Is My 9500 Nozzle Test Normal?

[Twald]

I recently ran a nozzle check on my pro9500 because I had some concerns about the image quality. Is the half light/half dark patch on the red and magenta colors normal? Can anyone diagnose my problem by looking at the test print? The printer works fine except it doesn't produce accurate colors.

 

[The Hat]

I hate to say this but your print head is (Damaged) fried on the right bank.

There is no way back from this other than buying a new print head I’m afraid.

It is much better to run a regular nozzle check weekly or forth nightly, then it is to wait
for a problem to show up in one of your photos, by then the damage has been done
unless you stop printing immediately, sorry..

 

[Twald]

Any idea what caused this? With print heads running $200, is this printer worth repairing?

This is a little disappointing, since I just purchased a P.C. Ink set and the redsetter for it.

 

[The Hat]

A print head doesn’t need permission to go AWOL it can do it at anytime and for
many reasons, so don’t go blaming yourself for something that can just happen
out of the blue, it’s happened to you so you'll just have to move on.

I have a 9500 MK2 also and my print head went the same way just recently
so I can sympathise with you on that, the 9500 is probably the best printer for refilling (Ever)
so yes it’s well worth keeping, it’s a real gem in fact.

All Canon print heads can suffer the same faith if they continue to print without having
a reasonable supply of ink flowing through them at all times, if not then
some nozzles can become damaged and suffer electrical failure due to overheating.

The PGI-9 cartridge does not have a prism so you must rely on the Cartridge chips
to let you know when the ink is low, so you don’t wait,
you immediately change out the cartridges for new refilled ones,
doing that will guarantee you always having a good supply of ink to the print head..

 

[turbguy]

A service test print (extended nozzle test print) may reveal more detail on which nozzles are not firing, but the bottom line is an electrical failure has occurred, probably in the print head. Large banks of nozzles are not firing, rather than missing a scattered handful indicative of localized nozzle heater failure/burnout.

Since Canon Printheads contain many hundreds (if not thousands) of individual nozzles, and there are only 40 or so contacts between the print head and printer, some multiplexing MUST be used to enable full control of individual nozzles. It appears that some "feature" of this multiplexing has suddenly failed, such as ONE of those conductors between print head nozzle plate and the print head contacts has become "open". That would prevent whole banks of nozzles from firing. And it would appear as a periodic pattern in the extended nozzle print "matrix".

The current densities in these very small conductors must be extremely high to fire nozzle heaters at high printing speeds. The circuit path elements overheat and melt, experience thermal fatigue, or otherwise fail open. And another Canon print head fails.

This is why I use "quite mode" on all my Canon's to purposely slow up print speed, thus lowering the "duty" on these elements and extending print head "life". In Canon's view, they only have to get past the warrantee period to succeed.

Only you can decide if a new print head is economical...if you are in the USA, Canon parts department has historically been the lowest priced supplier of replacement printheads. Google the 800 number, and ask for a quote!

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

I think you should consider the possibility of a bad contact. Maybe try removing and replacing.

 

[Twald]

I think you should consider the possibility of a bad contact. Maybe try removing and replacing.

I have removed it, cleaned it, rubbed the contacts down with an alcohol dampened cloth, and run a deep cleaning cycle. This was all before I even posted on the forum. This was my first suspicion also.

 

[Twald]

A service test print (extended nozzle test print) may reveal more detail on which nozzles are not firing, but the bottom line is an electrical failure has occurred, probably in the print head. Large banks of nozzles are not firing, rather than missing a scattered handful indicative of localized nozzle heater failure/burnout.

Since Canon Printheads contain many hundreds (if not thousands) of individual nozzles, and there are only 40 or so contacts between the print head and printer, some multiplexing MUST be used to enable full control of individual nozzles. It appears that some "feature" of this multiplexing has suddenly failed, such as ONE of those conductors between print head nozzle plate and the print head contacts has become "open". That would prevent whole banks of nozzles from firing. And it would appear as a periodic pattern in the extended nozzle print "matrix".

The current densities in these very small conductors must be extremely high to fire nozzle heaters at high printing speeds. The circuit path elements overheat and melt, experience thermal fatigue, or otherwise fail open. And another Canon print head fails.

This is why I use "quite mode" on all my Canon's to purposely slow up print speed, thus lowering the "duty" on these elements and extending print head "life". In Canon's view, they only have to get past the warrantee period to succeed.

Only you can decide if a new print head is economical...if you are in the USA, Canon parts department has historically been the lowest priced supplier of replacement printheads. Google the 800 number, and ask for a quote!

So how does one do a service test print?

 

[turbguy]

I'm not certain with that model...perhaps someone else knows?

 

[PeterBJ]

The method for doing the extended nozzle check from service mode depends on if the printer is the Pro 9500 or the Pro 9500 Mark II model. So Twald, which model is your Pro 9500?