IP4500 has it finally died? what do you think?

[steve_uk]

I have used my Canon IP4500 for 2-3 years printing only borderless A4 colour photos. Ive done head cleans and last night i took it apart cleaned the base pads and dried them, then i tried flushing the ink overflow pipes with a syringe and cleaner. Put it all back together it printed one good print with a few light white verticle lines, then it just instantly stopped printing in all colours. It wouldnt print the text page except the 'text' pgbk black.
this morning the pgbk black failed to print also. It doesnt find any faults with the canon tools and utilities i dont know what to do got a lot of genuine inks left if its something silly i dont want to throw the printer away. Is it dead do you think is there anything i can try?

Also noticed before colours died a messaged popped up a few times saying the ink carriage was not shut? or something along those lines when im sure it was, i think it was reffering to the grey arms that locks the head in place. Could this be a clue to whats happened?

 

[ghwellsjr]

Sounds like a problem with your purge system which, I think, is what you are calling the overflow pipes. In any case, you need a working purge system for the printer to work so we should verify its correct operation.

Open the cover and wait for the print head to stop in the center of the printer. Shine a light inside the printer off to the right where the print head parks and look for the two purge pads which look like foam rubber but are a hard material. Using a syringe, eye dropper, or a bent straw, put some Halfords window cleaner or water if you don't have any on the pads. Make sure the liquid does not drain away. Turn the printer off and back on and do a nozzle check and then look to see if the liquid has been sucked away. If it has been, then your purge system is working.

Another possibility is that ink has dried out in your print head while you were cleaning your printer. What did you do with the print head while you were cleaning the printer?