IP4500 clogged?

[pingo]

I haven't printed much in two months. Today I tried printing the nozzle check pattern and the lower half of the yellow stripe is much lighter than the upper half. I'd say the intensity of the color is 50% compared to the upper half. What does this mean?

I've tried the cleaning and deep cleaning program in maintenance tab but that did not help.

I'm using the German made refill ink, but not printing much, 1 cartridge per 2 months maybe...

 

[IanYY]

Exactly half your yellow nozzles are working. Although it could be a coincidence that exactly half of the nozzles are clogged, it is far more likely to be a print head fault.

You can see the problem more clearly if you print a Service Test Print:
(These instructions are for an ip4300, but I think the ip4500 is the same)
1. Power Off.
2. Hold Resume Button down (don't release it yet).
3. Hold Power Button down (don't release it yet), wait a couple of seconds, release the Resume Button, press the Resume Button TWICE.
4. Release the Power Button, wait for the Power LED to show steady green.
5. Press the Resume Button.
6. Press the Power Button.
7. Wait for the service test print to complete.
8. Press Power Button twice to exit.

Your Service Test Print will show castellations corresponding to the failed nozzles. The evenness and consistency of these castellations demonstrate that the fault is electrical and not clogging.

You could try removing the print head and cleaning the electrical contacts, but it is more likely that a new print head is required.

Ian

 

[pingo]

I can't seem to make this method work. This is my second IP4500 and the previous had similar problems (also diagnosed here with bad electronics), and I've printed meaybe 300 pages with it. I'm not so fond of Canon anymore

 

[dougsewell]

Try another cleaning method shown in the post - Successful clean - on page 2 of this forum (at the moment anyway. Worth a try to avoid the expense of a new head.

Good luck

Doug

 

[mikling]

When you see that the same incidents are occurring twice it is likely not a printhead problem. The printhead problem is the symptom. My suspicion is that over the long period of no printing, the seal on the purging unit is slightly defective or there is a weak seal close to the yellow nozzles. This will cause the repeated drying of the yellow nozzles at the same location. It's a hunch.

 

[pingo]

Okay, just to make the sitatuion clearer here are some more details:

It is a similar problem but not same printer (bought same model after similar problem with first printer) you can see the topic about my first ip4500 printer with problems here.

This time I'm having troubles with the yellow color on the new printer. I've scanned a nozzle check print:


The only thing both printers have in common is same ink and owner so I guess this could be: very big coincidence / bad ink / something I'm doig wrong. What do you think?
I will try to clean the head I hope it works .

 

[jru]

Hi pingo,

Take a look at this post from my experience having a completely missing PGI-5 pattern in the nozzle checks, which I was able to clear up.

No PGI-5 pattern in nozzle check
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=39464#p39464

If you have an empty (even dried out) cartridge for yellow, you could inject some windex mixed with some yellow and use it as a cleaning cart.

See also, ghwellsr's comment how he does this even simpler:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=41212#p41212

"I usually take a cartridge that has an empty reservoir and dribble Windex into the outlet port until the sponge is saturated and then use that (after the ink has resaturated the bottom of the sponge). You want to have some ink mixed in so that you can see when the problem has been fixed. I sometimes think the best cleaning solution is the ink itself."

So far, in my experience, (knock on wood), clogs can be cleared up with enough patience (and a cleaner like windex -- but even distilled water works, maybe not quite as well).

Good luck!

 

[ghwellsjr]

Unfortunately, this does not look like a clog, it looks like an electrical problem that cannot be fixed except by getting a new print head.

 

[jru]

ghwellsjr wrote:

Unfortunately, this does not look like a clog, it looks like an electrical problem that cannot be fixed except by getting a new print head.

Is this because of the sharp line between the top yellow portion of his nozzle check which prints solid, and the lower portion that prints much lighter, and the evenness of the lighter section?

If not, can you please explain how you knew this was electrical vs. clog so we can learn?

Thanks so much!

 

[pingo]

I don't have windex, I do have distilled water, 70% isopropyl alcohol and ammonia, which one would be best?