iP5200- absolutely no yellow despite cleaning- time for a replacement?

[JonM]

Hi all, First time poster here, and any help would be much appreciated!
I have a little used 4 year Pixma iP5200.
Never paid too much attention to it, and been using generic replacement ink cartridges, by switching the chip every time I changed inks. All worked fine until one day recently, I changed all the inks over at once, and the yellow just stopped dead.
The nozzle check prints perfectly for both blacks, cyan and magenta- but yellow is completely invisible.
I deep cleaned several time, switched to a new yellow 9and then another new yellow again.. and no luck.
I've had the print head spending the night in isopropyl alcohol, and blown almost a whole can of air through, but still nothing.
Each time I retry after cleaning, yellow ink is deposited on the little mesh cap over the ink inlet, so it seems to me that the cartridge is recognising the printer's demand for ink (i.e. not a chip contact issue), but nothing seems to be getting though.
I'm really unsure what is going on, since I'd have thought that a blockage was unlikely to be total on one colour but not evident at all on any of the others.

My next step was going to be a soak in ammonia, but as the often cited Windex is unavaialable in the UK, I am not sure what concentration to use.

It seems an awful shame to toss a great printer, but I'm running out of ideas.. and then I found this site!
Any thoughts, ideas etc., would bwe really grateful.
Thanks,
Jon
(London, UK, frustrated)

 

[embguy]

My next step was going to be a soak in ammonia, but as the often cited Windex is unavaialable in the UK, I am not sure what concentration to use.

Review the following discussion on how to make your own ammonia solution. Good luck.
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3691

 

[Trigger 37]

JonM,...The first thing I would suggest is that you remove the printhead and clean the contacts on the back of the head and inside the carriage asm. In all the switching and cleaning you did you may have contaminated one or more of the contacts. Also, does the printer acknowledge the yellow cart as valid It seems from your information that your purge unit is sucking yellow ink out of the ink cart into the printhead but nothing prints. I would not suggest tossing out the printer, as these are becoming rare. If all else fails, contact Canon Parts department and buy a new printhead.

 

[JonM]

Thanks for the suggestions!
To reply to Trigger37, I have cleaned the contacts on the back of the head and inside the carriage, but no change.
I did not completely understand your question about whether the printer acknowledges the Yellow as valid: What I can say is that each time I reseat the yellow, the red lamp next to the cart flashes, but I have overridden the ink levels monitor to enable use of a compatible cart, so when the top cover is closed, and later reopened, the flashing red lamp no longer flashes.(same for all the colours).
One other interesting thing I've noticed, is that while all the inks are compatibles, and the ink detect has been overridden, I am still getting an 'ink low' message, just on the yellow.

You suggest a replacement head- these cost almost as much as a replacement printer; could I be reasonably certain that this would resolve the problem, and was your thinking that the iP5200 is better than current equivalents and hence worth the repair cost?

I guess the other question is How do you know when the head is a goner? Is there a way to tell whether it has burned out, or is this just the logical conclusion when everything else fails?

Many thanks,
Jon

 

[Trigger 37]

JonM,... The acknowledgement is the flashing red light. If you are still getting an "ink low message" for the yellow, the printer still things it is monitoring that ink. Here are two things to try. 1. Unplug the printer for a couple of hours,.. then try it again. 2. Go into the maintenance section via Windows and then select "View Status Monitor". In the upper left corner of that window click on "Options", and then "Remove the check mark by 'Enable Status Monitor'. Now try printing only a nozzle check. One last thing to try is to put in a good Canon ink cart in the yellow. If you don't have one put in any color Canon cart and do a cleaning cycle and see what prints. If you get any color in the nozzle check where yellow should have been, at least you know the head is ok.

As far as getting a new printer, some of the new ones are low cost junk. You have to be very careful as Canon is now making a group of "Throw away printers".

 

[Trigger 37]

JonM,... I forgot one more thing. When you open the status monitor, click on the "Ink Details" and see which ink carts it thinks have been disabled.