pad seats against the printhead with a spring suspension) but the pad seems to float correctly.

So could we now say the purge system is fine?


p.s.
The only check left is the one suggested by @PeterBJ : "You could try cleaning the rubber gasket at the PGBK ink inlet using Q-tips with a window cleaner or pharmacists cleaning solution. Also remove the gasket and clean under it. Make sure the gasket is not stuck in ink, but is able to compress and expand freely. The ink starvation could be caused by air entering the print head instead of ink, due to the gasket not sealing properly."

 

[stratman]

Magnificent job!

I especially liked how you got the Cyan to return from what looked like an electronic print head failure. Was this due to cleaning of contacts??? Will it be a permanent fix??? Most curious as I would not think it due to ink starvation, purge pump or gasket seal issue.

The Pigment ink loss certainly looks to be ink starvation with the arrowhead like appearance beginning in the vertical black bar. Have you tried a new cartridge to see if that corrects the PGBK issue?

 

[Sherden]

Thank you @stratman but I regret to say that I did nothing, just a PGBK head cleaning cycle.

The Cyan is showing a completely random behaviour, infact I did further nozzle prints and the issue appeared again.

The pattern is not always the same, some time an exact half is missing, some time only a part of the half, sometimes is missing the bottom half instead than the top one, and so on. The only constant is the regular shape of the area. It makes me think of "groups" or near nozzles that all together don't fire ink.

I have no clue on this .

Re. the PGBK, the issue appeared using a refilled OEM cartridge, I am currently using a brand new OEM cart with no improvement.

 

[The Hat]

I reckon it’s time to call it a day on this printer; you should stop wasting your ink and start looking for a newer model, if you can’t find a new print head for it..

 

[Sherden]

I am not shure the issue is in the printhead, it seems more related to air infiltrating somewhere.

I'll do a few other attempts, I still have some PGBK InKTec Ink to finish

 

[stratman]

I am not shure the issue is in the printhead, it seems more related to air infiltrating somewhere.

Sorry to hear about the continuing Cyan issue. Whatever the issue with the PGBK, the Cyan ink disappearing act is definitely electronic in nature, either print head, logic board assay or electrical contacts (which you can clean on the print head and printer with a soft eraser of a pencil or a lint free cloth and isopropyl alcohol). The odds are your print head and/or logic board assay are not salvageable.

I am in agreement with @The Hat -- Time for a new printer. (Hell hath frozen over!)

 

[Sherden]

I am aware of the cyan issue, but for the time being it is printing flawlessy when not using PGBK (CD\DVD or pictures).

Buying a new printer has been taken in account and to be honest I am already trying to convince a friend of mine to sell me its Pixma MG5350, but I am also scared by the increasing difficulties when refilling the newest carts, so I prefer to stick with my IP4300 until it lasts.

I understand that there are very few possibilities to fix it but I would like to understand the reason of the PGBK issue, it has become a little bit of a challenge whether or not I'll buy a new printer.

 

[turbguy]

Your PGBK print head nozzles are working, IMO. The pattern you see is due to an ink supply issue to the inlet side of the nozzles. As some PGBK ink is being sprayed, insufficient PGBK ink is flowing to replace it, SO AIR IS DRAWN INTO THE CENTER OF THE NOZZLE BAND, AND STARVING THEM.

You will have to find out WHY. Typically, it is a stubborn clog in the passageways of the head.

 

[The Hat]

If you want to continue on trying to get the PGBK black to flow better you could try filling an empty OEM cart with photo black then do a couple of normal head cleans on the black only and then do a nozzle check and see if that makes any difference..